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The domain originally is in .sg (Reg. 2010) but since we wanted to reach global audience we have the .com (Parked Domain - Registered 2013). So we have two existing domains. The only problems is, these domains share the same content in all its pages. I know we would be hit by Panda for this.

This is a Ecommerce Wordpress site. The possible resolution to this is thru redirection. But I am not sure how to identify the visitor's location and redirect them appropriately in SEO friendly way. All Singaporean traffic will be redirected to .sg and for global should be in .com

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  • I am not sure that is something you want to do. If you intend to sell globally, then go with the domain that will give you a global presence- the .com version- then redirect to it. I may be missing a piece of the logic though. If I am, can you up date your question to make it clearer??
    – closetnoc
    Sep 23, 2014 at 1:16
  • These domains are existing now, like domain.sg and domain.com - I am not familiar on how we would do the identification and redirection of site based on location.
    – rahstame
    Sep 23, 2014 at 1:23
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    My point is that location does not matter one whit with the exception that the .sg domain will only soak into some Google search engines and the .com will soak into more giving you a greater foot print. You do not have to redirect based upon location if you use the .com and redirect from old to new. Just send everyone to one site- the one that offers the largest footprint and be done with it. Is there a reason why this would not work?? Is there something I am missing?
    – closetnoc
    Sep 23, 2014 at 2:25
  • Indeed a deep insight there. I agree. I see the logic there but .sg is a 5 yr old domain should I just give up this domain and redirect all the traffic to the 1 yr old .com? I am planning to make the pages all nofollow if this is the case.
    – rahstame
    Sep 24, 2014 at 4:01
  • Why not combine the two domains to .com which is universal and use the WPML plugin to translate the content.
    – Anagio
    Sep 24, 2014 at 4:57

1 Answer 1

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You have a bit of a dilemma but not one that cannot be resolved.

On the one hand you have a domain with an established trust score, site rank, and various pages with rank and links to them you do not want to lose of course. But that domain name has limitations due to the ccTLD and how they would propagate out into the search engines.

The first question is: Where do you want to or need to do business?

With the Singaporean .sg ccTLD, your reach would be limited to those Google websites that have a history where a .sg ccTLD has performed well. This would be based upon locale and language primarily and the likelihood that someone in x country would be interested in your site.

If you need to expand beyond this limitation, then the .com domain would present opportunities to expand your reach into other countries. But this domain does not have the advantages that the .sg domain has due to age and performance over the years.

It is not uncommon that people change domain names. However, there is always a price for this. Here is what is typically prescribed.

  • Move the old domain to the new one.
  • Create a 301 redirect to the new domain.
  • Examine the link profile of the old domain.
  • Create a comparable link profile for the new domain.
  • _That can mean having links changed or creating new ones of similar value.

What is the cost of moving a domain?

  • Losing the trust score attained by the original domain.
  • Losing the site rank of the original domain.
  • Loss of a small amount of rank passed using a 301 redirect.

How to recover some of this loss.

Establish a new trust score by:

  • Creating a location/locale schema.org mark-up on the new site that is easily found. This can be in the header or footer, but would be okay on a contact page that is clearly marked with a contact or similar link.
  • Optionally use HTTPS and obtain a certificate from a high quality certificate provider. A cheap provider often is not trusted as highly.
  • Make sure you are using a quality registrar. They are not all created equal.
  • Make sure you are using a quality host.
  • Make sure that your domain name and IP address are not blacklisted.
  • Make sure that you have a privacy policy.

This list is just for starters. I created a full list of trust elements found in this answer: How to get Google PageRank (from the toolbar) to increase from 0?. There may be more ideas there.

Site rank will come naturally with any 301 redirect and trust score.

Page rank will come using a 310 redirect from the old domain to the new one. For example:

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

This is a decision that only you can make. But hopefully, I gave you some ideas.

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  • Great great points you have there!
    – rahstame
    Sep 24, 2014 at 5:30
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    @rahstame Thanks! I have been so busy on so many things in the past few days I have hardly had time to answer many questions. I am usually here everyday though. I am glad to help anytime I can.
    – closetnoc
    Sep 24, 2014 at 5:44

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