Learn how to alter your domain name to match your brand without losing vital credibility you’ve worked hard to obtain in search engines!
As you and your employees work hard, your brand will grow and change. Shouldn’t the domain name of your website change with it? Maybe you’ve added skills and your business has taken on a new identity. Or maybe, you want to add an industry keyword to your domain. Either way, changing your website domain to match the changing nature of your brand might be necessary.
However, changing your domain name may have some unintended consequences that will harm aspects of your business’ credibility in the digital space. If you intend on changing the domain name of your business, this blog post is for you!
So, Does Changing Your Domain Affect SEO?
Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the ranking of your website in search engines for specific keywords and search queries.
You, your employees, or your partners have worked hard to optimize the content of your website to generate more traffic from organic search. After all, millions of online shoppers are using search engines as they move through the purchasing process. For many, SEO is at the core of their digital marketing strategy.
So, will changing the domain name of your website impact the search engine ranking of your website?
The short answer is yes!
Along with evaluating the content of your website, major search engines build a profile of your domain to assess the credibility of the website. If you’re buying a brand new domain, you may be starting from scratch with authority.
Major search engines consider your website’s backlinks, or links to your site on other websites, which are huge credibility boosters. If other websites consider your page a worthy place to send readers, major search engines will also learn the page is worthy of ranking high in search results.
Backlinks can be difficult and time-consuming to accumulate. Simply put, if the backlinks can’t redirect to your new domain, you’ll need to develop an entirely new backlink profile. In the meantime, your search engine rankings may suffer.
How Can I Update My Domain Smoothly?
Luckily, there are steps that can be taken to ensure a necessary domain switch can happen without losing all the hard work done to improve your search engine ranking.
Redirect everything
Your business or organization can ensure regular visitors access your new domain with no hiccups by redirecting the old domain to the new one. A redirect will send those searching the old domain directly to the new domain. Search engines love to track the amount of visitors to your site, so if regular visitors are seeking the old domain, visits will suffer and search engines will take notice. Therefore, redirecting your site will ensure your website traffic is kept constant and your search engine ranking does not suffer!
Afterwards, you can use an SEO audit tool to ensure there are no technical errors in the redirects or elsewhere on the website.
Check the new domain
If you are purchasing a new domain, we recommend using a backlink checker to understand the history of the new domain. The domain you are moving to may or may not have an existing backlink profile that could hurt your search engine rankings.
Notify Google
You can also notify the internet’s most prolific search engine that you have moved through Google Search Console. This will make any issues with ranking in Google move much smoother.
Update the uses of your domain
You’ve likely used your old domain all over the internet and real world. After changing domains, you’ll need to check social media pages, business cards, and other places potential customers can find your domain to ensure the new domain is available for potential customers.
In conclusion, changing your domain may momentarily hurt the ranking of your website in search engines. However, if a domain switch is necessary for your business to grow and succeed, simply take necessary steps! If you still feel overwhelmed by this transition, don’t be afraid to contact experts.
We’re local experts providing Iowa SEO services and we can help manage your domain change.
Saltech Systems is excited to help your business elevate into the future with web design and digital marketing related questions. We hope you found this blog helpful!
