Changing your Domain? Here's How to Avoid an SEO Disaster 🫨

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Switching your domain might sound straightforward, but when we’re talking SEO, it’s a whole other ballgame. Do it poorly, and years of rankings and traffic growth could vanish before your eyes.

A domain change is typically needed in cases like rebranding (e.g., you're changing your company name), moving to a better domain (e.g., upgrading from a lesser-known TLD to a .com), merging two websites into one, or even transitioning from an old business focus to a new one. These are big shifts—and they come with big risks if you’re not careful.

But here’s the good news—with the right preparation and execution, you can transition to a new domain with minimal disruption to your SEO. Let’s break it down step-by-step.

1. Start With a Full Domain Audit

Think of this as your migration pre-check. Use tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to identify your site’s URL structure, backlinks, and overall health. You want to catch and resolve any existing issues before the big move.

Failing to clean things up? You’re just transferring SEO baggage to your new domain.

Action Steps:

• Crawl your current domain using tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to uncover potential issues.

• Fix broken links, internal redirect chains, and crawl errors before migrating.

• Compile all your URLs into an “audit list” to map out redirects later.

2. Use Google Search Console’s Change of Address Tool

Google needs to know about your domain switch—and the Change of Address tool in Google Search Console is how you officially inform them. Make sure both old and new domains are verified in GSC, then go through the domain switch process.

You’ll still need redirects (more on that below), but this is one of the clearest signals you can send to Google during your migration.

Action Steps:

• Verify ownership of both your old and new domains within Google Search Console (GSC).

• Use the Change of Address tool under the settings of your old domain in GSC.

• Monitor Google’s recognition of the new domain post-update.

3. Map Out Redirects to Avoid SEO Chaos

Here’s the biggest mistake I see: people set a blanket redirect to their new homepage instead of redirecting each old URL to its most relevant counterpart.

This is a surefire way to confuse search engines and frustrate users. Instead, implement 301 redirects on a one-to-one basis—page A goes to page A, blog post B goes to blog post B, and so on.

Action Steps:

• Export a full list of URLs from your current domain using tools like Screaming Frog.

• Plan and create a 1:1 mapping for each URL on the old domain to its exact match on the new domain.

• Set up 301 redirects in your .htaccess file, CMS, or hosting provider to ensure they are permanent.

4. Update Internal Links and Your Sitemap

While 301 redirects do the job, leaving your internal links pointing to the old domain creates unnecessary redirect loops. Go through your site and update all internal links to point directly to the new domain.

Also, don’t forget to create and upload a fresh XML sitemap reflecting the new URLs. Submit it to Google through GSC to streamline the crawl and indexing of your new site.

Action Steps:

• Update all internal links on your website to reference the new domain’s URLs, not the old ones.

• Generate a new XML sitemap with updated URLs using tools.

• Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

5. Clean Up Backlinks (Strategically)

Backlinks are the foundation of your domain’s SEO authority, so don’t let them linger on your old domain longer than needed. Identify high-value backlinks and reach out to webmasters to request updates.

Action Steps:

• Use backlink analysis tools like Ahrefs to find your most authoritative referring URLs.

• Contact webmasters or publishers of those top linking sites and request an update to your new domain.

• Focus on high-impact backlinks while relying on 301 redirects for lower-priority ones.

6. Monitor and Optimize Post-Launch

Be ready for some ranking drops—this is normal. But what isn’t normal? Drops caused by crawl errors, redirect mistakes, or technical issues.

Track performance in Google Analytics and GSC immediately after launch, specifically:

• Traffic trends: Watch for organic dips beyond the expected baseline.

• Crawl errors: Redirects not working? Getting 404 errors? Fix them ASAP.

• Indexing lag: Make sure Google is properly crawling and indexing your new domain.

Action Steps:

• Use Google Search Console’s “Coverage” report to track crawl errors and indexing status.

• Monitor your traffic levels in Google Analytics and flag uncharacteristic dips.

• Test redirects regularly to confirm they’re functioning as expected.

The Bottom Line

Domain changes are high-stakes work, but they don’t have to kill your SEO. By auditing your current domain, handling redirects correctly, and keeping an eye on post-domain change performance, you’ll maintain (and even improve) your site’s rankings on your new domain.

Finally, remember that you will temporarily lose rankings and traffic; it is normal, and recovery takes time. But if you execute your domina change plan smartly, you will avoid an SEO disaster.

Until next time,
Roberto Robles

P.S. Are you a local business that needs help with SEO? Reply to this email. Let’s chat.

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