Change domain.com to www.domain.com - influence on linkbuilding, seo, etc.

[Reyzer]

Hello, Do you know what can happen when i change domain.com to www.domain.com? Will it have an influence to my link-building portfolio (external links to domain.com), position on google search, etc. Thank you for help.

[solvid]

Hi there,

It's a delusion that 30x redirects can lead to PageRank loss. This has now been confirmed multiple times by Gary Illyes and John Mueller. As long as you properly implement a 301 redirect, there shouldn't be any issues.

[becole]

Reyzer, there really is no risk when you move from http://domain.com to http://www.domain.com on the same domain. If you were to move from one domain name to another, that would be different--and you'd want to use Google's Change of Address tool to tell them that you're moving from one domain name to another.

But, when you  move from one subdomain to another subdomain (which you are doing in your case), there is NO loss as long as you properly implement 301 Permanent Redirects on the pages. Google has been very public about this, and as long as you move using a 301 redirect and it's on the same domain name, there is NO loss whatsoever.

The same goes for moving from http:// to https:// as well, as it's the same domain name.

[GastonRiera]

Hello there!

Yes, there will be risk. 
Making that change is technically a redirect from non-www to www domain.
I'd advise you to read this article about new redirection rules and PR loss, it states that usually there is a 15% of PR loss and that theoretically nowadays there will be no loss.

Also, if you decide to do it, remember these 4 things:

1. Add and correctly configure in Search Console the preferred version.
2. If you can, try to change the links already created. Set the new domain as the link.
3. Of course, from that time and on, all the links should have the www.

Hope I've helped.
GR.

[seanginnaw]

Typically this doesn't really matter - links built to a domain will always benefit that particular domain, regardless of whether it can be accessed at 'www.', 'non-www.', 'http://' or 'https://'. I would bet my bottom dollar that there will be almost zero impact on your positions.

Remember to couple this change with a change in Google Search Console to set your 'Preferred Domain' appearance in Google Search results - this can be done under 'Settings' > 'Site Settings'.