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I managed a client's domain example.co.in which was ranking for imp. keywords though low search volume. The domain was added in Google Webmaster as well as linked on Google+ profile page.

I believe because of keyword optimization on Google+ profile as well as on-page SEO it was getting love on first page in SERP's.

However, I botched up the ranking because as the domain was due for renewal, my credit card expired and consequently the domain also expired. They were asking for $140 redemption fees, which I was not prepared to pay.

I apologized to my client and moved the website to another .in domain. The client was OK with it. Now, the new domain is properly indexed however, it's coming up on second page in SERP's for keywords that we used to rank on first page with the old domain.

I did not update the new one in Google Webmaster as well as on Google+.

Meanwhile, the 45 days of redemption period was over and Luckily I have regained possession of the expired domain but now I am confused as to how to regain the lost ranking.

Whether I should replace the current domain name with the old one?

If I move my site to old domain, will the site regain lost ranking?

Should I move the new domain (currently coming on second page in SERP's) to old domain as explained by Mr. Cutts in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wATxftE8ooE

Should I move my site to old domain and then update it in GWT as well as in Google+ profile and have new domain redirects to old one.

Basically I want to regain, lost ranking and would like to tell google-bot know that the old domain is live again and it can at-least consider it for ranking for keywords again.

Thanks dk

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If you still have old domain intact then you should:
You should have 301 redirected all pages from old domain to new domain

The above should be an apple-to-apple mapping as in :
olddomain/page1 301 redirect to newdomain/page1
olddomain/page2 301 redirect to newdomain/page2
. . .

This will inform crawler that the old pages have not died they have moved permanently to new domain. Also the already indexed pages in google search will not return 404, the page on new domain will open.

If you don't have that old domain, then:
Migration will always cause some ranking loss. But you can recover that by following some good seo practices for your site. I will not go into deep of this as this has already been very well

What are the best ways to increase a site's position in Google? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3386507/seo-best-practices-for-page-title-meta-tag-and-page-content

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  • you mean domain1 by 'old domain' and domain2 'new domain' ? If yes, can you justify/explain why doing the 301 redirect from 'old domain' to 'new domain' will help boost ranking considering the fact that new domain has already been indexed.
    – b Tech
    Aug 2, 2016 at 8:45
  • What abt moving the site once again to old domain (if client prefers), then should I do a 301 redirect from 'new' to 'old' considering the new domain ranking low in SERP's.
    – b Tech
    Aug 2, 2016 at 8:46
  • 301 redirect informs crawler that the page 1 now has become page2 so that it pass on the ranking/authority of that page to new one
    – abhinsit
    Aug 2, 2016 at 9:07
  • + a new sitemap and other practice will further inform visibility of this new domain to crawler..but 301 redirect is most important one..moving to a old/new domain should be avoided as crawler takes time to showcase ranking changes ...
    – abhinsit
    Aug 2, 2016 at 9:08
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    Please note @bTech that answers are generally just answers, not complete walk-through guides. The answer informs you what you need to do regarding how to 301 redirect, if your unsure what a 301 redirect is, or how to install such a thing then you are expected to do some research on the matter. You will find hundreds, if not thousands of questions about 301 redirects on Pro Webmasters already, e.g: webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/30266/…
    – Simon Hayter
    Aug 2, 2016 at 10:05

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