Question Newbie question

[gsitesseo]

Hello everyone!

I've asked a couple "experts" about this issue and I don't even know if they had any clue, but I'm pretty sure it's straightforward for anyone clued up....

1. Had a Google Sites (old) hosted website and bought a new domain for it that was in use for several years
2. Finally switched hosting from Google Sites, but kept both the old website with the GS domain, and the new one on the new host but with the originally bought domain; most content the same on both sites
3. Organic traffic suffered a few months into the switch to the new host...

My dilemma: do I take down the Google Site website with the GS domain? Is it "competing" with the new site? Of course chronologically the old site content was added first, but the domain it pointed to had always been the same.

What might be going on?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Community]

If you've copied the content which was originally published and is still on an established site for several years.

Then the new site will be considered a copy/duplicate. Best practice when moving websites is to redirect the old one to the new to tell search engines that the content is being used elsewhere. But in this situtation you can't do that because a Google sites website can't be redirected.

So It's not surprising your new site is failing, it's not adding any value. If i was you i would rewrite the content on your new site, then on the Google Sites pages, link to your new sites pages on the new website.

In theory using the Google site to advertise/referance your new site but also sending signals they are related.

 

[gsitesseo]

Thank you for your insights Community! They're very useful

To clarify, GS had an option to use my own domain name instead of their default sites/site-name one. So the GS site had always had the same domain as the one on the new site; but because i took the domain to a new host, it defaulted itself back to its own sites/site-name URL in search.

I don't think the GS site is getting the traffic it used to get previously with the domain that has now moved. Was that traffic connected to the domain name, the GS host or a combination?