Address of a website - keep your old domain name

Over the years, companies may have the need to change the address of a website, whether it be because of a company name change, or simply a more descriptive URL.

Here is a prime example as to why you should NEVER relinquish control over an old company owned domain name.

Why keep the old domain name?

For many years the Chiropractors Association of Australia website address was caa.com.au. The first recorded iteration of their website at this address was in 1996.

Late in 2005 it seems they gave up ownership of that domain address, and some time in April 2006 it was taken over by a car auction company in Adelaide.

For a start, it's not a very good address as far as keyphrases go - "caa" means nothing. "carauctionadelaide.com.au" would have been better. But what they did do was inherit some very good things, compliments of the Chiropractors Association.

What does age have to do with it?

One of the important factors Google looks at in a website is the maturity of the domain name. The older the site, the more respect Google has for it. If the Chiropractors Association still owned caa.com.au, as of 2009 it would be at least 13 years old.

This is borne out by the fact that even today, when you look up "chiropractor" in Google, caa.com.au still comes up on (or near) the first page of results - even though it hasn't had any chiropractic related information for about three years!

Why is this so? Very simple. The Association was either given very bad advice or worse, didn't ask for any. If they had, they would have been told that many websites that are related to chiropractic STILL LINK TO THE OLD WEBSITE!!

What they SHOULD have done

The solution was very simple and would have taken about 5 minutes. They SHOULD have redirected caa.com.au to their new website. It's too late now - I'm sure the car auction website wants to keep the domain name.

Is it a one-way street?

No - there's more. The car auction website is at a disadvantage also - they have lots of incoming links that are totally irrelevant to cars and car auctions.

Why would the Association have given up the domain name?

I can't believe it was a financial decision - especially considering the downside - loss of all those great incoming links for the sake of a few dollars per year in renewal fees. I daresay they simply let it "slip through their fingers" - they forgot about it.

Always keep track of your domain name ownership records. Would you forget about the deed to your property, or house? No, so keep all your information up to date with the registrar, and if you have had an active site for at least several years, never let the domain name go - its much easier to keep it and the advantages can be HUGE!

If you require the services of an experienced search engine optimiser, please contact Rob at justweb®.

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