Have you decided to move your website to a new domain? Maybe you need a fresh domain to coordinate with your evolving business, or perhaps your existing domain doesn’t fit with your new branding. No matter why you’ve chosen to break up with your old domain and move on to a new one, you’ll want to consider how to present the new domain to visitors, and what must be done to preserve the SEO equity of your website.
In this article, we’ll run through some important steps you should take to ensure a smooth transition when moving to a new domain.
SEO Best Practices for Changing Domains
To Google and other search engines, your existing domain is like an old friend they’ve come to know and trust. Since they’re familiar with your domain’s history, they’re confident ranking your site in their search results. However, your new domain is a stranger to search engines. Before delivering it to searchers, they want to know who owns it and confirm that it’s a reputable source. To build confidence, you must get search engines to recognize that the SEO value of your website should be associated with the new domain. Here’s how to point Google in the right direction:
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Put 301 Redirects in Place. Just like moving in the real world, you never realize how much stuff you have until it’s time to move. In website terms, your “stuff” is lots of webpages with URLs that will need 301 redirects. A 301 redirect permanently redirects each URL on your old domain to a corresponding URL on your new domain. This lets search engines know that the original URL has been replaced so they can adjust how your site listing appears in the search results pages. It also ensures that any stray URLs for the old domain are not broken but bring users to related content on your site. While the easiest thing to do is just have your IT team point all old domain pages to your new home page, that is seen by search engines as lazy and unhelpful, and therefore your rankings will be penalized. Spend the time to do this and work with your web agency to guide you through the right way to implement these.
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Change Your Address in Google Search Console. Give Google a heads up that you’ve split from your old domain and started a relationship with a new one using Google Search Console. Simply create a property for the new domain and use the Change of Address Tool to verify that your website is moving. Helping Google connect the dots with this easy-to-use tool can speed up the transfer of SEO history to the new domain so your website maintains relevance in the eyes of search engines. At the moment, there is not a similar tool with Bing unfortunately. Note that it can take weeks of months for a site to officially move in Google – another reason why those 301 redirects are essential.
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Consider Paid Search. Even with all your SEO ducks in a row, changing your domain often results in a temporary drop in search engine rankings and overall website traffic. Running a paid search campaign is a great way to continue to get exposure on popular searches, drive traffic to your site and keep conversions on track while Google gets to know the new domain in your life.
Introducing Your New Domain to the World
Customers or members will also need to hear that you’ve made a match with a new domain. When they have a chance to get to know your new domain ahead of the switch, they’ll be more likely to embrace it, so plan to spread the news using a few different channels including:
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Social Media. A social media campaign is a great venue for a meet and greet with customers and your new domain. As you hype up your domain to your customer base, you can use the opportunity to also build awareness of your latest website features or show off new branding elements.
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Email Marketing. Consider running an email marketing campaign to help get the word out. Email marketing is an efficient way to target exactly who you want to reach with a message about your new domain.
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Advertise on Your Website. Don’t forget to use your existing site to advertise your new domain in the weeks before the move. This is an economical way to warm up the reception for your domain and prompt customers to update any bookmarks. Of course, you’ll also redirect the old domain to the new one as part of the switch, but it’s best to get customers in the habit of heading to your new domain to start driving traffic to it as soon as it’s up and running.
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Launch Campaign. If you’re rolling out your domain in conjunction with a website redesign project, creating a plan for a comprehensive launch campaign will guarantee that your customers’ first experiences with your domain and your new site are positive. A launch campaign expands your communications to tell customers about exciting website features and show them the new look as you publicize your domain change.
Work With Us
Breaking up is hard to do, but parting ways with your old domain is much easier when you have support. If you’re planning a domain change, reach out to the team at ZAG for guidance on the marketing, SEO and technical aspects of switching to a new domain.