How long does it take for rank to return after 301?

[Bandicoot]

Hello all -- just looking for those who have implemented site-wide 301 redirects due to a domain change. I am about 2 weeks into mine and am seeing minimum 5, maximum 21 spot drops in many of my targeted terms. My pages have strong GPR, with most being 3 or higher.

Anyone out there been able to track a ballpark of when rank will return? The 301 redirects were implemented correctly, with 1 to 1 setups in most cases. Google has updated the listings with the new domain name, but I'm taking a huge rank hit.

Any experience on how long I can expect (I know it's different for every situation) would be great!

Thanks.

[Bandicoot]

Hi Robert -

Yes we did it on the URL level, but the client is using IIS as opposed to Apache, so we had to figure out a way to use a global 301 that trickled down to the page level. Each page is redirecting to it's new home on the server side (www.oldsite-innerpage.com to www.newsite-innerpage.com). We actually ended up with a global re-write rule that still allowed it to be a page-level redirect. Eventually we will be going into IIS and writing in server-side 301's for each individual page. It's been 2 weeks so I'm hoping to see return of rank here in 2 weeks time or so. Thanks for your input.

[RobertFisher]

Bandicoot,

From what you have written I am assuming your "Site-wide 301 redirects" means you did it from url to url and not from home page to home page or root to root, etc. 
We made the mistake of assuming on a site a few months ago and could not understand what happened. Mozzers pointed out we did not go url to url and we made the change. Most were cautious suggesting it would take 4 to 6 weeks, but we actually saw about 90% within 3 weeks of the change. This was a change from NamedLawfirm.com to City-Bankruptcy-Attorneys.com so I was impressed with the rapidity.

Good luck

[AlanMosley]

I think that was a very general comment, as some pages are crawled very rarly, as for passing pr and signals, it has been confirmed by Matt Cutts that 301's leak goodness

http://www.stonetemple.com/articles/interview-matt-cutts-012510.shtml

[Mattbyo]

http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/012409.html --"From Google: 301s pass PR and related signals appropriately. Usually takes a couple of weeks for things to smooth out, though."

[AlanMosley]

i would give it another 2 weeks at least, but as i suggested, it may not get back to where it was as a 301 is not as fgood as a direct link

[Bandicoot]

Hi Adrian - thanks for your reply. for client privacy purposes I cannot reveal the site.

[NewGlobalVentures.comSEOTexas]

I'd have to say that when we went through our domain change, we forgot to initialize the 301 redirect so we got penalized for 6 weeks until we caught it; however, it's not like we had some big stuff between newglobalventures.com and www.newglobalventures.com.

Just out of curiousity which is the site that you're experiencing loss on?

-Adrian

[Bandicoot]

no, the old site is not showing on the SERP anymore, and no, there were no 301's to the old site

[AlanMosley]

Yes i have done this a few times, and i suggest at least a month or more. 301's do not pass all goodness to the new page they leak a little each time. If you had 301's on the old site already you may of lost them or they maybe double hoping.

Is the old domain name still in search resulst?