The Checklist to Run Before You Point Your Site to a New Name

You found a better name. It's shorter, easier to say, and it fits your business. Now you're ready to point your website at it. Good move. But before you flip the switch, take an hour and run through a checklist first.

Here's why. Google already knows your old website. It has ranked your pages, remembered your links, and sent you customers for months or years. When you change domains the wrong way, you can throw a lot of that away overnight. Do it the right way and you keep almost all of it.

This is a domain move checklist to keep Google rankings—the steps to line up before you make the change, not after. Work through it top to bottom.

Before you touch anything

1. Write down what's working now

Open Google Search Console for your current site. Look at which pages get the most clicks and which search terms bring people in. Save a copy or take a screenshot. This is your before picture. After the move, you'll want to compare and make sure nothing dropped off.

If you don't have Search Console set up yet, do that first. It's free, and it's the only way to see what Google actually thinks of your site.

2. List every page on your old site

You need a full list of your web addresses—every page, not just the home page. Your service pages, your contact page, your blog posts, all of it. You'll match each old address to a new one so nothing gets lost. A missing page is a dead link and a lost customer.

3. Buy the new name and leave the old one alone

Register the new domain, but don't cancel the old one. You'll keep the old name for a long time—years, ideally—so the redirects keep working and old links still find you. Canceling it too soon is one of the most common ways businesses lose traffic. We cover more of those in 5 Ways Small Businesses Lose Traffic When They Change Domains.

Setting up the move

4. Plan your redirects page by page

A redirect is a rule that sends anyone visiting an old address straight to the matching new one. Google follows these rules too, and passes your rankings along with them. The kind you want is called a 301 redirect. It tells Google the move is permanent.

Match each old page to the new page that covers the same thing. Your old plumbing page points to your new plumbing page. Don't just send everything to the home page—that's lazy, and Google treats it like the old page is gone. We walk through the whole thing in Set Up 301 Redirects So Old Links Still Send You Customers.

5. Get the new site fully built and working

Before you point anything, click around the new site yourself. Make sure every page loads, every link works, your phone number is right, and your contact form actually sends. Fix broken things now, while nobody's landing there yet.

6. Check that Google can read the new site

Sometimes a new site gets built with a setting that tells search engines to stay out. That's fine while you're building. It's a disaster once you go live. Make sure that block is turned off before launch, and confirm your pages aren't hidden from search. Google explains how it reads sites in its Search documentation.

The day you make the switch

7. Turn on the redirects and go live

Point the old site's redirects to the new addresses and publish the new site. Test a few old links by hand—type an old address into your browser and make sure it lands on the right new page.

8. Tell Google you moved

Google has a tool built for exactly this. It's called the Change of Address tool, and it lives inside Search Console. It's a signal that says, in plain terms, "this site is now over here." It speeds things up and lowers the chance of a stumble. Here's a step-by-step: Using Google's Change of Address Tool: A Plain Walkthrough.

9. Submit your new sitemap

A sitemap is just a list of your pages that you hand to Google. Submit it for the new domain in Search Console so Google finds every page faster instead of stumbling onto them one at a time.

After the switch

10. Fix your listings and online mentions

Your website isn't the only place your old name shows up. Your Google Business Profile, your social pages, your directory listings, your email signature—update all of them to the new name. This matters even more for local businesses, since those listings feed how customers find you. More on that in Don't Forget Your Local Listings When You Change Domains.

11. Watch your numbers for a few weeks

Check Search Console and your visitor counts against that before picture you saved. A small, short dip is normal. A big drop that doesn't recover means something's off—usually a broken redirect. If you're wondering how long the whole thing takes to settle, we cover that in How Long Before Google Catches Up After You Switch Domains?.

None of this is hard. It's just a list, and each step takes a few minutes. Run it in order and you keep the customers you already earned while your business gets a name people can actually remember.

Thinking about a better name but not sure it's worth the move? Browse names for your city or trade, or send us one name you're curious about and we'll tell you straight whether it's a fit.