Switching from Broad Domain to Exact Match Domain

[themike537]

I'm considering 301 redirecting an entire site of mine to a new domain. My question is this:

Have any of you ever switched an entire site from a broad domain (think onlinepokersuite.com) to an exact match domain (think onlinepoker.com)? For this situation, let's assume that the original site was also targeting "online poker" rankings.

I'd love to hear your circumstances and what happened in the SERP's after the switch. Even if you haven't personally done it, I'd still like to hear your thoughts on the process.

[MJ]

is the new domain old/aged? I've seen it seem to work well on old domains, and I've seen it not work so well on brand new domains. No real insight other than thinking that is a factor possibly.

[themike537]

The new domain has been indexed for eight years, but it has never been much more than a landing page.

[MJ]

I don't know, I'm guessing you are going to get varying replies but TO ME if the exact match has volume to it, and the other site is struggling to rank for the exact match term, I'd go for it. What's life without a gamble? Worst case scenario you sandbag for awhile right?

[domepizzle]

I bought a couple expired domains that had links pointing to them and did a 301 to a brand new site. I didn't point any links to the site and only submitted a sitemap to get it indexed. This site started ranking for terms that the previous domains must have been trying to rank for. One of the domains must have been pretty spammy since some of the terms were pretty obscure.

[Mike]

Not sure if this counts but it may help.

Take a random bonus code term, let's say ultimatebet bonus code.
I moved an entire broad match keyword website that was nowhere near perfect (think ultimatebonusonline.com) to a similar, less-than-perfect, broad match keyword website (think ultimatecodesource.com).

The first site was ranking #1 due mainly to backlinks. Within 2-3 weeks, the new site was #1. I would think the fact that you were moving to an exact match domain would only help you, of course.

[themike537]

Cool guys, thanks for the great replies. I'm going to go through with it if I can secure the domain I'm after. I'll post later with the results.

[Randy Ray]

It depends a lot on how good the exact match domain name is, how developed the old site is, and how much you can afford a temporary drop in rankings. I've seen a poker site rebrand to a new domain once, and they lost rankings for 2 or 3 months while Google caught up with their 301. I'm not sure what the situation is now with Google finding new domains, but in a situation where the new domain was really good, I'd go for it. I'd also go for it in a situation where the original domain and site aren't getting tremendous traffic.

In a situation where the original site gets a ton of traffic and the new domain is only mediocre, I'd probably just develop the new domain separately.

That's just me.

[themike537]

Yeah Randy I agree with you. I don't depend on the income of that site right now, and traffic is decent but nothing special. The new domain could really make it a winner though, so I think I'm going to take the chance.

Thanks for the advice.

[CasinoKev]

I did this recently and experienced a temporary drop in rankings (maybe a week or so) and then rebounded to where I was at previously. A couple of weeks later and I ranked higher across the board for many keywords. Traffic and rankings continue to improve without any additional content or links. It's a small niche, but still definitely worthwhile IMO.