Changing domain from .net to .se

[Rootin_Tootin]

Hi Guys,

We have someone in the process of changing our domain from an 11 year old domain to a newer country domain of .se,

He is not a web expert although he knows a lot of things. I am just wondering is there a checklist anywhere of things that are very important here that we should be aware of or he should be implementing so we can just double check that he is/ we are moving in the correct direction.

Thank you for your Help.

Rootin and Tootin xx

[Mustansar]

Hi

Here are few points, I beleive you must have in your mind before you take such action:

1. Create a sitemap of your new site, building a hierarchical list of all your site pages (including images, videos and other assets)
2. Compile a full list of all the URLs on the current site. This can be done by either crawling the site, extracting from the CMS or exporting URLs receiving traffic from Analytics
   • Make sure you have a list of the URLs you’re using in PPC campaigns. Failing to set up redirects on these URLs will result in sending users to broken links and trash your Quality Score
3. Compile a list of all the URLs planned for the new site
4. Map each individual URL from the current site to new site URLs individually, to be implemented with 301 redirects
5. Benchmark the current website’s rankings to measure progress throughout the migration. 20 or 30 keywords is not enough – use several hundred as a bare minimum
6. Benchmark organic traffic levels (including visits, bounce rates, conversions) per page on the current website
7. Prepare paid ads for keywords that the site ranks well organically for to put live if you run into issues after the site is launched
8. Identify the most authoritative links in the site’s backlink profile to be switched to the new URLs once the new website is live
9. Register and configure the new domain in Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools)
10. Generate an XML Sitemap for the new domain

[BlueCorona]

Search Engine Land has a blog that features the 10 most overlooked steps when changing a domain: http://searchengineland.com/changing-domain-names-2016-10-easily-overlooked-steps-can-save-seo-248484

I would definitely check that out. But here is the TL;DR version:

1. Contact your hosting provider FIRST
2. Verify all versions of the new domain in Google Search Console (GSC)
3. Change the setting for WordPress address (and site address)
4. Mod_rewrite or ISAPI_Rewrite changes
5. Back up your site BEFORE you pull the trigger
6. Edit backup plugin settings after the domain name change
7. Submit a change of address in Google Search Console (GSC) and Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT)
8. Change all internal links
9. Edit Google Analytics settings and add annotation(s)
10. Apply advanced settings in Google Search Console (GSC)
11. Reconnect Google Search Console (GSC) and Google Analytics (GA)

Also, don't forget that domain age plays a role in your domain authority and rankings!