Fixing Your Yelp, Facebook, and Directory Links After a New Domain
Got a better domain name? Now your old address is scattered across Yelp, Facebook, and a dozen directories. Here's how to update every link so customers and Google find the right site.
You picked a better domain name. Good move. But your old web address didn't just live on your website. It's sitting on your Yelp page, your Facebook profile, and a stack of directories you probably forgot you were even listed on.
If you don't fix those links, customers keep clicking your old address. Some of those clicks land on a dead page. Others land on a site you no longer control. Either way, you lose the customer and you look sloppy.
This post walks through how to update your Yelp and Facebook links after a new domain, plus the other directories that matter. It takes an afternoon, not a weekend.
Start with the big three
Most of your traffic from these listings comes from a handful of places. Fix these first, then work down the list.
Yelp
Log in to your Yelp for Business account. Go to your business information, find the website field, and swap in your new domain. Save it. Yelp reviews changes before they go live, so it may take a day or two to show.
While you're there, check the phone number and address too. If you moved your domain because you rebranded, other details may be stale as well.
Open your Facebook business Page. Go to the About or Page settings section and find the website field. Replace the old address with the new one. Save.
Then scroll your recent posts. If you've pinned a post with a link to your old site, or you run the same "visit our website" post every few weeks, update those too. Old posts keep getting clicks long after you publish them.
Google Business Profile
This one is the most important of all, because it feeds Google Maps and the search box directly. It deserves its own steps, so we wrote them up separately: How to Update Your Google Business Profile After a Domain Change.
Then hit the directories you forgot about
Here's the part that trips people up. Your business is listed in more places than you think. Some you created. Some got created for you by data companies that scrape and share business info.
The common ones for local businesses:
- Bing Places
- Apple Maps (through Apple Business Connect)
- Better Business Bureau
- Angi, Thumbtack, or HomeAdvisor if you're a contractor
- Healthgrades or Zocdoc if you're a clinic or practice
- Your local chamber of commerce
- Industry association listings
- Old sponsorship or event pages that link to you
Not sure where you're listed? Search your business name in Google along with your city. Then search your old domain in quotes, like "oldname.com". Google will show you the pages that still point to your old address. Work down that list.
How to find every mention of your old domain
You don't have to guess. A quick search of your old web address in quotes surfaces most public listings. Write down each one in a simple note or spreadsheet: the site, the login, and whether you've fixed it yet.
If you'd rather work from a ready-made list, we built one here: A Simple Checklist for Fixing Business Listings After You Switch Domains. Print it and check off boxes as you go.
Don't skip the redirect
Fixing links one by one is the clean way. But you can't reach every listing, and you can't control the ones data companies made without asking.
That's why you also want a redirect on your old domain. A redirect sends anyone who visits the old address straight to the matching page on your new one. So even if a directory you never found still links to you, the customer still lands in the right place.
Keep the old domain and the redirect running for at least a year. Longer is better. We explain how this works, and how long links keep sending traffic, in Do Old Links Still Work After You Move to a New Domain?.
Why this matters more than it looks
Search engines read your listings. When Yelp, Facebook, and your Google profile all point to the same new address, that tells Google the new site is really you. When half of them point to the old address and half to the new one, Google gets a mixed signal, and mixed signals can hold back how you show up in local search.
Matching links across every listing is one of the simplest things you can do to help customers find the right site after a domain change.
It also just looks professional. A customer who sees the same clean web address everywhere trusts you a little more than one who clicks a broken link.
A quick order of operations
- Update Google Business Profile first.
- Update Yelp and Facebook next.
- Search your old domain in quotes to find every other listing.
- Fix each directory, checking them off as you go.
- Set a redirect on the old domain and leave it running.
While you're telling the internet, don't forget to tell people. A short heads-up to your regulars saves confusion. Here's how to word it: What to Tell Customers When Your Website Address Changes.
Still weighing whether a better domain name is worth the cleanup at all? That's a fair question, and the answer usually depends on your trade and your city. Browse the names we have for your area, or ask us about one specific domain you have in mind. It takes about a minute, and there's no pressure either way.
