Maintaining your online presence after changing your domain

Buy and register a new domain to represent the evolution of your new brand.

Last updated November 21, 2023

If you’re renaming your site or brand, you may want to switch to a new domain name. As long as you keep the old domain connected, all traffic to the old domain will automatically redirect to the new one.

This guide reviews best practices for transitioning to a new domain and what this means for SEO and your social media presence.

Step 1 - Add a new primary domain

There are three ways you can add a new domain to your site:

Tip

If you've recently bought a domain and want to change it, you can rename a Squarespace domain for free within five days of registering it.

After your new domain is ready, set it as the site’s primary domain. All other domains for your site will redirect to the primary domain. This helps return visitors who use your old domain land on your site. To learn more, visit Managing multiple domains.

Step 2 - Reindex your site with search engines

Moving to a new domain might affect your site's search ranking. To help maintain your ranking, let Google know that your domain has changed:

  1. Verify your new primary domain with Google Search Console.
  2. Use Google's Change of address tool.

You can follow a similar process with Bing Webmaster tools

Step 3 - Update everywhere you share your domain

After you’ve switched to your new domain, you may need to update other areas and accounts that still use your old domain or brand name. It's a good idea to check everywhere you mention your domain and update the URL or the name. For example:

Traffic from the old URL will automatically redirect, so links to your old domain in these areas won't break. However, updating the URL anywhere you've shared it keeps your brand consistent across the web.

Step 4 - Remove the old domain (optional)

Unless you want to completely lose the original domain and stop all traffic to that domain from leading to your site, we recommend skipping this step. It's best to keep your old domain connected to your site, at least for a little while. This gives visitors time to learn about your new address. Even if the domain has an error or is outdated, it can be helpful to let it continue redirecting traffic to your site and new domain.

Note

Removing the old domain will break any links to it. Traffic to the domain you remove won't direct to your site.

You can remove the old one if you need to by following these steps:

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Maintaining your online presence after changing your domain