Watch: Link Migration Experiment
Have you linked to DEJAN in the past? It's time to update links to a new domain. Click for more details.
Transcript
What do you do when Google hands your website a devastating penalty? When your site completely vanishes from search results, even for your own brand name?
Instead of going through the usual reconsideration process, the search engine optimization agency, Dejan, decided to run a unique experiment. They moved to a brand-new domain and began a manual link migration.
They reached out to anyone who had ever linked to their old site, asking them to manually update those links to point to the new domain. At the same time, they removed the old site from Google's index, hoping the new domain would naturally take over as the canonical home for their content.
The process was a rollercoaster of daily tracking, shifting search rankings, and technical mishaps. Along the way, the team also cleaned up old, forgotten promotional links from years past and submitted a formal appeal.
Ultimately, Google approved their reconsideration request, and the migration began to take hold. This experiment offers a fascinating alternative to typical website migrations, showing how moving domains and reclaiming link equity can work when recovering from a severe penalty.