When changing domain names, can I keep my existing SEO and Google Search ranking?

When changing domain names, can I keep my existing SEO and Google Search ranking? - 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 When changing domain names, can I keep my existing SEO and Google Search ranking? error on your web browser. Problem :

Suppose I have been using a domain, say www.bollywoodhatke.com for 3 years, and it has a good Alexa (hypothetical situation). It has backlinks and its has 7,000 pages indexed and 50,000 images indexed, but later there is a reason I am forced to change the domain name where the website is served.

In that case →

Would it be possible to tell Google that we are the same people with the same website, but the domain name changed?

I mean, can I somehow transfer the content to the new domain so that all the pages are indexed immediately, backlink juice is also transferred to the new domain, and all the pages indexed correctly?

I think moz.com was semoz.com previously. They must have certainly done something.

Solution :

Yes, you can move a website from one domain to different domain and maintain the ranking.

This is very common when business re-branding is done and website needs to move from one domain to a different domain.

All you need to do is, set a permanent 301-redirection from your old domain to the new domain. Set the permanent redirection at domain level so that every single page of your website automatically will get redirected to respective pages on the new domain.

Let's say you had:

example.com

example.com/page1

example.com/page2

Now let's assume you wanted to move to myexample.com. Then set the redirection at the domain level and each page will get redirected to its respective page on the new domain like:

example.com => myexample.com

example.com/page1 => myexample.com/page1

example.com/page2 => myexample.com/page2

Important: also, worth using Google change of address tool to ensure a smooth transition and minimizing the impact on current ranking. You can do this once the transfer will be complete.

You may also consider doing the following to make the transition smooth:

1) Must have 301-redirection from the old domain to the new domain.

2) Validate ownership of new domain in Google Search Console.

3) Submit XML-sitemap of the new domain.

Note: When you will do the transfer and above steps, for certain time (days, weeks) you may see your old website in the search result and slowly the ranking will move to the new domain and old website pages will start to disappear.

As mentioned by @TopQnA, yes, it is possible but unfortunately, it isn't as easy as mentioned by the fellow forum user.

The process of 301 redirections has to be done with extreme care. You'll have to create 'One to One' redirects if you don't want to lose the SEO benefits. For example - There's a page called '2017 Bollywood movies'. Now while you are creating pages in the new website, there must be the same page on it to which the old '2017 Bollywood Movies' page will get redirected to.

Moreover, if it is not possible for you to create all similar pages on the new domain, then carefully redirect the same to next most relevant page.

The main concern here is, when you'll change your domain, all the indexed pages of your old domain shouldn't give 404s and also shouldn't get redirected to a different page as shown in the search results.

This way, your efforts and SEO benefits will remain intact.

We hope that this article has helped you resolve the seo, google-search, redirects error in your web browsers. Enjoy browsing the internet uninterrupted!