- SEO Newsletter
- Posts
- Complete Helpful Content Update Recovery: Update on Case Study
Complete Helpful Content Update Recovery: Update on Case Study
Use Semantics and Site Migrations to Avoid HCU Effect
Ranking Signal Transition for Saving Yourself from Never-ending Ranking Loss
If you are affected by one of the significant spam updates, core updates, or individual system updates such as Helpful Content or Product Review, reversing your negative ranking state might take longer than you think.
Welcome to the another BlueHat (Opportunist SEO Case Study),
The metrics of the new domain are below.
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/2b43508d-c49b-4c9a-b26c-9de126f6cfb5/image.png?t=1719415667)
The new domain is demoted by inheriting the negative ranking state of the previous domain.
Google Ranking Algorithms are not always confident. A URL can start ranking in the first 10 results and disappear multiple times a day by being replaced by another candidate. Similarly, ranking signals from the previous domain can flow to the new domain successfully, or the new domain can inherit the algorithmic demotions. The new domain should create a unique difference by exceeding the quality thresholds to avoid algorithmic negative ranking assignments.
The metrics of the old domain are below.
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/6a56f35f-08f8-49b3-b5ab-93c70e9fc16c/image.png?t=1719417189)
The Old Domain was getting only 1600 clicks a day.
When you perform a domain migration, your content might not rank as before, or it can start to rank even better than earlier. You can inherit the negative ranking state of the previous domain, or you can exceed the ranking limits of the last domain. It all depends on how you implement the domain migration. This is a very brief example case study in an “opportunistic manner”; it doesn’t explain concepts or deep methodology. However, you can use video case studies or article case studies that are linked or annotated.
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/8834c3d9-d12b-45cf-9402-46560af0462e/image.png?t=1719417551)
Ahrefs Graphic of the same domain.
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/387a9014-08b7-4a7b-8371-3d8f1bcc13f3/image.png?t=1719417561)
SEMRush graphic of the same domain.
Ranking Signal Transition
Ranking Signal Transition is the process of flowing the ranking potential of one domain to another by performing multi-step site migration to achieve the trust of search engine ranking algorithms. Expired or brand-new domains can help a website operator avoid the adverse effects of previous Broad Core Algorithm System updates.
We processed this subject multiple times with successful case studies. Here, you can observe this detailed case study video:
A brand new domain can rank 2x better than an old domain if the site migration is performed properly. Below, you can see another migration example.
This website is directly the same website with the screenshot at the top.
Leaving this here for a future case study update.
— Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR (@KorayGubur)
10:16 PM • Jun 25, 2024
Key Points for Ranking Signal Transition
Rank both the old and new domains together for the same brand name.
Perform HTML-to-HTML, image-to-image, and CSS-to-CSS migration according to the source type.
Always use the change of address tool.
Try to achieve expired domains without any past penalty.
Do not migrate everything suddenly. Move the highest-quality content to the new domain and publish new pages.
Use “crypto redirects”, and “cross-domain canonicalizations” from first domain to the second domain.
Use structured data to signal the old and new brand name as “same company”.
Rank the new domain for the old domain’s branded search terms, such as “brand name login” and “brand name pricing.”
Match the query network of the previous domain to the new one. For example, if you ranked for “OPNSense installation,” you should also rank for all the variations with the new domain. If the old and new query networks are different from each other, the transition will take longer time.
Increase publication frequency to take the search engine's attention to the newly published documents.
Perform log file analysis to see whether the new domain inherits unnecessary URLs from the previous domain.
Don’t change the color palette, layout, internal link structure, or boilerplate content.
Don’t change the CMS or URLs between the old and the new domains.
Change only one thing at a time.
Join Topical Authority Academy or Holistic SEO Public communities to learn more and read our public and private case studies and lectures.
You can learn detailed examples in our Birmingham Lecture in the From Saigon to Saigon module inside Topical Authority Academy.
There are a tremendous amount of details about the subject,
Stay with reason and research.
Reply