Questions on switching domain name of my site

[deathbyseo]

Hey guys,

I purchased a domain name on May 1st and have been running my site on it since then. At the time when I added the domain name to the shopping cart, I felt that it was the best domain name a human could possibly come up with.

But now, after two months, I am not so sure about it. And that means I am thinking of getting a new domain name and redirecting the old domain to the new one.

Give that the domain is only two months old, there is not much to lose. However, my domain name does have some valuable backlinks, and has built some credibility in the eyes of search engines. According to MOZ Open Site Explorer, its Domain Authority is 10 and Page Authority (homepage) is 20. It's not much, but I fear that if I switch the domain name, I will reset the clock and the new domain name will have to earn the rankings from scratch

That said, after searching this forum, I come across articles like this one from google and this 2012 article from MOZ that gave me some confidence.

The MOZ article is from 2102, and there have been several changes since then. Is there an updated version of that article, or another legit article on the internet that you can point me to?

As you can tell, I want to be more than sure that we don't take any hit during the migration process.

Also want to mention that the site is on WordPress -- in case that is relevant.

Thank you for your help.

[ClaytonJ]

The 2012 article from Moz is still current. There are other more current dated articles but in short same outcome.

From what you are describing you are on the right track. Make sure you address the backlinks correctly. http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2207168/how-to-conduct-a-link-audit

You sound like you are in safe territory by taking a considered approach. Well done.

Let me know if any more queries.

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey

If you are simply changing domain and not actually moving or redesigning the site then this is a pretty simple process. There is much to learn from the Moz article linked above but this goes into detail beyond your requirements.

• We are not moving anything.
• Page names wont change
• All that will happen is that www.old.com becomes www.new.com

If that is the case I would suggest three main steps here

• Change the URL and implement a catch all 301 redirect to enforce that
• Add the new and old URL in Webmaster Tools (Search Console) and inform Google of the change of URL
• Conduct a link audit and request updates to links where possible

I would like to have a rank check as well so I can measure the success and you could be lazy and not worry too much at this point about the link audit or only change key links.

There is likely some nuance here and I would want to crawl the site using Screaming Frog or some such once you have actioned the change to ensure there are no hard coded URLs (widgets in WordPress can cause a few issues here). If you review screaming frog crawl data and look for all 301's you should be able to iron out any kinks that are not sorted by steps 1 and 2 above.

The only other implication is whether the actual name of the business changes - that is, is this a brand change or just a URL change? If the brand is changing then I would want to make sure you factor that into any external platforms and mentions (this is a bigger issue if you are a local business).

If you take the right steps and inform the search engines using redirections and the search consoles then you have little to worry about here.

Hope that helps
Marcus

[fabric-fabric]

anybody can help me ?

i have  web site one old can not change anything with good ranking one new no ranking and work with wix

what should i do?

[deathbyseo]

Thank you John, Marcus:

The situation is exactly what MArcus described.

Seems like the process is going to be rather straightforward.

To answer this, "is this a brand change or just a URL change?" -- it's just a URL change for a news site and there is no official label or brand behind it.

I am familiar with the tools your mentioned, so I should be able to handle it. If anything comes up, I will update this thread.