Did you know that it’s possible to change your websites domain name without losing any search engine traffic? Some people don’t believe it, but this is actually much easier to do than most webmasters out there might think. Just remember, once you’ve changed your domain name, you’ll need to do some post-site address changes to ensure that all organic traffic remains in place. Before I get into the steps to making this happen, let me provide some background into why someone might need to change their blog or websites domain name.
Several years ago I started a niche WordPress blog. My goal was to create a website that reviewed plugins, themes and just about anything else that was related to the popular blogging platform. I wasn’t thinking far enough into the future when initially registering the domain for it, so I quickly searched some names and hand registered what was on sale (a .BIZ). It wasn’t until a few years later when the blog actually started growing that I decided it would have been better for me to take my time and find a better domain. I eventually did, and then came the task of moving everything. Now changing an existing website URL is no joke. It takes a lot of precision to ensure you don’t lose search engine traffic and a lot needs to be done to move everything from the old domain over to the new one.
When you change website addresses, the one thing you need to take care of is 301 redirects. Every page from “Domain A” needs a redirect to “Domain B.” For example: DomaninA.com/123.html should 301 redirect to DomainB.com/123.html
Redirects are pretty much the basics when changing domains. Next, it’s time to look at the steps you’ll need to follow for placing a website address change request.
First, you’ll need to notify Google about the address change. To do this, login to your Google search console account and open the website which you want to move. Next, click on the “Gear” icon & select “Change of Address”. On the next page, pick your new site from the list and confirm that the 301-redirects work properly. Check that verification methods are still present and then click Submit once you have confirmed everything. You should see this message after submitting: “Submitted – Your request for a site move has succeeded. If you believe this is an error, you can withdraw the request.”
The request you have now submitted allows Google to index your website at the new address while minimizing impact to your current rankings in the search results. Additionally, all Google Search results for your site will now get redirected to the new domain automatically for 180 days. Remember, you must update any resources on your site such as tags or headers that refer to the old domain. Doing this will ensure that traffic fluctuation due to this URL change will not be high. I hope this guide helps readers to quickly and easily change website addresses without losing too much search engine traffic.
