How to optimally migrate to a new root domain for SEO benefits?

[Laura_SS]

Hi, hoping to get find some answers to the following scenario:

We launched our Shopfiy store a few years ago with a .com.au domain as the root .com domain was already taken. Recently we launched the same/similar store in the US with a .com.us domain. These sites could not be linked and had been messing up our SEO in both Australia and the US - UNTIL we've been able to purchase the .com domain, which leads me to the following questions:

- What is the best practice to migrate our stores over to the .com root domain and then to link our sub-domains below this with shopify? This will be the current .com.au, the .com.us and in future the au.website.com and us.website.com? We want to retain as much SEO benefits with our current live sites, especially the .com.au which is 4 years old. 

- Secondly, how can we migrate our Google Business Managers and Merchant stores across the current domains and the .com domain which will become the main domain? 

Thanks,

Laura

[Sajat]

Hi there,

First of all, congratulations on getting the ownership of .COM TLD.

If we were faced with same scenario, considering the .com.au and .com.us are basically site with same data, we would Add domain as us.your-site.com(.com.us one) & au.your-site.com (.com.au one) and put these links on the main .com site.

Alternatively, you can also export contents from one of these two ( depends upon which one do you prioritize) and put it on main domain. Then we can have 301 redirects to of the previous domain (.com.au || .com.us) to the main domain. This way, Google recognizes the domain has moved to new site and starts building links from new domain).

If you want a single site, (discard previous domain), then you can go through 301 redirects for both site. or you can also go with canonical URLs to get along with SEO incase you do not want to take the older sites down.

Hope this gave you a starting point on your migration and SEO.

Let me know if you want to have more detailed inspection on what can be done. 

Thanks

[Laura_SS]

Hi there,

Thanks for your response. Super helpful. I have a couple of further
questions I hope you can help me with.

The two sites have separate content/products so do need to be kept
separate.
AU site - specific AU products & content (Currently www.sandsociety.us)
US site - specific US products & content (Currently www.sandsociety.us)

At present we have two separate Shopify accounts for both of the above
sites.

Can you please confirm I have understood your second suggestion correctly?

*Shopify Account 1*
AU site - specific AU products & content
This site inherits the new www.sandsociety.com domain.

Please note this is the priority account, where the Google My Business is
also linked. How do we update the Google My Business account to
sandsociety.com also?

*Shopify Account 2 *
US site - specific US products & content
www.sandsociety.us - us.sandsociety.com (With our domain provider - 301
direct)

*Domain 301 directs *
www.sandsociety.com.au - au.sandsociety.com
www.sandsociety.us - us.sandsociety.com (With our domain provider)

We'll also need to have the Geolocation redirect for when someone lands on
www.sandsociety.com to identify whether they need to be on
au.sandsociety.com or us.sandsociety.com.

Can you please confirm this is the best practice for our scenario? And if
there is anything else to consider?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks,
Laura