Avoid losing SEO value when changing your website's domain name and maintain your visibility and ranking in search results.
Ieva Treiliha
Your business is performing well, and your website is attracting a healthy flow of traffic from Google. However, after much consideration, you’ve decided that it’s time to change your domain name.
Let me start by saying: Changing your domain is definitely not something you should do every fortnight. There is always a risk involved with changing your domain name. On the other hand, you also shouldn’t stick with a domain name that no longer aligns with your website strategy. That’s why you need to think carefully and make this decision once and for all – ideally, you’ll want to keep your new domain for a long time.
The risks associated with changing domains are often underestimated, as many people find “this whole SEO thing” somewhat intangible. However, what is very tangible are the potential consequences. You could lose visibility on Google due to a drop in keyword rankings. This reduces the organic traffic to your website, which in turn means fewer enquiries. And the main purpose of your website is, after all, to generate traffic, leads, and revenue.
Ignoring the risk of losing SEO value can therefore prove costly.
That’s why I recommend you read this blog post to gain a concrete understanding of the key areas you and your web developer need to pay close attention to.
Now, onto the technical details. First and foremost:
301 redirects
Missing 301 redirects is one of the biggest mistakes you can make during a website migration.
A 301 redirect simply means “moved permanently”. This is exactly what needs to happen to every page on your website – each one must be redirected.
For example, the product category page olddomain.co.uk/product-category1 should redirect to newdomain.co.uk/product-category1.
Similarly, the product page olddomain.co.uk/product-category1/product1 should redirect to newdomain.co.uk/product-category1/product1.
You get the idea. But what if a product will no longer exist on the new domain? In that case, the product page should be redirected to the most relevant related category. For instance, olddomain.co.uk/product-category1/product1 can be redirected to newdomain.co.uk/product-category1.
The most important pages to redirect are those that:
All data regarding traffic, conversions, and revenue can be found in Google Analytics.
Keyword rankings can be monitored using tools such as AccuRanker or Ahrefs. The latter also allows you to keep track of your backlinks.
Monitor your rankings
It is important to monitor your rankings before, during, and after a domain change so that any lost SEO value can be identified quickly. Drops in critical keyword positions can be spotted day by day, whereas a drop in revenue may be harder to notice if your sales figures fluctuate a lot.
On-page parameters
Avoid changing your most important on-page parameters if your old site is already well optimised and performing well in the search results – unless you know exactly what you are doing. The on-page parameters you should pay particular attention to include:
At a minimum, all existing content should be carried over, but you can always expand with additional relevant text.
If you have invested heavily in SEO optimisation, you probably have a good overview of which landing pages rank well and attract valuable traffic from various keywords. These are the landing pages you need to treat with extra care.
Google bot
It is important to block Google’s access to your new site in your robots.txt file while it is still in development. Even more important is to allow Googlebot to crawl and index your new site as soon as it is ready to receive visitors. Otherwise, you will be literally invisible in Google’s search results.
Speed
The faster your website loads, the better the user experience. And Google knows this. If your website migration increases your loading times in any way, Google may penalise your keyword rankings, which will impact your organic traffic and conversion rates. Your new website should have at least the same load speed as your old one. You can test your site’s speed before and after the migration using Google Page Speed Insights.
Mobile-friendliness
Google has now adopted a mobile-first approach. That means your new website must be mobile-friendly with a responsive design, regardless of whether your old site was mobile-friendly or not. You can read more about the Mobile First Index and the importance of a responsive design here. Test your site’s mobile-friendliness before and after the migration using Google’s Mobile Friendly Tester.
Remember to submit an updated sitemap in Search Console as soon as your new website is ready. This helps Google index your site correctly and more quickly. Check that the number of indexed pages matches the number before the migration, or at least the number you want indexed if you’ve tidied up your site.
Be sure to monitor your data in Google Search Console closely in the period after the switch. Many errors can be detected here.
Other relevant articles:
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