17 Days After Domain Change: How Major Search Engines Reacted

It has been 17 days since Xiao Z Blog changed its domain. Although 301 redirects were implemented, the reactions from major search engines varied. Below is a simple comparison and review.

1. Google Search

Google, the world's largest search engine, undoubtedly reacted the fastest. After applying for a site change via Google Search Console and submitting a sitemap, indexing was basically fully recovered in just over a week. Both site commands and keyword searches have returned to normal. This is thanks to Google's mature search technology. Unfortunately, Google is blocked in China, which is a pity for webmasters.

Figure 1-1: Google Search

2. 360 Search

As a rising domestic search engine, 360 Search's indexing recovery speed was second only to Google from a personal perspective. However, keyword recovery was slow, and the provided webmaster tools are not yet perfect, leaving much room for improvement. Keyword searches still display data from the old domain, and the snapshot is still updating.

Figure 2-1: 360 Keyword Search

3. Microsoft Bing

Microsoft Bing has been operating in China for many years but has not seen significant growth. Many friends may have already forgotten it. Technologically, Microsoft is certainly capable, but its indexing of domestic websites has historically been poor, making the recovery appear slightly slow.

4. Sogou Search

Recently, I complained about Sogou's domain. This time, let's see how it reacts to a domain change. Sogou CEO Wang Xiaochuan has proposed the "three-stage rocket" strategy (browser + input method + search) for years. Recently, it has partnered with Tencent to search WeChat content. Technologically, it should be superior to 360, but its market share has been overtaken by the newcomer 360, which is a tragedy for Sogou. After testing site searches and keyword searches, most content was recovered in just over a week, although snapshot updates are slow.

Figure 4-1: Sogou Snapshot

5. Baidu Search

As China's largest search engine, Baidu is a source of frustration for many websites, yet we must pay attention to it as it is a major source of traffic. The old site applied for a site change on the Baidu Webmaster Platform, but the process is still not completed. site searches show only a few results. The only consolation is that keyword searches and snapshot updates are relatively normal.

Figure 5-1: Baidu Site Search

6. Summary

Baidu is the most concerning and also the most disappointing. From my personal comparison, the recovery speed of indexing is the least ideal. Of course, this may be due to one-sided factors and cannot be considered accurate data, but it still serves as a reference. Finally, I hope everything returns to normal within about a month.

Figure 6-1: Webmaster Tools