How to change your domain or URL structure without losing SEO

Search for and register the new domain (for example contoso.com). In the domain's settings, turn on the registrar lock (often called transfer lock or domain lock), turn on two-factor sign-in for the registrar account, and set the domain to auto-renew. Keep the old domain registered too; Google recommends paying for the old domain for at least a year after a Change of Address.

Sign in with one Google account and use the same account for both sites, because the Change of Address tool requires you to be an owner of both properties. Select + Add property, choose a Domain property and enter only the root domain with no protocol and no www (for example oldsite.com). A Domain property covers all subdomains and both http and https, and it must be verified with a DNS record: copy the record Search Console shows, add it at the domain's DNS host, then select Verify (or Verify later to save your progress). Repeat for the new domain. If you use URL-prefix properties instead, Google says to verify every variant of both sites: HTTP and HTTPS, www and non-www.

Stand up the site on the new domain with a valid HTTPS certificate. If the site runs WordPress and is also changing host, follow the WordPress migration guide and take a backup first (back up a WordPress site). Add a robots.txt in the web root that blocks only the paths you want blocked. Google says it is fine to have no robots.txt as long as the missing file returns a proper 404. Remove any migration-only noindex rules before launch.

curl -I https://www.contoso.com/
curl -I https://www.contoso.com/robots.txt

Paste into one column: every URL in the old XML sitemap (for example https://www.oldsite.com/sitemap.xml), the pages listed in the old property's Search Console Performance report, landing pages from your analytics tool, URLs found in server logs, and pages listed in your CMS. Google also suggests the Links report in Search Console for old URLs other sites link to. Include PDFs, images, videos, JavaScript and CSS files that are linked or get search traffic. Then remove duplicates (in Excel or Google Sheets, use Remove duplicates on the column).

For each row, enter the most relevant new URL as a full absolute address. Google advises against sending many old URLs to an unrelated page such as the new home page; content that was merged can redirect to the combined page. If a page is gone with no replacement, write 404 or 410 in the New URL column and let it return that status.

Redirect each old URL straight to its final destination. Sort or filter the New URL column and check that none of the new URLs is itself listed as an old URL in another row. If the site has been moved before, update those earlier redirects so they point at the new final URLs too.

Use these columns: Old URL, New URL, Status (301, 404 or 410), Test result and Date added. You will add rows as 404s appear after launch, and the Old URL column becomes the input file for the redirect test in Step 5.

Download a copy of .htaccess as a backup first. When paths stay the same and only the domain changes, one rule can redirect every path. Put these lines at the top of the file, above any # BEGIN WordPress block, and change oldsite and contoso.com to your domains. The 301 redirects how-to covers Apache, nginx and the WordPress plugin route in full.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?oldsite\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://www.contoso.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

Back up the file, then add a server block for the old domain that returns 301 for every request. The nginx equivalent keeps the full path and query string. Keep the certificate lines for the old domain in the block. Test the configuration with sudo nginx -t and, only if it passes, reload with sudo systemctl reload nginx.

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name oldsite.com www.oldsite.com;
    # ssl_certificate lines for the OLD domain go here
    return 301 https://www.contoso.com$request_uri;
}

When the URL structure also changes, add one rule per row of your map that has a different path, more specific rules first and above the whole-domain rule. On Apache use Redirect 301 /old-path/ https://www.contoso.com/new-path/; on nginx use a location = /old-path/ { return 301 https://www.contoso.com/new-path/; } block. See the 301 redirects how-to for the syntax and testing.

Redirect 301 /services.html https://www.contoso.com/services/
Redirect 301 /about-us/ https://www.contoso.com/about/

WordPress stores full URLs in the database, so change them to the new domain. If wp --info fails, install WP-CLI first. Export a database backup, run the dry run, check the counts, then run the same command without --dry-run. --skip-columns=guid leaves the GUID column alone. The search-replace how-to covers plugin tables and other forms of the old address.

wp db export before-domain-change.sql
wp search-replace 'https://www.oldsite.com' 'https://www.contoso.com' --skip-columns=guid --dry-run
wp search-replace 'https://www.oldsite.com' 'https://www.contoso.com' --skip-columns=guid

Visitors and links use https:// on the old domain. Keep a valid certificate for every old hostname (with and without www) on the old host for as long as the redirects run, or browsers will show errors before the redirect happens. Check the expiry date and keep auto-renewal on.

curl -vI https://www.oldsite.com/ 2>&1 | grep -i -E "expire date|^< HTTP|^< location"

Every new page should carry a self-referencing canonical that uses an absolute URL on the new domain. Google treats rel="canonical" as a strong signal, second only to redirects. Make sure no template still outputs the old domain.

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.contoso.com/services/" />

Change internal links from old URLs to new URLs. Google says to do this immediately after the move starts to reduce redirect hops and server load. Check menus and hard-coded links in themes, which a database search-replace does not reach.

If you use hreflang annotations, update every href in them to the new URLs.

Create a sitemap of the new URLs. Use absolute URLs. Each sitemap file is limited to 50,000 URLs or 50 MB uncompressed; split larger sites with a sitemap index. Reference it in robots.txt with the line below.

Sitemap: https://www.contoso.com/sitemap.xml

Change the website address in each profile and ad. Update email signatures. Then ask the sites that send you most traffic (from your analytics referrals report) to update their links.

Deploy the redirects. Copy the Old URL column of your map into a text file named old-urls.txt, one URL per line, and run the loop below from the folder that holds it. Google suggests the URL Inspection tool for individual URLs and command-line tools for larger sets. Record failures in the Test result column and fix them.

while read url; do
  printf "%s -> " "$url"
  curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code} %{redirect_url}\n" "$url"
done < old-urls.txt

First inspect the sitemap URL with the inspection bar at the top of Search Console, select Test live URL and check that Page fetch shows Successful. Then open the Sitemaps report, paste the sitemap URL into Add a new sitemap and select Submit. Google also says to remove the old sitemap once the move starts.

Make sure the old home page already returns a 301 to the new home page. Open the Change of Address tool from the old site's domain-level property, select the new property and follow the on-screen instructions. The tool runs pre-move checks: critical failures must be fixed, warnings do not block it. The tool does not move subdomains such as www, so repeat it for every variant of the old domain you have verified (www, non-www and any other subdomains).

Do not use Change of Address for HTTP to HTTPS moves, www to non-www changes, or path-only changes on the same domain. Google works those out from the redirects. Record which case your move is.

Google says to monitor traffic on both old and new sites. Compare clicks and impressions week by week, and check landing pages in analytics.

Open the Pages report and look at the reasons pages are not indexed. Investigate URLs listed as "Not found (404)" or "Page with redirect" that should not be there. In the Sitemaps report, compare indexed counts for the new sitemap over time.

Look for old URLs that return 404 on the old host, add them to the map, and deploy new redirects. The command below lists the most requested 404 paths in a standard combined-format log.

grep '" 404 ' /var/log/nginx/access.log | cut -d '"' -f2 | cut -d ' ' -f2 | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -50

Paste the full URL of each top page and press Enter. Check that Google-selected canonical shows the new URL. You can select Request indexing, but Google does not guarantee it and daily limits apply; for many pages the sitemap is the better route.

Export the zone file if the host offers one, or screenshot every record and copy it into the DNS cutover record sheet: type, name, value, priority and TTL for every A, AAAA, CNAME, MX and TXT record (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, verification). Most registrars do not copy DNS settings during a transfer, and email stops if MX records are lost. Use the lookups below to check nothing was missed.

dig +short NS contoso.com
dig +short A contoso.com
dig +short CNAME www.contoso.com
dig +short MX contoso.com
dig +short TXT contoso.com
dig +short TXT _dmarc.contoso.com

Make sure the registrant contact email is current, because transfer codes and confirmations go there. Turn off private registration or privacy forwarding if your registrar says it hides transfer emails (Wix asks you to disable Private Registration). Changing registrant details can start a 60-day transfer lock, so fix them early.

Turn off the transfer lock, then request the domain's transfer authorisation code (also called the domain password, auth code or EPP code). On Squarespace, switch Domain Lock off and select Request transfer code, then confirm your password. On Wix, select Transfer away from Wix, then Transfer Domain and I Still Want to Transfer. Domains bought or transferred in the last 60 days cannot move yet.

Enter the domain and the code, then complete payment and any eligibility confirmations it asks for (for .au domains, the registrant and eligibility details auDA rules require). Approve any confirmation email from either registrar.

If DNS was hosted by the old registrar, re-create every record from your record sheet at the new DNS host before the old one stops answering, then point the nameservers at the new host (see change nameservers). Check the results with the lookups below, or follow check DNS propagation.

dig +short NS contoso.com
dig +short MX contoso.com
dig +short TXT contoso.com