Changing Your Domain Name?
Are you looking to change your domain name?
There are many reasons why you would be looking to change your domain name. Many people decide that they want a domain name that has their practice name in it, others want a domain name with a keyword and location e.g. dentistlondon.co.uk, some decide that they want to combine their mobile site (which might be on a separate domain) with their main desktop site.
Regardless of the reason there are many precautions you would need to take to try and pass on the SEO (search engine optimisation) benefit of the previous domain and to ensure that you do not lose much of your existing traffic.
Site Audit
Firstly, you need to record all the web pages that are indexed by Google on your current domain as this will help when it comes to redirecting the traffic going to the current domain to the new domain.
Set up 301 Redirects
Once you have a list of the web pages indexed by Google on your current domain, you will need to set up 301 redirects on that domain for each web page and point them to the relevant web page on the new domain. This will help users visiting a particular page on the old domain be redirected to the relevant page on the new domain. It will also help pass on much of the SEO benefit from the old domain to the new domain.
Tell Google you have moved
Within Google Webmaster Tools for the current domain there is an area called “Change of Address”. If you let Google know what the new web address is for the practice they will test the 301 redirects work and then update the domain information they have.
Further Advice
If you are able to contact the webmasters of the backlinks to your site and ask them to update the link they have to your new domain that would help in the long run. However in many circumstances you will be unable to get them to change the web address they have for the backlink, which is why we advise that the practice keeps the old domain running with the 301 redirects as if a visitor found your practice on another site and this site only has the old domain they will be redirected to the new domain.
Another helpful tip is to record the traffic the old domain had and compare that to when the new domain went live. If you notice a big drop in the traffic the new domain receives after it has gone live then that might indicate that something went wrong or that something was incorrectly set up.
If you would like more information or help with the transfer of your domain or the set up of your new domain please feel free to give Dental Design a call on 01202 677277.
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