Losing my domain, what to do?

[Darth]

Over the course of 1.5 years I've been working hard on a site, creating content and getting some amazing links. The problem was the domain I chose was in a grey area and the company the site is about have now asked for it to be transferred to them. I have agreed to.

Obviously I can take the content and setup a new domain (which they've approved) but I will lose all those links I've earned.

So what I am doing is emailing all of the sites that have linked to me as the source for news or whatever, explaining that we have had to move domains, and asking them to simply update the link to the new domain.

If you can think of anything else I can do/say/add to these emails that would make the site owners/editors more likely to respond please let me know!

Also, in the meantime, before the transfer, I have 301'ed the domain I am losing to the new domain and done a change of site address in Google Console. So Google now just thinks I am moving domains.

Do you think that some of my content still might rank if I lose the backlinks (if the site owners don't carry out my request) because I have the original content on the new domain (ie it was ranking based on the content too, not just the links)?

This is a frustrating situation for me and I know I was being too risky when I opted to use this domain 1.5 years ago, but I can't do anything about that now. Just need to fix it and keep going hard on the new domain as best I can.

Any advice on how best to recover from this situation much appreciated.

 

[Prentzz]

Presumably the issue with the domain is that they don't want you using it, rather than them wanting to have it themselves and actually use it. In which case, there is no reason why you shouldn't just 301 it to a new domain. Both parties win, you keep the links and therefore rank your new site which brings in revenue for both of you. Plus, you aren't using the domain that they didn't like. If I was you, I'd renegotiate and explain to them that you won't use the domain but would prefer to just 301 it through.

 

[Darth]

Presumably the issue with the domain is that they don't want you using it, rather than them wanting to have it themselves and actually use it. In which case, there is no reason why you shouldn't just 301 it to a new domain. Both parties win, you keep the links and therefore rank your new site which brings in revenue for both of you. Plus, you aren't using the domain that they didn't like. If I was you, I'd renegotiate and explain to them that you won't use the domain but would prefer to just 301 it through.

They want to redirect it themselves to their official website. Imagine the domain I have is an abbreviation of their product.

I have already asked if they can redirect inner/article pages (ie the articles that have links pointing to them) to my new domain while keeping their domain.com/ root redirect to their official website.

I am dealing with legal, the problem with the above would be him getting their technical guys to be bothered to set that up.

 

[Ryuzaki]

I think you're doing the best thing, first and foremost, which is to try to recover as many of the links as you can to your new domain.

Trying to negotiate the 301's... I don't know. What I imagine happens is he consults his own tech guys and gets educated on it and why they'd benefit from doing it themselves to their own sites. But if they agree, you can just provide them with the proper Apache or Nginx file to upload. I'd go as far as to tell them exactly where to upload it, etc, and provide links to show them you're not trying to "hack" them or whatever they might worry about. I can't imagine they'd do this though.

No, I don't think Google is going to honor your rankings after you lose the links. I think you'll see your rankings decay over time, perhaps pretty quickly as they recrawl those links after you lose the 301's.

This could become a test site for your, depending on how attached you are to it. Or it could become a "hey, let me spam this and see if I can suck a few more dollars out of it before it's gone for good." The value of the content may be too much and too good for that though. You may have to eat the bullet and try to recover all the links and then just cut that activity off eventually and start rebuilding links.

 

[Darth]

This could become a test site for your, depending on how attached you are to it. Or it could become a "hey, let me spam this and see if I can suck a few more dollars out of it before it's gone for good." The value of the content may be too much and too good for that though. You may have to eat the bullet and try to recover all the links and then just cut that activity off eventually and start rebuilding links.

Thanks - actually the product has not even launched yet. I have been building it for this long in anticipation... So yeah, giving up at this stage is not an option, I have not earned a dime from it!

I have a VA who has sent out 20 emails using a template I created. No responses in 24 hours so we will see... I think in follow up emails I will offer $20 via Paypal or something for their time to edit the link. TBH as a webmaster and if I got an email like this, I would make the change... it's a pain, but nothing nefarious. Maybe not all webmasters are like me though.

Also, do you (or anyone else) know what I could do about forum and reddit links to the old domain? Can reddit mods even edit links of posts for example?

 

[animalstyle]

They want to redirect it themselves to their official website. Imagine the domain I have is an abbreviation of their product.

I have already asked if they can redirect inner/article pages (ie the articles that have links pointing to them) to my new domain while keeping their domain.com/ root redirect to their official website.

I am dealing with legal, the problem with the above would be him getting their technical guys to be bothered to set that up.

Can you expand on why you agreed to transfer the domain? Is the leverage they have just that they would stop honoring a business negotiation or monetization deal resulting in the death of your site anyways?

Even as an abbreviation of some brand term, you shouldn't legally have any problem remaining the owner of this domain - correct me if I am wrong.

 

[darkzerothree]

Yes, that would be my question as well.

How did they decide to reimburse you?
Can you sell the content to them?

 

[Tove]

What about the trademark?
And if they do own the trademark, if you registered the domain when trademark wasn't live or it was expired and now they got it after you registered the domain, I still think you have the advantage.

 

[Golan]

Yes, it would be good to know why did you agree to give the domain to them. Trademark? C&D? Do they have firm legal cause? Thanks

 

[Darth]

They don't have a registered trademark for this specific abbreviation, but the abbreviation is being used everywhere, so they would argue they have a common law trademark (not a registered one).

This is a good read - http://www.circleid.com/posts/20170526_what_it_takes_to_prove_common_law_rights_in_udrp_complaints/ - and it sounds somewhat favourable for me, until you remember that my website is all about their product alone. I would lose a UDRP. Also, I am involved with some of their other products on different sites and don't want to rock the boat.

In conclusion, I 100% don't want to fight them on this, and am happy to use the new domain, BUT I do want to salvage as much of my previous work as possible.

This thread has given me new resolve to get at least redirects on the inner pages.

 

[darkzerothree]

Or -thinking maliciously - what about registering the trademark for the abbreviation?

 

[animalstyle]

@Darth knowing all that makes sense.

As usual @Ryuzaki has given great advice and I’d follow that. I’d also try and take it as far as possible with getting as many 301s as you can out of the old domain. Maybe even offer to do the domain move for them or provide all the files for them, especially a robust redirect file that works in your favor. Saving them migration work may be a nice trade off for the 301s if their tech team is already busy or not knowledgeable. If you can get away with it, all the inner page redirects would be a big win in an otherwise tough situation.

 

[Darth]

Trying to negotiate the 301's... I don't know. What I imagine happens is he consults his own tech guys and gets educated on it and why they'd benefit from doing it themselves to their own sites.

I don't think they want my domain for the SEO or traffic. It's more an image thing and controlling their brand, making sure customers aren't confused if they are on an official/unofficial site (I clearly state I am an unofficial site btw). They want people who type this in to go to the official site.

Saving them migration work may be a nice trade off for the 301s if their tech team is already busy or not knowledgeable. If you can get away with it, all the inner page redirects would be a big win in an otherwise tough situation.

Thanks, definitely going for this!