For Google, we call it the Sandbox -- the effect moving a site over to a new domain or launching a brand new site structure has on the ranking of the site. Plenty of #1 search results plummet after a redesign, never to be heard of again ... I for one think we should call it "Davey Jones' Locker."
When Google returns to your site to have a look over, to kick the tires, to report back what's new and it sees a completely different site altogether -- it gets suspicious. Very suspicious. It moves you from your previous ranking and puts the deep freeze on your site until you prove yourself all over again -- meanwhile, you lose scores of traffic and massive amounts of conversions.
There are ways of speeding your site through the Sandbox -- and returning your site to its proper ranking more quickly. Click through to see my steps and some suggested further reading.
Get to Know Your Analytics
Look at the top entrance pages for your site (not just the top 3 or 5, look at any that bring measurable traffic) -- this is where a user either 1) enters from the search results page, 2) returns from a bookmark or 3) clicks a link from a referring page -- these are critical pages that need to be redirected first. Use a 301 redirect to point the old URL to the new corresponding page.
Page Not Found? Find it for me!
Custom 404 error pages are an excellent way of providing both users and search spiders ways to find your content. Give your users somewhere else to go, and the ability to report broken links.
Who's Your Google?
Notify the webmaster team (let 'em know about the new site, why it was built, and ask them for some leniency), verify the site and create a new sitemap in webmaster tools, add analytics, and run an adwords campaign for your top terms during any drop in rankings. For very large sites, you may want to consider limiting the sheer volume of 'new' pages the search engine will see on first blush. Identify some low value pages (low PageRank or low-traffic) and block them with the robots.txt file.
Reach Out and Touch Someone, Gently
Look at the top 2-300 referring domains (from your analytics) that are bringing you traffic. Find the links on their page and politely ask them to update the link to the correct page. Politely. Now is also a great opportunity to go on a little link-building excursion -- find subject related sites with high PageRank and traffic and look for ways(beg, buy, but not steal) to get links from the page.
Yahoo!, too!
To target Yahoo!, use the Yahoo Site Explorer -- look at the top 2-300 referring domains and reach out ever so gently to have links updated.
Make a Splash
Don't let the new site go unnoticed -- linkbait, viral marketing, media awareness campaigns and more will help get the attention of users and the search engines more quickly. Companies wish they had an event like this to brag about more often -- so don't waste the opportunity.
From SEOmoz --
Moving Content or Shifting from an Old Domain to a New Domain
- Expect 3-6 months before the content's previous rankings are re-achieved at Google
- Expect 1-3 months at Yahoo!
- Expect 1-3 months at MSN
Suggested Reading:
Aaron Wall runs an extremely in-depth case study
Nelson from Google tries out 301 redirects
Excellent SEOmoz article on best practices
The Perfect 404 by ALA
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