Rebranding and expanding my forum. Need advice!

PrettyPixels

PrettyPixels

Well-known member
Licensed customer
I have a successful niche writing site I'd like to expand to include other genres. The current domain name is also very niche, so I've purchased a new one that fits the broader audience.

My current (niche) domain name is #1 on Google for our keywords and very easy to remember. I was planning to create a section within the new site for the niche, then do 301 redirects of the old domain to that section.

Do you think this is the best way to handle it? Is there anything else I should take into consideration as I make the change?
 
PrettyPixels said:
Do you think this is the best way to handle it?
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That’s what I would do but redirects are not actually pointing to the section per se, it will be thread pointing to the same (moved) thread but with the new domain. Presumably that’s what you mean, I’m just being a bit pedantic.
 
Mr Lucky said:
That’s what I would do but redirects are not actually pointing to the section per se, it will be thread pointing to the same (moved) thread but with the new domain. Presumably that’s what you mean, I’m just being a bit pedantic.
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Yes, all would 301 redirect to the new domain except for the former index page of the niche site. I plan to redirect that to the splash page for that specific niche on the new site. Like this:

niche.com ➡️ newdomain.com/niche
niche.com/(everything else) ➡️ newdomain.com/(everything else)

I would notify members of the change for a couple weeks before the move, then post a notice on all the former niche pages for a couple weeks after, too. Hopefully this will head off any confusion for the members.
 
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briansol said:
I would probably not touch the existing site. Spin up the new one without that niche.
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Thank you for the suggestion. I've considered that too, as I am a little worried about losing my SEO rank with the switch.

I also know half my members won't like that we're expanding out of the niche and want to keep things as-is. The other half will love the idea, as they write for multiple genres. I'm in the second half, as my interests have expanded and I'm feeling a little burnt out on the original niche. :D

I'm hoping to use the niche foum to "seed" the other new sections.

I really don't want to run two separate forums, as so much of the content will be similar and it'll be twice the work and expense. I'd love to do something like multisite, but I'm also very wary of relying on a third-party plug-in for such an important function.

Any ideas for a better fit? What would you do in my shoes?
 
PrettyPixels said:
Yes, all would 301 redirect to the new domain except for the former index page of the niche site. I plan to redirect that to the splash page for that specific niche on the new site. Like this:

niche.com ➡️ newdomain.com/niche
niche.com/(everything else) ➡️ newdomain.com/(everything else)

I would notify members of the change for a couple weeks before the move, then post a notice on all the former niche pages for a couple weeks after, too. Hopefully this will head off any confusion for the members.
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Make sure you do update in google search console as well about domain change. Other than that in whatever niche you are expanding into, do in-depth search about it. Everyone enter into new niche but they don't do SEO and tech SEO review to expand and gain much more traffic.

Google will consider a it big change so better fix any old issues as well if they exist.
 
PrettyPixels said:
What would you do in my shoes?
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I would do exactly as you are doing. Especially if there is common ground, e.g. articles that are relevant. If you think it will work better as a new larger niche with wider audience then go for it.

As it’s larger then I’d carefully noindex anything that does not help SEO but could hinder “crawl budget.”

Start off not looking too different so hopefully you won’t get existing members throwing their toys out of the pram.

Give plenty of notice and explain why you are doing it.
 
Hmm.... I did this 12 years ago - my original site was pretty broad in the topic but the most active part was a very specific thing. I ended up buying a domain for the popular specific thing and moved all threads from the specific thing to the new domain using a redirect rules addon that has since been deleted.

Jon W

Thread '[TH] Redirect Rules [Deleted]'

Jon W submitted a new resource:

Redirect Rules by Waindigo - Set criteria for certain parts of your site to be redirected to a different domain.

​
This add-on adds the ability to create redirect rules for redirecting specified parts of your site to another domain.

Redirect rules support all the usual user criteria and page criteria, meaning they are much more powerful than your standard htaccess redirect.

For example, you can redirect all forums/threads in a particular node to a different...
Click to expand...

Read more...

Long story short the new site is now very popular and the old site pretty much died on the vine. It still exists but traffic and activity is not much. Something to consider. Part of this is due to me putting more effort into the new site.
 
Having done something similar in the past, we ended up breaking the niche because we forced them over to a new (broader) site that they didn't ask for and no longer felt a part of, just a side-lined sub-group who were no longer important.

From their perspective, they built the niche; they were the community; it was their site; their place; their home. When we moved them out of that small, comfortable home to a new, big, bright, strange new place that was made to attract new people who weren't really interested in their niche; they floundered, the conversation dwindled, and, irony being what it is, the whole experiment failed and we lost more than we gained.

If we were doing it again, we'd slowly add to the existing site, broaden the scope steadily alongside the existing site/domain/community, keeping hold of the new domain for the time being until you get some of the alternative discussion going and some new people in.

Once you've slowly and steadily expanded the existing site, so as not to spook the existing community, then you can float the move to the new domain/site and bring everyone with you. Just take it slowly and don't go whacking 40 new niche forums on overnight! (y):)
 
I can see you having a website home page that explains your forum.
As for expanding out into different genres have them as your category headers.
For example you have added Knitting you'd have that as a category with 4 different parts of knitting.
 
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