My client wants to change domain name... Redirect help!
-
Hello,
I have a client who wants to change domain names. The site is designed using WordPress, there are many plugins that will redirect links but they have to be same domain links. When I change the domain I would like to redirect all the old links to the same pages on the new url. How do I accomplish this? The plugin redirection or Yoast will not allow a redirect from one domain to another.
Thanks for any help on this matter. I have 200+ Urls to redirect.
-
As long as the ONLY thing you're changing is the domain name (e.g. all URLS within WordPress will remain identical) the redirect process can be accomplished with a single rewrite rule in your site's htaccess file. There's no reason to write (or bog down your system with) a redirect for each individual page URL.
The configuration of this redirect will depend on whether the primary URL uses the www prefix or not, and whether it uses https.
In addition to the rewrite rule, you need to verify the new domain in Google Search Console (and transfer any preexisting disavow file to it if one existed for the old domain) as well as using the change of address tool to further inform Google of the change.
To help speed up the indexing of the new domain, it can be helpful to leave the old xml sitemap in place for a week or two so that search engines can more quickly discover the redirects. It's also beneficial to try to get at least some of the most powerful existing incoming links from other sites updated to point to the new domain. This takes direct outreach to the other site owners with the request, but it can help rescue some of the slight loss of ranking authority lost through the redirect, and is another good signal to Google of the change.
Finally, be sure you've updated the domain name in your Google Analytics account as well.
Hope that helps?
Paul
-
Hi Donald
If you're going to be doing this yourself, I'd read up on all the links posted by Andy and preferably find more on how to change domain names. If you don't do it properly your clients site can take a huge hit in visibility. You don't want that - trust me.
What I'd do is make a spreadsheet of every single URL on the old site and what that URL will be called on the new site. If you keep the site & URL structure the same, this should be fairly straightforward. But once you have your list, you should add them to your .htaccess to make sure you do a one-to-one redirect. That way the individual URLs should keep most of their juice and you minimize the losses.
But just be sure you know exactly what you're doing - otherwise it can hurt a lot more than it should.
-
Yes..it is domain level redirect you can achieve this through htacess file.
-
No, you need to redirect all URLs...
Have a read of this on using the change of address tool in Google.
- Set up server-side redirects (301-redirect directives) from your old URLs to the new ones. The Change of address tool won't function without it.
-Andy
-
Hi Ikkie,
do you mean a domain level redirect? such as hgt.com redirected to hgtnow.com and not worry about redirecting each link from their hgt.com/1 to their hgtnow.com/1 counterpart?
-
Hi Donald,
The very best starting point is by reading the Google guides on moving a site.
https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2008/04/best-practices-when-moving-your-site.html
I don't actually know about plugins for Wordpress that will do this but your solution is going to lie around making the required changes in your .htaccess file. There is a lot of information out there on how best to do this, but this is what you need to be looking at.
-Andy
-
Hi
Just simply use 301 redirect to your new domain; this will bring you not only the traffic of your existing site as well as the backlinks and juice of those back links to your site.
I believe, this will behave in the same manner with plugins based links as well.Just make sure you follow the guidelines and you do it properly.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
I am temporarily moving a site to a new domain. Which redirect is best?
A client is having their site redeveloped on a new platform in sections and are moving the sections that are on the new platform to a temporary subdomain until the entire site is migrated. This is happening over the course of 2-3 months. During this time, is it best for the site to use 302 temporary redirects during this time (URL path not changing), or is it best to 301 to the temp. domain, then 301 back to the original once the new platform is completely migrated? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Matt3120 -
Google Search Console "Change of Address" - Failed Redirection Test
I have a client who has a lot of domain variations, which have all been set up in Google Search Console. I requested that the client use the COA feature in GSC for the domains that are now redirecting to other domains that they own (which are set up in GSC). The problem is that we're not redirecting the homepages to the homepages of the destination domains. So, GSC is giving us this error message: fails redirection test: The old site redirects to www.domain.com/blog, which does not correspond to the new site you chose. Is our only way to use GSC COA for these domains to change the homepage redirect to go to the homepage of the destination domain? We don't really want that since the domain we're redirecting is a "blog.domain1.com" subdomain and we want to redirect it to "domain2.com/blog". Any help appreciated! Thanks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kernmedia
Dan0 -
We are redesigning our existing website. The domain is staying the same, but the sub-structure and page names are changing. Do I still need to do 301s?
We are redesigning our existing website. The domain is staying the same, but the sub-structure and page names are changing. Do I still need to do 301 redirects or will search engines know to remove the old 404 pages from the SERPs? We are redesigning our existing website. The domain is staying the same, but the sub-structure and page names are changing. Do I still need to do 301s?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GrandOptimizations0 -
Changing Domain
We have an old domain that we have had registered for many years(pinpoint;asersystems.com) and redirected to our regular domain (which is a short version of our name (pinlaser.com). Management wants to switch and use the longer version as the primary domain for branding purposes. I have cautioned against this for many reasons: Need to do 100's of redirects Potential loss of back links Most links will now be 301 redirects and not look natural to search engines. I would appreciate feedback on any and all risks associated with this potential move. Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Pinlaser0 -
Changing a subdomain to a full domain to rank for a keyword
We have been attempting to get our blogsite to rank for our business name(Instabill). We are now considering changing the url from blog.instabill.com to something like instabillblog.com. I have following concerns about the change; Will changing the domain really be that helpful (i.e. will the change get our blog on page one for the term instabill) We have over 350 pages of content on our blog. Will changing the domain have possible negative effects ( I was thinking of using url updater in webmaster tools and creating a permanent 301 redirect from the older url to the new) Having never changed a url for a site with this much content and seo value for my company I would like to know the following from someone who has made mistakes here before; what not to do what steps you would take to make the transition easier Any help here will be greatly appreciated. cheers, Instabill
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Instabill0 -
Best practice for duplicate website content: same root domain name but different extension
Hi there I have a new client who has two websites: http://www.bayofislandsteambuilding.co.nz
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | turnbullholdingsltd
http://www.bayofislandsteambuilding.org.nz They are the same in every regard apart from the domain extension (.co.nz & .org.nz) which is likely to be causing them issues with Google ranking given the huge amount of duplicate content. What is the best practice approach to fixing this? Normally, if I was starting from scratch, I would set one of the extensions as an alias which redirects to the main domain. Thanks in advance. Laurie0 -
City or country name get the exact domain name devauation ?
Will using a city or country name be devalued with the exact domain name update. I want to make a new website about my favourite vacation spot. I was thinking www.specificislandactivities.com or www.bestincityname.com The site will focus on all the best things to do in that vacation spot, best dining, beaches, watersports ect. I will be writing all the content based on my experience of travelling there for over 20 years... If the site is going to be all about things to do in that city or island, how else could i name the site. www.islandtravelactivities.com Wouldn't that be using the keywords island + travel + activities in the domain ? I am so confused right now, what would be devalued in the exact domain match and what would not. Thank you in advance for your thoughts.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jlane90 -
Are sub domains considered completely different than the root domain?
We have a project that is going to generate duplicate content. If we move the new content to a sub-domain (E.g. product.domain.com) will it still be considered duplicate content to the root domain? Or is it like having two completely different domains? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | tripled5110