Changing domain names can impact your SEO in many ways. It can impact your website authority, rankings, and traffic.
If you don’t implement the right practices, you risk having to “start over” from an SEO perspective. One of the main reasons is that backlinks pointing to your old site will not automatically point to your new site.
The number and quality of links pointing to your pages are important factors that search engines like Google take into account when ranking your content.
Changing your domain name changes the URL of every page on your website. This means that all backlinks that were pointing to the old domain no longer point to your website.
This can affect your website’s ranking in Google search results.
Changing your domain name changes the URL of every page on your website
But there are other implications, too. You could lose brand awareness if people get confused by your new domain or business name change.
You may also be creating duplicate content issues . These can cause problems with Google indexing and ranking your pages.
Bottom line: It’s extremely important to follow best practices whenever you change your domain name.
This guide outlines the steps you can take to minimize the effect of a domain name change on your SEO.
Step 1: Choose a new domain name
Your site’s domain name is not a direct ranking factor. But it can still impact your site’s traffic and conversions.
For example, if many people find your website by searching spam number data directly by name, you may see less traffic after changing the name. But this is more of a brand awareness issue than a ranking issue.
Beyond SEO, your domain name can play an important role in your broader business strategy, naming strategy, and any branding or rebranding campaigns.
It is therefore important to choose the new domain name carefully .
Short, simple domain names tend to be more memorable. But there are also more specific parts of the domain that can affect memorization.
Your domain name is actually made up of two parts:
Second-level domain: The unique identifier for your website (for example, the “semrush” in “semrush.com”).
Top-Level Domain: The “extension” or what comes after the second-level domain, including the dot (“..com”).
Your top-level domain (TLD) can also impact your website’s performance and how visitors perceive it. According to research by GrowthBadger , .com TLD domains are the most memorable and trustworthy.
A graph showing the memorability of top-level domains
So, if possible, it is usually (but not always) better to opt for a domain name that ends in “.com”.
If you can’t get a .com domain name, consider choosing a new second-level domain. Or go with .co, .org, or .biz. These are the most memorable options.
It’s worth noting that the .org domain is often associated with non-profit organizations, and the .biz domain is typically associated with businesses (rather than personal blogs, for example).
However, you may want to consider alternative TLDs that are more relevant to your business.
For example, “.mx” is suitable for companies operating in Mexico. And “.blog” would be suitable for a blog.
In a perfect scenario, changing your domain name will take into account both the potential SEO impacts and the effect on your brand strategy.
Professional of your website advice
You should also check if there are any social media accounts with the same name. This ensures consistency throughout your online presence.
Step 2: Exporting your backlinks
Before changing domains, it is essential to take this innovative approach eliminates stock of your website’s backlinks .
Backlinks from other sites pointing to your website are an important ranking factor.
You can think of backlinks as votes of confidence for your website. Having high-quality backlinks can indicate to search engines that your site is an authority on the topics you cover and that other websites trust you as a source.
Every high-quality backlink can increase your site’s spam data authority. Higher website authority can help your site rank higher in search results.
But what happens when you move to a new domain?
You lose the earned value of your backlinks.
These links point to your old domain. Not your new one.
However, you may be able to preserve the positive SEO impact of previously earned backlinks. To do this, you will need to implement redirects. We will explain exactly how to do this in the Setting Up 301 Redirects section .