[xur17]

I run a coupon related site that's targeted at a specific segment of the market. I was ranked at the top 1 or 2 sites for a few pretty popular keywords for a while, until the summer of last year when I changed the domain, and my rankings dropped off within about a month (despite setting up correct redirects, updating in Google Webmaster tools, etc. Believe me, I spent a LOT of time making sure I did it right).

I never could figure out why the search traffic dropped off. I didn't partake in any seo tactics (I honestly wouldn't have known how to), and my search traffic hasn't really recovered.

Interestingly, my traffic recovered based on direct and refferal traffic, so it wasn't as big of a problem as it could have been, but it does sadden me that I am missing out on a significant portion of the current market (to get new users), but I'm completely lost on why my ranking dropped.

[drjacobs]

Yeah from what I've heard changing domains is one of the hardest things to do successfully in SEO. This is especially true the older the domain is and the more authority it has.

[xur17]

The previous domain was a little over a year old, but yeah, that could very well had something to do with it. I'm not sure if the domain name change was worth it, but I can say that it made the domain easier to remember, which is always good, and makes me less susceptible to Google changing algorithms.

[Axsuul]

Did you do a 301 redirect?