Why Changing Your Website's Domain Name Might Not Be the Best Move
In the ever-evolving world of online presence, you might consider revamping your website's look and feel. Sometimes, this can lead to the question of changing your domain name (URL) as well. While a catchy new domain can be tempting, it's important to understand the potential downsides before making the switch. Here's why changing your domain name after some period of usage might not be the best move for your website:
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
Search engines like Google value established domains with a history of relevant content and user engagement. Changing your domain essentially resets your SEO clock. All the backlinks (links from other websites pointing to yours) and domain authority you've built up over time will have less impact on your new domain's ranking. This means you'll need to invest significant time and effort in rebuilding your SEO presence.
2. Disruption to Online Presence:
Your website's online presence is built on your current domain. Social media profiles, email marketing lists, online directories, and other platforms likely link back to your existing address. Changing domains can disrupt these connections, requiring you to update them all with the new URL. This can be a tedious process and might lead to temporary confusion for your audience.
3. Technical Reconfiguration:
Moving to a new domain necessitates technical adjustments on your website's backend. Hosting servers, Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), API integrations, and login systems all need to be reconfigured to reflect the new domain. This can be a complex process requiring technical expertise.
4. Potential Loss of Brand Recognition:
If you've established brand recognition with your existing domain, changing it can dilute your brand identity. Your audience may struggle to find you online under a new address, potentially leading to lost traffic and missed opportunities.
5. Cost Considerations:
Because of the complexity of your website setup, there are additional costs associated with domain name changes. We charge fees for the domain change (100$), since this service is outside of your basic hosting plan.
Alternatives to Consider:
Before making the drastic step of changing your domain name, explore alternative solutions:
Website Redesign: Update your website's design and functionality without altering the domain name. This allows you to refresh your online presence while preserving your established SEO and brand recognition.
Subdomains: Utilize subdomains to create dedicated sections within your website for specific campaigns or initiatives without compromising your main domain.
Why is it important to notify Google about the address change?
It is important to notify Google about the address change, this will help you in managing the transition that is required by the Google to index your changed URL at the new address. This will ensure that your Google result is not affected by this change.
By telling Google about the address change for your existing page will allow it to update its index to reflect the new domain for your pages. For 180 days this updated index status will remain in work and Googlebot will crawl and index the pages at the new address.
Things to keep in mind for requesting the address change:
There are certain things that you must follow to carry out the whole procedure properly. Here are the things that you must do to carry out the address change smoothly:
Firstly, complete the content migration
Google has all the guidelines to move a site with URL changes, go through it properly and follow all the necessary steps and then go further to submit the request for address change.
Note – Set up 301 redirect directives as it is very important. If you miss it, your request for the address change will not work.
Use of Google Search Console and verify your new site
Select your new site from the list so that the search console gets information about your site. This is an important step for requesting an address change.
Make sure you specify all relevant preferences for your new domain that you set for your old site, including a preferred domain, geographical preferences, and any crawl rate adjustments you might have made.
All set for Address change request
Now you can use the Change of Address tool for your site to get the new domain and subdomain name. If you followed and carried out every direction properly you won’t find and difficulties.
Steps to submit a change of address:
Now after changing the address of your domain, you need to submit the change to Google or to tell Google about your new address so that you do not lose the traffic was on your page due to your old address. Here are the steps to do so:
1. Go to the home page of the search console and click the site you want to move from.
2. Now, click on the gear icon and then click on Change of Address.
In this step, you need to follow all the instructions in the Change of Site address
3. Lastly, monitor your traffic as indicated in Move a site with URL changes.
While a new domain name might seem appealing, the potential downsides for SEO, online presence, and technical implementation can be significant. Carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages before making a decision. If a domain change is absolutely necessary, implement a well-planned migration strategy to minimize disruption and rebuild your online presence effectively.