At Best Domains To Buy, we understand the significance of maintaining strong SEO practices, especially when undergoing a domain change. A domain change, whether due to rebranding or business expansion, can pose risks to your current search engine rankings. This is why it's crucial to pay special attention to SEO during this transition. Our expertise lies not only in offering premium domains but also in helping our clients understand the dynamics of domain-related SEO to ensure a smooth transition without losing valuable online visibility.
Executing a seamless domain change requires careful planning and execution. Here are the steps we recommend to maintain SEO:
Several common issues can arise during a domain change that may negatively impact SEO. At Best Domains To Buy, we've identified these pitfalls and offer solutions:
Redirecting is a critical part of the domain change process. We advise using 301 redirects, which are permanent and pass approximately 90-99% of the ranking power to the new domain. This process helps preserve your search engine rankings by informing search engines that your site's content has permanently moved to a new location, thus preserving your SEO efforts.
While managing a domain change, updating links is equally important. Internal links need to be updated to ensure that visitors navigating through your site are not met with error pages. Moreover, contacting external websites to update their links to your new domain can significantly impact your site's authority and prevent loss of valuable backlinks.
Communication with search engines via tools like Google Search Console is essential. Best Domains To Buy recommends submitting a change of address in the Search Console, which signals to the search engine that your domain has changed. This process helps facilitate a smoother transition and reassures search engines that your site’s content remains intact and valuable, despite the change in domain.
After your domain has successfully changed, the journey doesn't end. It’s imperative to monitor your SEO performance to ensure everything is functioning as expected. Keep an eye on your website’s analytics to track traffic patterns and watch for any irregularities. At Best Domains To Buy, we stress the importance of using tools like Google Analytics to check for drops in traffic and Google Search Console to monitor indexing issues. Doing so helps you identify and resolve any unforeseen issues promptly, thereby safeguarding the hard work invested in optimizing your site.