Move It!
Contents
Move It!
Move It! is a tool designed for two different needs.
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You gave your site a very long domain name (3 or more dashes, 15-20 or more characters in the name).
You want to make your domain name easier to remember and easier to type. You want to make it more brandable.
Move It!'s 301 option lets you change your domain name and keep your site's content, while also keeping much of the original site's link juice from inbound links.
Use the 301 option to start using a shorter domain name and have pretty much the same page rankings.
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Your site's rankings and traffic plummeted due to the Penguin updates. You've cleaned up links under your control and disavowed links that weren't under your control, but your site still hasn't recovered. It got worse with every Penguin update.
Or your site is suffering from the Phantom algorithm or Chipaway.
Your traffic is now a small fraction of what it was before the first Penguin release.
Move It!'s 302 option lets you change your domain name and keep your site's content, while severing the link juice of all inbound links to the original site.
No link juice is passed on to the new domain name. Since the "bad" link juice is overwhelming the "good," a fresh start gives you the chance to create a new link profile, with quality links from well regarded authority sites.
Important Note
Move It! works only with a domain name that has been parked with Name Park It!. If you currently have a domain name with another registrar, you will not be able to move to that domain name. And you cannot transfer a domain name into an NPI! subscription.
If you haven't parked your preferred domain name yet, click on the Name Park It! link in Step 1 to do that now.
The 301 Option
If your site has not suffered from any large traffic drops, but you're not satisfied with your domain name, Move It!'s 301 option is right for you.
Before making that decision, you should determine your GAP and use Prioritize It! to find what, if any, issues you might have and how to fix them.
In your initial enthusiasm when you first named your site, you may have created a very long domain name, one that used your exact Site Concept Keyword along with a marketing word (or words!).
The result? A 20+ character, 3+ dashes domain name. There's no evidence that long domain names are penalized by the search engines. However, it's much harder for people to remember those long names, and even harder to type them.
If you've found a short domain name (in a perfect world, one that's 10 characters or fewer and is very relevant to your Site Concept), jump down to Step 1 and get started on your move.
Your new name probably will not be as short as 10 characters. However, the creativity required to come up with a name that short should find you the shortest, most brandable name possible.
The 302 Option
Moving your site to a new domain name in the hope of restoring your previous traffic numbers is a "last resort" action. It's not an action to take lightly, because there's a lot of work involved to prepare for the move, and even more work after the move.
There's some research you must do, and some "repair" work to do, before you can determine if changing your domain name is the right action for you. Click on the following link to read the TNT HQ article (if you reached this help from the Move It! tool page, you should have already read this article)...
Is Changing Your Domain Name the Right Move for You?
After a few months, when your "new" site is doing well on its own (search engine rankings are up, and traffic to your site is up), you can go to Name Park It! and use the End Domain option, which severs all the connections between the old domain name and the newer one.
If you plan on using the 302 option due to bad inbound links that you can't get rid of, use the End Domain option as soon as your site is live on the new domain name. This will ensure that none of the bad link juice can drag down the new site.
Warning
Do not make this decision without a lot of thought and examination of the facts (which you'll only find after doing the research and the "repair" work). There's no guarantee that changing your domain name and severing bad link juice will help your site at all.
It's also possible (while very slight) that severing link juice could make things worse. However, if your traffic is down by 90% after doing the necessary repair work, then things can't get much worse.
Only after doing the research and repair work is it time to use Move It!'s 302 option.
If you're absolutely certain that changing your site's domain name is the right move for your business, continue reading.
If you still have a niggling doubt, go back and examine your research. Or review the Action Steps (in green text), which begin in Part 4 of The Google Unified Study and Report.
Step 1: Choose New Domain Name
- Click on Choose Your Site's New Domain Name to start the process.
- From the menu, choose the domain name you want to use. Step 2 will then appear.
- At any time, click on the Site Central button to leave Move It! without making any changes.
Before you can begin the Move It! process, you must have at least one domain name parked in Name Park It!.
If you don't yet have a parked domain name there, go to Name Park It! now to buy one (you must be logged in to your account for the link to work).
After buying and registering your parked name, it will take 20-30 minutes before it becomes available to you in Move It!.
Click on the Choose Your Site's New Domain Name to start the move. A menu will appear, listing every domain name parked in Name Park It!.
Select the domain name you want to move your site to.
Step 2 will appear immediately, just below the buttons.
You can return to the menu to select another domain name, or click on the Site Central button to leave Move It! without making any changes.
Step 2: Choose Move Type
- Click on the option you want for your site. Step 3 will then appear.
- At any time, click on the Site Central button to leave Move It! without making any changes.
In this step, you select the option you want to use.
The 301 option lets you keep the link juice from inbound links to the old domain name. Links to each page of your site are permanently redirected to the same page of your "new" site.
Use this option if you only want to change a long domain name to a shorter or better one.
The 302 option lets you sever the link juice from inbound links to the old domain name. The links themselves will still redirect people to the new site. It's only the "credit" your site receives for the link that's severed.
Use this option if you want to try to reduce the Penguin penalty applied to your site.
You may want to combine the 302 option with End Domain 24-36 hours after the new domain name goes live. This will sever all the bad links completely.
Note that it will also sever all the good links, so you'll need to contact the webmasters who gave you those good links, asking if they'll replace the old domain name with the new name.
Step 3: Move It!
- Double-check one last time that you selected the correct domain name in Step 1 and the right option in Step 2.
- Click on the Move It! button to move your site to the new domain name.
- In the overlay window, read the entire text, which reviews your change. Take note of the red text.
- Click on the box next to the red text.
- Click on the Complete Move button to complete the move.
- Click on the Back to Move It! button. Or click on the Site Central button.
Step 3 is your review step. This review is especially important if you have more than one parked domain name, or more than one site.
Carefully check that both the parked domain name and the "old" name are the ones you want to use.
The Move It! process cannot be reversed, so you need to be absolutely certain that you're moving the correct site, and that you're moving it to the correct new name.
Once you're ready, click on the Move It! button. This will open an overlay window.
Before you can complete the move, read all of the text in the overlay (this is your final chance to find any mistakes). Read the text in red.
Add a check to the box next to the red text. Adding the check activates the Complete Move button.
Click on the Complete Move button.
You'll see a success message. Congratulations! Your site is moved.
If you see an error message, it's likely that you used the parked domain name before as the name for a site. If you see that message, contact Support and let them know you want to use the parked domain name in Move It!. They'll get things working for you.