I changed my domain name. How to keep my ranking and traffic?

I changed my domain name. How to keep my ranking and traffic? - If a page has internal and external outgoing links to redirecting URLs, it’s returning 3xx (301, 302, etc.) HTTP status codes standing for redirection. This issue means that the page does not exist on a permanent or temporary basis. It appears on most of the popular web browsers, usually caused by a misconfigured website. However, there are some steps you can take to ensure the issue isn’t on your side. You can find more details about redirecting URLs by reading the Google Search Central overview. In this article, we’ll go over how you can fix the I changed my domain name. How to keep my ranking and traffic? error on your web browser. Problem :

Two weeks ago I changed my Blogger domain name from "energieshow.blogspot.com" to "lifeskills-coach.com". It works and redirects perfectly.
But since I was afraid of losing my ranking and traffic in Google Search, I added my new domain name to Webmaster Tools and verified it.

Now, I don't know if I have to do this option "Change of Address" to the old domain in Webmaster (I don't know why since redirections from old to new domain work perfectly). And when I tried to do that, I stuck in step two where it says "Confirm that 301-redirects work properly -> The old site redirects to energieshow.blogspot.com, which does not correspond to the new site you chose".

Is it necessary to do this option "Change of Address" to preserve my SEO? Please help and thank you.

Solution :

You will need to put the old site on a 301 redirect to the new site, but as you do not control the blogspot domain, and I doubt they would do this for you, you are kinda stuck. The best thing to do would place a big link on the old site to the new site, and remove the old content.

Do you want to move domains without losing link juice?

Step 1 : Setup 301 redirects in your old domain

We maintained the same site structure and permalinks in our new domain name. Hence every traffic that comes to old.com/somepage had to be transferred to new.com/somepage so that it gives a good user experience. If the permalinks are changed you should ensure to do 301 redirects such pages so the user gets redirected to the corresponding page in the new domain without ending up in a 404 page. It is done to ensure a good user experience during redirects and Google loves it when you do it this way.

Here is the code we entered in .htaccess file to ensure a 301 permanent redirect of our old website old.com to the new website new.com

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %HTTP_HOST ^old.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %HTTP_HOST ^old.com$
RewriteRule (.*)$ http://new.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Make sure all the pages in the old domain are redirecting properly. Any internal links in pages of the new domain should not point to the old domain and tags, etc., have to be corrected so they do not point to the old domain.

Step 2 : Google Analytics and Google Webmasters Tool setup

Add and verify the new domain as a property in your Google analytics account. Paste the tracking code on pages you want to track in the new domain. Add the website in your Google webmaster tools account and verify easily using your Google Analytics account. Add different versions (http, https, www and non-www) of your website in Google Webmaster Tools and set the preferred version to show up in search results. Select target country (if you would want your website to target a particular geographic region). You may also select the language option. Submit a sitemap. Now your domain is setup in webmaster tools.

Step 3 : Submit a request to Google that your domain has been permanently moved.

Use the change of address tool in Google webmaster tools dashboard by clicking on the settings symbol ⚙ of the old site

Pick your new site from the list and click on Submit button after completing the steps mentioned there like Confirm that 301-redirects work properly, Check that verification methods are still present.

Once you have submitted, a mail is sent to the domain owner under Google Webmaster account confirming successful permanent redirect submission request. Site owner can withdraw the request anytime by clicking the withdraw button in the change of address tool.

It may take few days for the new site to get replaced with the old site in the search results. No need to worry about losing link juice as Google is already aware that you have permanently moved your old site to the new site! As simple as that!

We hope that this article has helped you resolve the redirects, migration, blogger error in your web browsers. Enjoy browsing the internet uninterrupted!