An older WebmasterWorld thread has been updated to share the time frame it took this webmaster to transfer his Google PageRank scores from old URLs to new URLs.
In summary, he set up a new URL structure (possibly a new domain, but that is not so clear). He redirected his old URLs to the new URLs. He then noticed his PageRank was gone, completely. So he got nervous. The folks in the thread suggested he relax and wait it out and ultimately, it worked out.
Here is the timeline:
- October 2nd - Site migration and 301's implemented
- October 10th - Week or so later lost all PR on new URLs (all to PR N/A)
- October 30th - Month later, PR N/A now changed to PR0
- December 29th - 3 months after 301 redirects back to original URL PR
So from start to finish, it seems like it took three months for the toolbar PageRank to transfer over.
How does this help any of you? Well, it really doesn't, outside of having something to point a client of your to. What I mean by that is that although the Toolbar PageRank didn't appear in the new URLs for three months, it likely had PageRank internally but not yet visible in the toolbar. I am sure the traffic from Google took less than three months to get to where it was.
In addition, these numbers will vary from site to site, depending on many factors. Those factors include, but are not limited to, size of the site, when the move was made, number of redirects, how popular the site was originally, if you use Sitemap files, and many more factors.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
