Ocean & Earth

Ocean & Earth approached COG Digital with a brief to handle managing a new website development project that would include rewriting the domain to a newly acquired name, and, ensuring that emails followed this strategy.

Part of the brief was to nurture the link equity and domain authority that has been developed over time, as a new domain name would jeopardise the DA attributed to the existing domain names we were departing from. You can read about that case study here.

Also part of the brief was to overhaul the Pay Per Click Advertising strategy to ensure the new domain name was aligned with the current live ad program. You can read about the Ocean & Earth Paid Performance Marketing case study here.

COG Digital also needed to manage the domain name registrar’s, domain name record locations and redirects, plus geo-location redirects for the brand domain suite. A key part of the brief was that the desired domain name was not available, so we had to set up a Domain Name Watchlist and monitor the expiry date of the domain name Ocean & Earth wanted to acquire.

Ocean & Earth is the only remaining Australian surf company that has been around for over 30 years that remains 100% independent. Ocean & Earth was founded by Brian Cregan and established in 1978 producing a couple of basic surfing products and a staff of three. Slowly growing by establishing a network of retailers. Staff knowledge of surfing helped with product development and good old trial and error.

By the early eighties domestic distribution covered the majority of the main surfing areas and some export sales were achieved by “word of mouth”.

By the mid to late eighties the Ocean & Earth product range had grown significantly to encompass a broad range of surfing accessories, backpacks and a small range of clothing which still is the backbone of the company today.

Today O&E is a global brand supporting the world’s best professional surfers.

At COG Digital, we have Managed IT experts, which enable us to perform all remote domain name updates and optimisations for this type of domain name migration strategy and overhaul.

COG Digital web developers and Managed IT experts are proficient in DNS protocols and elements needed to complete the project.

• Migration Strategy for Website and Email
• Manage Numerous Registrar’s and consolidate to one.
• Migrate DNS records (A, CNAME, MX, TXT, SPF, NS)
• Globally Domain Name Suite Strategy
• Set Up and Monitor Domain Name Watch Lists
• Audit Domain Authority (DA) and manage backlink directory and Sitemap at Search Console
• Overhaul Performance Marketing links to meet new Domain Name
• Schedule onsite Managed IT visitation to update all staff emails (desktop and device)

With thorough planning and preparation, we were able to migrate Ocean & Earth from one domain name to another across both website and email.

Via thorough planning and discovery process that nailed down the needs and goals, we performed a secure DNS migration which included an SEO audit and indexing rebound strategy to ensure minimal impact during the migration process and better ranking after the switch.

We also ensured that our DNS strategy included an aftercare strategy started that ensured longevity and correct management would be in place to ensure this scenario wouldn’t be encountered again.

The new website clawed back it’s DA and organic SERPs in Google after 30 days after migration.