The Bloggers With The Most To Say
Change in Domain Name...Smart or Idiotic?
My account with godaddy is about to expire, and I have the option to renew my current domain, larissalmarks.com. Since my blog is actually titled "The Larissa Monologues," I was wondering if it would be better to change my domain to something like larissamonologues.com.
Some things I'm considering: a name change would be more consistent with the blog title, which is probably better for branding and searching purposes in the long run. But it would also be a hassle with existing search engines and links.
What do you all think? And if I DO make the change, any advice on how to do it as smoothly as possible?
Some things I'm considering: a name change would be more consistent with the blog title, which is probably better for branding and searching purposes in the long run. But it would also be a hassle with existing search engines and links.
What do you all think? And if I DO make the change, any advice on how to do it as smoothly as possible?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jay on -
I think you should stick with the domain because you have a good existing association with it. If you (continue to) dissociate the tie between the domain name and you blog name, you're allowing yourself freedom down the road to change your blog name if you suddenly feel the need. I mean, maybe sometime soon you won't be having so many monologues? :p
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Permalink Reply by boxofjack on -
Domain names are pretty cheap, maybe you could do both. You could buy and setup the new domain and just have the old domain redirect to the new site. The thing is, as soon as you let the old domain expire, some advertiser is going to pick it up and squander all the good will and googlejuice you accumulated on ads for mortgages and internet dating.
My suggestion is either keep the old, or do both.
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Permalink Reply by Larissa on -
Hmmm...that's an interesting suggestion. I never thought about owning both.
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Permalink Reply by Lisa on -
I switched to thelisashow.com from .org. I think only 21 people bothered to update. Hehe. I need to stop the redirect of .org to .com soon (because godaddy's forwarding is screwing up. I need it to 301 permanent redirect so Google won't penalize me for having the same content in two different sites. It keeps redirecting as temporary, and I don't know how to fix it.) but if I do it, I'll probably lose all the others who didn't update.
It was an idiotic SEO move on my part because thelisashow.org had a Google PageRank of 4 and wasn't too shabby on Technorati (although the latter's quite useless). (I was getting a lot of traffic from Google before because of the PageRank, and that's all gone now.) I switched anyway. In the end, I think you have to pick out something you can live with for the next 10 years or so. The PR and other things can be regained.
I'll change your url on my link list if you update. :)
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Permalink Reply by Clueless Cat on -
I feel like I lost some readers as well with my switch from blogger to wordpress! That's kind of a downside. I think your URL is fine now as it is though, and agree with Jay about how that leaves you with room to change your title whenever you want if you are so inclined - your name will always be relevant! ;)
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Permalink Reply by Lisa on -
When all hell broke lose for me and all my domains messed up... I got about 95% of my readers back within 2 weeks... people will help you with word of mouth. Also use feedburner so you don't lose any readers.
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Permalink Reply by NoOrdinaryBen on
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I have a similar question. Blogger lets use host on your own custom domain if you have one, which I do. If I were to switch over now rather than just use domain-fowarding from my custom to my blogger URL, will all my links die?
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Permalink Reply by Andria on -
I would have both domains pointing to your blog. Write a blog about the new name to let readers know and use the new domain when promoting your blog in the future.
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Permalink Reply by Pleasedonteatjo on -
Stick with it. Domain names don't matter. I thought about getting one for my blog for a while, but then reasoned that if people are going to read what i write, they'll do it whether it's got a catchy domain or not.
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