Domain migrations
Put your domain migration in safe handsYou’ve decided to rebrand or maybe you have decided to go for a domain name that works better for your business. It’s easy – just get your developer to point your nameservers at the new domain. Right?
No, very wrong.
Doing this will be like launching an entirely new website. All of your history and authority will evaporate and you will be back to square one. Back to the number of website visitors you had when you first launched your website.
This process is complex as Google needs to learn your intentions and allocate the trust signals associated with your brand to the new domain. There are a number of steps to this process and each one must be handled carefully.
Missteps can result in a significant drop in traffic so ensure you have expert assistance with this important process.
Even a well-managed domain migration may result in some volatility and in many cases you will see some fluctuation in results in the first few weeks. Our job is to minimise any negative effects and set the foundation for greatly improved results.
Talk to us here about how we can help.
URL redirect management
Every URL on your website will change. This is an opportunity to ensure your URLs are as effective and clean as possible. We have a careful approach to this critical task to eliminate the common results of multiple errors after launch.
Hosting and developer liaison
There will be three important participants in the process. We act as the go-between with your developers and hosting company to ensure everything happens correctly, when it is supposed to happen.
Duplication issues
This is a good opportunity to eliminate harmful duplication. This appears in archives, pagination, categories and taxonomies in many content management systems. Allow us to correct this.
Link updates
We use link analysis tools to identify your highest value links. This allows us to make sure that the value from these links is directed to your new domain which speeds up Google’s acceptance of the new domain.
Sitemaps
There are two different sitemaps for your website and they have different functions. We manage both the XML and HTML sitemaps so that search engines and visitors can navigate the new domain easily.
Robots.txt and noindex tags
While the new website is being prepared your developer will hopefully password protect it. But sometimes they will use noindex tags or a block in robots.txt to stop search engines visiting the site. Make sure these are managed correctly.
Take the worry out of your domain migration
We have a lot of experience in managing successful domain migrations. From a simple renaming to complex multi-site projects we can give your new website the most positive start possible.
Boundaryline Testimonial
We engaged Mike & the team at HPE to assist with the launch of a new website at short notice and from the first initial meeting through to today we have been impressed with the responsiveness and depth of knowledge that HPE has provided our company. We highly recommend them.
Hugh McGaveston – Sales Manager