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Change from .com to .link for SEO?

2 points by speedlancer ↗ HN
We are StartADAM.com and also own https://a.link

I want to ‘rebrand’ StartADAM to just a.link but I’m concerned about the SEO implications of moving from a .com to .link - even though the new one is one letter sweetness

Please advise your honest thoughts & expertise!

Thanks!

7 comments

[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 27.0 ms ] thread
dazc
a.link is better for branding, startadam sounds like a personal blog.

There shouldn't be any seo implication, long term.

speedlancer
Thanks for the feedback!

How do you know regarding the long term SEO implication?

dazc
A change of url should only have a short term impact so long as redirects are in place.

How do I know? No one really knows for sure. I have had one instance where changing the domain killed a site stone dead and I don't really know why that happened so, yeah, there is always some risk.

I would say if your site is already ranking well for competitive search terms then it would be wise to stick with the current domain. If not then you don't have much to lose and, assuming you agree with the branding advantage, you may as well make the move sooner rather than later.

speedlancer
We do have important ranking terms. But I understand the risk in swapping.

I’m extra concerned about a move from .com to .link however, and the impact that may have on seo

epc
Just gut instinct: StartADAM sounds like a brand. "a.link" sounds like a scam.

You’d get more value figuring out a request for https://startadam.com/help/tool-specific-questions/ took 15 seconds (using curl --trace-time) than tossing your brand. That's just one URL but it was my experience browsing your site…there’s quite a lag from Cloudflare to your site on the first view of a page. Presumably CF is caching it afterwards.

speedlancer
Thanks for letting me know! We will look into that.