Questions about upgrading to my own domain without .wordpress.com in the title
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Hi there, I’m interested in upgrading to my own domain and was wondering how it will effect my followers and the traffic to my site.
I’ve been keeping up with my blog for years now I gained notoriety in google search results. My link pops up when searching for many different topics. If I switch over to the upgraded domain option, would I lose hits to my blog or would they stay the same? Would it be like starting over with zero hits?
Also will I lose my followers?
Thanks for any help :)
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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If you are talking about the domain mapping upgrade, your site will still be hosted here on wordpress.com. The mapping only changes the address your readers see. The link with .wordpress.com will still work. It’s like sticking a sign on your blog house that makes the name look different.
Say I live at xyz-main-street and I put a sign on my house to call it “downton-abbey.” I’m still at wyz-main-street but visitors see that my house is called “downton abbey.”
So, the answer is that you won’t lose your current followers.
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Ah I see. That’s what I thought, but wasn’t sure. I wanted to double check before committing.
I appreciate your help :)
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Related comment:
However, it will take about 3 – 4 months time for Google and Bing to re-index your content under the domain URLs, so do be prepared for that. Once the re-indexing has been done the blog’s authority and pagerank are usually the same as before the domain mapping was implemented. -
But won’t the previous posts retain their seo links?
Ah, it’s the new posts which won’t be indexed right now away…
or am I misunderstanding something? -
@Tess
The authority and pagerank belong to the .wordpress.com subdomain as they were earned by that sub-domain. I recall how my stomach felt when I saw an “unranked” pagerank on my first blog when I got domain mapping for it. It takes months for the content to be re-indexed and in between the pagerank on the domain drops to “unranked”. Then one day, one wakes up and find the re-indexing has been done and all is well again – alleluia! -
I was the first person on WP.com to get a custom domain, and I went completely ballistic when I saw what had happened to my hits, Technorati rank and pagerank. BALLISTIC.
Of course, if I understood then what I know now, I’d have made the change much sooner. Still, it takes at LEAST four months to climb back to the same level.
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@raincoaster
I recall that very clearly and still had my stomach fall to the floor when I followed behind you by getting my first domain. Like you I now recommend purchasing a domain mapping upgrade to all bloggers, who are prepared to blog over the long term, and who will not be mucking about and failing to renew a domain before it expires. It blows my mind when I see bloggers posting who have allowed their domains to expire.
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