Changing my web site's domain name. Do I have to resubmit to Google/Yahoo, etc?

I’m considering changing my web site’s domain name. Do I have to resubmit the new name to Google/Yahoo, etc? Or is that unneccesasry? Also, what else should I consider regarding a web site name change? Thanks

You should implement a 301 redirect. I found this article which covers how to do this in a number of languages. It says that it is a search-engine friendly way of doing this. I’m not sure how search engines will treat the redirect. I assume that they will update to your new url over time. Perhaps someone else can advise?

That’s exactly right – when you use a 301 redirect, Google will replace the old URL in its index with the new one, and (as long as the new site appears to be about broadly the same theme) transfer all the rankings and ratings with it. It may take a little while before those changes are reflected in the search results, depending on your crawl rate, but by using a 301 you ensure that anyone going to the old URL is automatically and seamlessly taken to the new one, so your visitors will not know that anything was wrong.

What you need to be careful to do is to 301 each individual page on the old site to the most relevant page in the new site. Don’t just dump everyone at the home page – that will hurt your SEO as well as irritating the heck out of your visitors.

Are you keeping the old domain? 301’s won’t be much use if you’re not. Make sure that you use exactly the same registration details with the new domain so that Google realise that the ownership hasn’t changed, if that happens they might ‘reset’ the domain.

I don’t have much practical experience with 301s, does anyone on this forum have experience with multiple instances of using 301s with domain changes and can comment knowledgeably on the possible SEO effects?

If you use Google Webmaster Tools, you can use the “Change of address” link under the “Site configuration” menu to advise Google of the change.

Ah ha… great tip, thanks.

Congrats on MoM btw.

Sorry - you posted at the same time as I did and that was a reply to the OP, not to you. :slight_smile:

I have only once used 301 redirects to change a domain, when I split a site covering two topics into two sites with one topic each. For one topic, the traffic remained pretty static and for the other, it increased noticeably. However, these are small sites so may not be representative.

Yeah I know, I was saying thanks anyway because it’s useful.

In that case, I’m glad I could help. :slight_smile: