Changing A Domain Name & SEO: 7 Steps To Keep Your Rankings

Changing a domain name is a significant decision that can impact your website’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization) performance. Whether you’re rebranding, consolidating domains, or upgrading when changing a domain name SEO is affected. So, manage the transition carefully to avoid losing organic traffic and rankings you’ve worked hard to achieve.

In this blog, we provide seven detailed steps that include strategies to help you change your domain while preserving your SEO rankings and ensuring minimal disruption to your website.

How SEO Impacts your Website

Before understanding how to maintain your SEO rankings when changing a domain or URL, it is important to know how SEO affects your website in several ways. Some factors it affects include:

• Enhanced Visibility – Potential visitors will find your website more visible if it ranks higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Better User Experience – SEO improves a website’s content, speed, and structure, which raises user satisfaction and engagement.
• Increased Organic Traffic – Relevant keyword targeting increases organic traffic, which is more valuable than sponsored traffic.
• Enhanced Credibility – Users place more confidence and credibility in high-ranking websites.
• Increased Conversion Rates – Reaching specific audiences increases the likelihood of achieving purchases, sign-ups, and other objectives.
• Competitive advantage – Ranking higher than competitors enables websites to attract more clients.
• Local Search Optimization – Increase foot traffic and business enquiries locally by optimizing keywords aligned to local search phrases.
• Customer insights – SEO tools offer useful information about user behavior that can be used to develop marketing plans.

How Changing A Domain Names Can Affect Your SEO

Changing a domain name can significantly impact your SEO in several ways. It can influence your website’s authority, rankings, and traffic. If not executed correctly, it may necessitate starting anew from an SEO standpoint.

This is primarily because the backlinks to your old website won’t automatically redirect to your new site. Since search engines like Google consider both the quantity and quality of these links when ranking content, altering your domain name alters the URL for every page on your site.

Consequently, all the backlinks previously pointing to your old domain no longer direct traffic to your website; this can also impact how Google evaluates and ranks your site in search results.

Changing your domain name affects several key aspects of SEO:

• Authority & Trust: Your old domain has likely accumulated authority over time through backlinks, content, and user engagement. Changing domains can disrupt this authority if not handled properly.
• SEO Signals: Search engines use various signals from your domain, including keywords, backlinks, and domain age, to rank your site. A domain change requires careful management to preserve these signals and maintain rankings.

User Perception: A domain change can confuse users and affect their trust in your website if not communicated clearly.

Keep Your SEO Rankings When Changing Domain Names

To mitigate potential risks and maintain or improve your SEO rankings, follow these seven important steps:

Step 1: Perform a Comprehensive SEO Audit

Before making any changes, conduct a thorough SEO audit to understand your current website performance.

Assess Current Rankings, Traffic, & Performance Metrics

1. Keyword Rankings – Determine which keywords attract organic visitors to your website. Look at their performance stats and rankings right now.
2. Trends in Organic Traffic – Examine the patterns in organic traffic from the last few months or years, including high-traffic websites. Note any recent or seasonal changes.
3. Conversion Rates – Assess the impact of organic visitors on your website’s conversions, including form submissions, purchases, and sign-ups.

Identify Key Pages & Backlink Profile

1. Key Pages – Determine which high-converting or high-performing pages attract the most visitors. Maintaining these pages is essential while the domain is being changed.
2. Backlink Profile – Check the external websites that link to your content by looking at your backlink profile. During the domain movement procedure, backlinks should be maintained as they are crucial for SEO authority.

Step 2: Choose the Right New Domain Name

Selecting a new domain name requires careful consideration to support your SEO strategy and business goals.

Consider SEO-Friendly Options

1. Relevance – Pick a domain name appropriate for your industry or business specialization that reflects your brand identity.
2. Keywords – To improve SEO, include relevant keywords in your domain name.
3. Memorability – Pick a simple domain name that’s easy to type, spell, and remember.

Check Availability & Domain History

1. Domain Availability – Verify that it is possible to register the new domain name. Utilize the domain search tools offered by different types of hosting companies or Registrars to verify accessibility.
2. Domain History – Check the domain’s history with resources like Archive.org to ensure it hasn’t been penalized by search engines or used for spam in the past.

For more information on choosing a great domain name read our blog: Transform Your Business Dreams into Reality with the Perfect Domain Name.

Step 3: Inform Search Engines About the Domain Change

Properly informing search engines about your domain change is crucial to ensure minimal disruption to your SEO efforts.

Use 301 Redirects Effectively

1. 301 Permanent Redirects – Utilize 301 Permanent Redirects to reroute old domain URLs to their equivalent URLs on your new domain. These ensure search engines are informed that the content has permanently relocated.
2. Page-Level Redirects – Instead of returning every page to the homepage, send certain pages to their new equivalents. This maintains each page’s relevance and SEO value.

Update Internal Links & Sitemap

1. Internal Links – Ensure all your website’s internal links go to the new domain URLs. This includes links in the footer, navigation menus, and embedded content.
2. XML Sitemap – Update your XML sitemap and upload it to Google Search Console (GSC) to include URLs from your new domain. This helps search engines effectively discover and index your new URLs.

Step 4: Update External Backlinks & Citations

Maintaining your backink profile’s integrity is essential to preserve SEO authority after a domain change.

Contact Webmasters & Change Links

1. Contact Webmasters – Contact websites’ webmasters and request they change their links to direct to the new domain URLs. To make the upgrade procedure easier, give them the updated URLs.
2. Request Updates for Links – With third-party backlink analysis tools like Google Search Console, you can find external websites that connect to your content.

Update Business Listings & Directories

1. Local Directories – Ensure you update your business listings on local directories, review sites, and social media profiles to reflect your new domain name.
2. Consistency – Maintain uniformity across all online platforms to reinforce your brand authority and improve SEO.

Step 5: Monitor Search Console for Errors & Notifications

Google Search Console (GSC) provides valuable insights into how search engines perceive and index your website. Monitor GSC closely during and after the domain migration process.

Address Crawl Errors & Indexing Issues Promptly

1. Monitor GSC – Frequently check GSC for any crawl errors or indexing issues related to your new domain.
2. Resolve Issues – Address any issues promptly to ensure your new domain is properly indexed and accessible to search engines.

Submit a Change of Address in Google Search Console

1. Notifying Address Change – Notify Google of your domain change using the GSC Change of Address tool.
2. Update Signals – With this tool, Google can correlate your new domain with your current search rankings and SEO signals, allowing it to update its index.

Step 6: Maintain Consistent Content & Engagement

Staying on top of search engine rankings after a domain transfer requires content consistency and user involvement.

Publish Fresh Content & Maintain Activity

1. Content Strategy – To show that you are still relevant and an authority in your field, continue to create excellent content on your new domain.
2. Engagement – To encourage user engagement, interact with your audience through social media posts, email marketing campaigns, and comments.

Track Metrics for User Engagement

1. Trackable Metrics – Monitor metrics like time on site, bounce rate, and conversion rates to determine how engaged users are with your new domain.
2. Optimize Engagement – To improve content and user experience and achieve favorable SEO results, apply the information gained from these analytics.

Step 7: Track & Analyze SEO Performance Post-Migration

Once the domain migration procedure is finished, keep a close eye on your SEO results to evaluate the effects of the modifications.

Monitor Rankings, Traffic, & Conversion Rates

1. Keyword Rankings -Track keyword rankings to ensure they are maintained or raised for new and old domain URLs to reach your target audience.
2. Traffic Trends – Keep an eye on organic traffic patterns to gauge the overall effect of the domain change on your website’s functionality.
3. Conversion Analysis – Analyze conversion rates to learn how the shifts in search engine rankings impact user behavior and company results.

Adjust as Necessary

1. Modify SEO Strategy as Required – Utilize information from your continuous monitoring and SEO audit to pinpoint areas that need work.
2. Optimization – To maximize performance on your new domain, make any necessary changes to your content strategy, SEO approach, or technical implementation.

Conclusion

Changing your domain name doesn’t have to be daunting for your SEO efforts. You can lessen the impact on your SEO rankings and guarantee a seamless transfer after your new domain name purchase if you follow the seven steps above.

Achieve long-term success for your website and preserve your online presence by devoting time and energy to these tactics. Throughout the domain migration process, remember that maintaining your website’s visibility, authority, and organic traffic requires careful planning, execution, and continuous monitoring.

You can successfully manage a domain transfer while preserving or raising your search engine rankings by being proactive and utilizing SEO best practices. This strategy protects your SEO investments and lays the groundwork for future expansion and online achievement.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Assess current keyword rankings, traffic, and conversion rates and analyze your backlink profile to maintain valuable links during the transition.
• Select an SEO-friendly, relevant, and memorable domain name. Ensure the new domain is available to you and has a clean history without previous penalties.
• Implement 301 Permanent Redirects to the new domain’s URLs, while updating internal links and your XML sitemap to reflect the new domain structure.
• Contact webmasters to update backlinks to your new domain and update business listings, local directories, and social media profiles with the changed domain name.
• Use Google Search Console to check for crawl errors and indexing issues and submit a change of address in GSC to notify Google about the domain change.
• Continue publishing high-quality content to signal ongoing relevance, while monitoring user engagement metrics and adjusting your content strategy as required.
• Monitor keyword rankings, traffic patterns, and conversion rates and make the necessary adjustments to your SEO strategy based on ongoing performance data.

FAQs

Other Related Blogs:

– What Is .io – And Why You May Want to Use It

– What is Domain Protection?

– What Is a Multi Domain SSL Certificate?

– What is Domain Masking: Everything You Need To Know

– Your Guide to Domain Renewals