What's in a name?

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Permalink Reply by JenSocial on June 18, 2011 at 2:16am

Hi there,

I'm not sure what you mean "Ning enabled the feature to easily change your domain name of your ning site"

You cannot change your Ning domain (name.ning.com). But you can, and have always been able to: forward/redirect your domain name to your Ning. And it sounds like you've already done this. If you do change the domain, you will have to start over on all ratings like Alexa, Google, etc...

 

WAIT Katie. I see what you've done. It depends really - - whether this will hurt or help your SEO. Initially it will probably hurt your SERPs, but will be better in the end. Since technically speaking, your "home" page is your .net, and you have a link going to your Ning, you've already established an Alexa and Google for the .net.  But here's the thing. Once you redirect the .net to the .ning, you will lose your home page content on the .net, NOT the Ning. And, your Ning site which currently has a 5mil on Alexa will probably take on your 12 mil Alexa for the .net. In other words, you will lose your Alexa ranking for the Ning site, for a period of time. It will be higher. The lower, the better. However, and stay with me on this. Both of these Alexa numbers need to be improved. First and foremost, you need to install the Alexa toolbar on your browser if you haven't already. Google "Alexa Toolbar" to learn more, and why. So bottom line in this case, probably won't make that much difference either way. It wouldn't hurt to hire a SEO Expert to take a look.

 

Few points to keep in mind:

You could create a subdomain under your .net. See how Robert has done this on:

http://www.poziam.org/

http://www.community.poziam.com - this is forwarded to his .ning.com

 

Then the rich content from your Ning site would be found easier as a subdomain of your .net. I believe this would be a great solution for you. You'll need to access your control panel where your domain is hosted, or ask your hosting provider how to do this.

 

Right now the way it stands, the SEO for the .net is not getting much of the benefits of all the content on your .ning. It will gain some just due to the deep rooted links to your .ning. So, bottom line: a huge toss up here, and time for an SEO Expert. ;-) You could keep it all just as it is, since you do have an established .net. When a site has no entry point of an established .net, and just a .ning subdomain, the value of the site is no where near what's it's worth as it's own unique domain.

 

Pretty much all I can advise on this one. Hope it helps a little.

Jen

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Permalink Reply by GirlRiders on June 18, 2011 at 5:22am

Thanks Jen, I appreciate it!  I need to read this slowly after this busy weekend, but I think I understand what you are saying.  How do I find an SEO expert?  I see plenty of people who call themselves that.  Are you one?  Can you refer one?

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Permalink Reply by JenSocial on June 18, 2011 at 11:51am

No, sorry. I quit that biz, too risky. And I don't trust anyone to recommend. Sorry Katie.

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Permalink Reply by GirlRiders on June 19, 2011 at 7:53am

Thanks for suggesting what Robert's method, I like that. I just did mine:  http://network.girlriders.net .  Should I mask it?  Looks like Robert did.

 

This SEO stuff is my least favorite part (as if you can't tell by my excellent job so far, lol) but I know I need to dedicate some time to it.  Thanks again for your advice.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by GirlRiders on June 30, 2011 at 8:03pm

I think I screwed it all up.  I messaged poziam to see what he did, but I didn't hear back.  

I made my subdomain, but I can't get my ning site name to change.  I tried and got a got a circular reference and almost got locked out of the site.  Man I hate this part. 

I'm sorry to bother you Jen, what do I do?

 

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Permalink Reply by JenSocial on June 30, 2011 at 8:59pm

Sorry, I can't help you with this. I suggest calling Ning tomorrow. Or, you can call your hosting company. There all too different for me to be able to assist. Plus, I hate doing this even for myself.

=)

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Permalink Reply by GirlRiders on July 1, 2011 at 6:06am

Ok, well at least now I don't feel so lame.  Thanks Jen!

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