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Does Changing Domain Names Affect Your SEO?
Changing domain names tin impact your website’s authority, rankings, and traffic. In immoderate cases, it tin consciousness similar starting implicit from an SEO perspective.
One of the main reasons wherefore is that backlinks (links from different sites that constituent to yours) to your aged website won’t automatically constituent to your caller site. And those are important factors hunt engines similar Google instrumentality into relationship erstwhile ranking your content.
Think of it this way:
Changing your domain sanction changes the URL of each leafage connected your website. So, each the backlinks you had pointing to your aged domain nary longer constituent to your website.
That said, it’s hard to foretell the nonstop SEO interaction of changing domain names. And you don’t needfully person to suffer your backlinks.
There are besides different things to consider.
So, let’s look astatine immoderate scenarios erstwhile switching domains mightiness beryllium a bully idea. And immoderate scenarios erstwhile it mightiness not be.
When You Might Want to Change your Domain Name
There are a fewer reasons wherefore you mightiness privation to alteration your domain name:
- Rebranding oregon changing your institution name: If your concern undergoes a rebrand oregon sanction change, updating your domain to lucifer tin guarantee consistency and debar causing confusion
- Choosing a better-known top-level domain: Moving from a little communal top-level domain (TLD) similar “.net” to a much recognized 1 similar “.com” tin summation credibility and memorability
- Picking a simpler domain: This tin summation nonstop postulation and marque your marque much memorable
- Expanding to caller markets oregon merchandise lines: A caller domain mightiness amended bespeak your expanded offerings oregon people audience
- Overcoming antagonistic associations: If your domain has been associated with antagonistic press, a caller 1 whitethorn connection a caller start
When You Might Not Want to Change Your Domain Name
Changing your domain sanction isn’t ever a bully idea.
It’s champion to debar making a alteration if:
- You person established marque recognition: If your existent domain is well-known and associated with your brand, changing it could confuse customers and prospects. And outgo you your hard-earned awareness.
- You precocious invested successful marketing: If you've conscionable spent a important magnitude connected selling materials oregon campaigns featuring your existent domain, changing it close present means that clip and wealth was wasted
- You’re successful the mediate of a highest concern period: Changing domains during your busiest play could disrupt sales. It’s often amended to hold for a quieter clip erstwhile little gross is astatine risk.
- You don’t person capable budget: Domain changes tin beryllium costly erstwhile factoring successful caller branding, marketing, and imaginable method issues
- Your squad lacks method expertise: A domain sanction alteration is simply a benignant of website migration, truthful it’s not ever feasible for smaller companies without improvement resources
An Overview of How to Migrate to a New Domain
Here’s a wide overview of what goes into migrating to a caller domain name:
1. Do Preliminary Work
Take your clip to hole for the migration. To guarantee you enactment organized and don’t marque mistakes.
It’s a bully thought to cod immoderate benchmark data, found wide goals, and make a elaborate timeline.
And for a domain change, you’ll privation to acquisition a caller domain and besides configure the domain sanction strategy (DNS) settings. These marque your tract accessible and interaction performance.
2. Create a New Site and Block Access to It
The simplest mode to make a caller website for a domain sanction alteration is to make a transcript of your existing site. Which you tin past usage arsenic a staging tract to marque changes and tally tests.
This is alternatively technical, truthful enactment with a developer who understands the process.
Then, marque definite to artifact entree to the staging site.
There are a fewer ways you tin bash this, but see utilizing password protection. Which displays a login surface similar this:
This prevents some web crawlers and users from accessing your caller tract earlier it’s ready.
And see adding a noindex tag to each page—which tells crawlers not to see them successful hunt results. Especially if you program to tally tests to verify that your caller tract tin beryllium decently crawled earlier pushing it live.
3. Prepare the New Site
Migrations focused connected changing domains don’t often necessitate important changes. But if you bash request to marque any, now’s the clip to bash it.
That mightiness see adjusting your navigation, updating your logo, etc.
Just cognize that it’s typically champion to support changes arsenic minimal arsenic possible. To debar disruptions and find what causes immoderate issues that arise.
4. Map Old URLs to New URLs
Next, physique a database of your existent website’s pages. Because you’ll request to instrumentality redirects from each of the aged pages to their caller locations connected the caller domain.
You’ll bash this utilizing 301 redirects. Which are imperishable redirects that archer hunt engines and browsers that your archetypal URLs person been permanently replaced with caller ones.
To make your list, usage Semrush’s Site Audit tool.
Enter your aged domain and click “Start Audit.”
Follow the prompts to configure the audit. And beryllium definite to acceptable the bounds to higher than the full fig of pages you person connected your site. To guarantee thing is missed.
Once the crawl is complete, click the “Crawled Pages” tab to spot a afloat database of your URLs.
In the apical close corner, click “Export” and take either “Export to XLSX” for Excel oregon “Export to CSV.”
You tin present representation each of your erstwhile URLs to the caller URL wherever the aforesaid contented volition unrecorded connected the caller site.
For example:
If the URLs of your contented are staying the aforesaid too the domain name, things volition beryllium beauteous easy. Your caller URL volition simply beryllium the aforesaid arsenic the aged url but with the domain switched out.
If you’re besides changing the subfolders oregon URL slugs of pages connected your site, past you’ll request to beryllium cautious erstwhile mapping aged URLs to the caller ones.
For example, if you’re changing from “old-domain.com/about-us/” to “new-domain.com/about/.”
If determination are immoderate pages connected your aged tract that you don’t privation to keep, don’t acceptable a caller destination for them. But acceptable them to service a 410 presumption code—this indicates the leafage has been permanently deleted.
5. Update the URLs connected Your New Site
You tin present statesman the process of updating each the interior links connected your caller website. So you’re not utilizing unnecessary redirects that tin dilatory down your tract and perchance wounded your SEO performance.
Relying solely connected redirects could besides pb to redirect chains—when aggregate redirects hap betwixt an archetypal URL that’s requested and the last destination URL.
This tin beryllium confusing for users and besides interaction however hunt engines crawl your website.
So, spell done each leafage and update each the interior links to constituent to the due URL connected your caller site.
This includes links that look successful your website’s code, your XML sitemap (the record that lists each the URLs you privation hunt engines to index), and your robots.txt record (which specifies the URLs you privation to block).
6. Back Up Your Old Website
Before you commencement the migration, backmost up your website. So you tin revert to it successful lawsuit thing goes incorrect during the transfer.
It tin besides supply a useful examination instrumentality to cheque that each contented and features person been successfully migrated to the caller domain.
The process depends connected however your site’s hosted. A fewer options are to bash it done your tract host’s power sheet oregon a contented absorption strategy (CMS) plugin.
There are besides third-party services similar CodeGuard oregon Sucuri that volition bash it for you.
7. Migrate Your Site and Remove Blocks
Next, marque the caller tract live. And effort to bash it during low-traffic times if possible.
It’s champion to determination successful stages to trim the hazard of making a mistake. So see moving conscionable 1 conception astatine a time.
Once your caller tract is live, region the blocks (password extortion and/or noindex tags) you added earlier. So some hunt engines and users tin entree your site.
At this point, we urge moving Site Audit connected your caller website. So you tin spot whether determination are immoderate issues successful the “Crawlability” study that request to beryllium addressed.
8. Enable Redirects and Page Removals
Once your caller domain is unrecorded with each of your content, you request to instrumentality your 301 redirects. So users and hunt engines spot your caller contented alternatively than mistake messages.
If you person a WordPress site, you tin usage plugins similar Yoast, RankMath, oregon Redirection.
Just marque definite that the plugin you usage allows you to redirect utilizing implicit URLs (the full leafage addresses)—not conscionable comparative URLs.
If the plugin lone supports comparative URL redirects, you won’t beryllium capable to redirect your aged domain’s URLs to the caller one.
If you’re not utilizing WordPress oregon you person galore pages connected your site, you whitethorn request to usage a much precocious method for implementing redirects successful bulk. Like adding redirects done your .htaccess file.
9. Monitor Results
To find whether your domain migration has been successful, periodically show your show data.
When you archetypal alteration your domain, your integrated hunt postulation volition astir surely drop. You should spot your postulation rebound successful a fewer weeks.
But it tin vary. So, proceed to comparison the information from your caller tract against the information you collected from your aged site.
If you don’t spot improvements aft a fewer weeks, see utilizing the Site Audit instrumentality to cheque for method and on-page issues that could beryllium getting successful the way.
Tips for Changing Your Domain the Right Way
Now that you person a amended knowing of what goes into a migration, let’s spell implicit immoderate tips that tin marque changing domain names adjacent smoother.
Choose an Appropriate Domain Name
Your site’s domain sanction mightiness not beryllium a ranking origin for you, but it tin interaction your visibility and click-through rates.
For example, radical who don’t cognize your domain but cognize your marque are apt to usage Google to hunt your marque name. And if they spot a URL that matches the marque sanction successful the hunt motor results leafage (SERP), they’re going to beryllium much apt to click.
When choosing a caller domain name, determination are 2 parts to consider:
- Second-level domain: The unsocial identifier of your website (e.g., the “semrush” successful “semrush.com”). This should lucifer (or astir match) your marque name.
- Top-level domain: The portion that comes aft second-level domain (e.g., the “.com” successful “semrush.com”)
It’s usually (but not always) champion to opt for a domain sanction that ends successful “.com.”
If you can’t get a “.com” domain sanction that makes sense, see “.co,” oregon “.net.” These are besides memorable options.
Or deliberation astir alternate TLDs that are much applicable to your business.
For example, “.io” is simply a bully prime for companies that privation to beryllium powerfully associated with technology.
But don’t unreserved into choosing a caller domain name.
Make definite the domain you privation is available. And past cheque whether it was antecedently owned.
If it was, you mightiness privation to verify that it doesn’t person a batch of toxic backlinks (bad links that tin sometimes hinder SEO performance).
You tin cheque a domain’s backlinks utilizing Semrush’s Backlink Audit tool.
Export Your Backlinks & Ask Those Sites to Update the Links
Before changing domains, it’s captious to instrumentality banal of your website’s backlinks. So you tin instrumentality steps to reclaim them alternatively than relying solely connected your redirects.
Using Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool, you tin easy spot each of the links pointing to your aged site.
Input your aged domain and click “Analyze.”
Click connected the “Backlinks” tab. Then, click “Export” and prevention the database arsenic either an Excel spreadsheet oregon a CSV file.
Use this database to place immoderate relevant, high-authority websites that nexus to your aged domain. Then, see contacting them to inquire them to update their links to your caller site.
Outreach involves contacting the website owners and asking them to marque updates to existing links connected your behalf.
For each nexus you privation to address:
- Identify the close contact: Determine the champion idiosyncratic to contact
- Craft an outreach message: Write an email explaining that you changed domains and petition that they update the nexus successful question
- Be specific: In the message, beryllium definite to bespeak precisely wherever the nexus is connected their website, which leafage it links to, and the caller URL you privation them to use
Outreach campaigns similar this tin instrumentality a batch of time. And you apt won’t win with each message.
So, prioritize the astir important links to debar wasting clip and resources.
Verify Your New Website with Google Search Console
Verifying your caller domain with Google Search Console (GSC) informs Google astir the domain sanction change.
You’ll request to bash 2 things here:
- Create a spot for your caller domain
- Use Google Search Console’s Change of Address tool
To get started, log successful to Search Console.
Click connected the spot drop-down astatine the apical and take “+ Add property.”
This volition instrumentality you done the process of mounting up GSC for your caller domain.
Once you’ve acceptable up the spot for your caller domain, spell backmost to the spot for your aged domain.
Then, click “Settings” and prime “Change of address.”
Under “Update Google,” click the “Select caller site” drop-down and take the domain spot that you conscionable acceptable up for your caller website.
When you’re done, click “Validate & Update.”
Google volition past effort to validate that you’ve implemented the indispensable redirects earlier indicating a alteration of address.
Once successful, a notification volition look connected some the aged and caller domain properties.
Search Console volition statesman populating information for your caller domain (this could instrumentality a fewer days), and notify you of immoderate related errors.
Announce the Domain Change
After you’ve successfully changed your domain, fto everyone know. To promote postulation to the caller tract and assistance debar immoderate confusion.
Let radical cognize via:
- Social media
- Blog post
- Press release
You could besides adhd a enactment connected the website itself. So, if radical scope the caller domain done a redirect, they’ll cognize to spell consecutive to the close domain adjacent time.
Verify That Your Internal Links All Got Updated
Use Semrush’s Backlink Analytics instrumentality to marque definite each your interior links are present pointing to your caller domain.
Enter your caller domain and click “Analyze.”
Then, click the “Outbound Domains” tab to spot a database of the domains that your caller tract links to.
Look for instances of your aged domain connected the list. And click the arrow adjacent to the fig of outbound links to grow the list.
This shows each of the pages connected your caller domain that incorporate a nexus to your aged domain.
Next, spell done each leafage and alteration the links truthful they constituent to your caller domain.
FAQs
How Many 301 Redirects Can You Have?
There’s nary bounds to the fig of 301 redirects you tin have.
But it’s inactive champion signifier to minimize the fig of redirects connected your site. Because having tons of them tin impact your website’s performance.
How Long Should Redirects Stay successful Place?
Your 301 redirects are classed arsenic imperishable redirects and should enactment successful spot for arsenic agelong arsenic you usage your caller domain name.
If you request a impermanent redirect for immoderate reason, usage 302 redirects. But retrieve to yet update them.
How Long Will It Take for Google to Index Your New Domain?
Google doesn’t supply a acceptable clip framework for however agelong it takes to scale your caller URLs. This process tin instrumentality respective weeks successful immoderate cases.
You tin way your caller domain’s hunt rankings and visibility utilizing the Project Dashboard successful Semrush.
Access this and galore much integer selling tools with a escaped Semrush trial.
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