If you're rebranding, correcting a past naming mistake, or switching from one domain to another (say, moving from a .co.ke address to a .com), you can usually keep most of your Google rankings as long as you redirect every old page to its matching new page and tell Google about the change. Skip these steps and you risk your site dropping out of search results for weeks or months.
Why Rankings Are at Risk During a Domain Move
Google treats your domain name as part of your site's identity. When you simply stop using the old domain and start using a new one, Google has no way of knowing they're the same website. It sees the old pages disappear and has to discover and re-evaluate the new ones from scratch, which is why visitors land on a dead page and your traffic drops if you don't bridge the two domains properly.
Step 1: Set Up and Test the New Domain First
- Register the new domain and point its DNS to your hosting account.
- Build out the new site with the same page structure and URLs as the old one wherever possible (same folder names, same post slugs). This makes the redirect mapping in the next step far simpler.
- Check that every page loads correctly on the new domain before you touch the old one.
Step 2: Redirect Every Old Page to Its New Equivalent
This is the step that actually protects your rankings. Each old URL needs to send visitors (and Google) to its matching new URL using a 301 redirect, which tells search engines the move is permanent and the ranking value should transfer.
The most reliable way to do this on your hosting account is with rules in your .htaccess file, in the public_html folder of the old domain. Editing this file works the same way whether you're on cPanel or DirectAdmin: open File Manager, locate .htaccess, and add your redirect rules, for example:
Redirect 301 /old-page.html https://www.yournewdomain.com/old-page.html
Repeat this for every important page rather than redirecting everything to just your new homepage; a one-to-one mapping between old and new pages keeps far more of your ranking value than a blanket redirect.
Don't use a 302 (temporary) redirect for this. It tells Google the move might not be permanent, so it may keep the old domain indexed and delay passing ranking signals to the new one.
Step 3: Update Your XML Sitemap and Resubmit It
Generate a fresh sitemap listing your new domain's URLs and submit it through Google Search Console for the new domain property. This speeds up how quickly Google finds and re-crawls your new pages.
Step 4: Use Google Search Console's Change of Address Tool
If both your old and new domains are verified as properties in Google Search Console, use the Change of Address tool (under Settings) on the old domain's property to point it to the new one. This is the clearest signal you can give Google that it's a permanent domain move, not a new, unrelated site.
Step 5: Update Links Pointing to the Old Domain
- Update your Google Business Profile, social media profiles, and online directory listings to the new domain.
- Update email signatures and printed materials.
- Ask any sites that link to you to update the link where practical, though your 301 redirects will still carry the ranking value even if they don't.
Step 6: Keep the Old Domain Active
Don't let the old domain expire right after the move. Keep it registered and pointed at your redirects for at least six to twelve months so that any lingering links, bookmarks, and search results still land somewhere useful instead of an error page.
For the mechanics of setting up redirect rules in more detail, see How to Create SEO-Friendly URLs and Set Up Page Redirects.