Companies change web site domains for a lot of causes — rebranding, acquisition, product modifications, and extra. Whereas it’s usually needed, a brand new area reduces natural search visitors by upwards of 30% in my expertise.
Just like a brand new URL construction, area modifications require 301 redirects, which leak fairness. I’ve seen rankings slip for months afterward. If the decline persists, an in depth audit might assist.
Listed here are my go-to instruments for domain-change audits.
Google Search Console
Step one is to maintain the deserted area verified inside Search Console to entry historic rating and click on knowledge.
Subsequent, after verifying the possession of your new area, notify Google of the change by way of Search Console’s “Change of Handle” software at Settings > Change of deal with.
Notify Google of the brand new area by way of Search Console’s “Change of Handle” software. Click on picture to enlarge.
Search Console can determine which pages or folders misplaced probably the most visitors from the transfer. For this, open the Efficiency > Pages studies for the outdated and new domains (every in separate tabs). By default, each URL lists are sorted by the variety of natural clicks, making it simple to match the top-performing pages.
Don’t delay the analysis, as Search Console exhibits solely 16 months of information. I usually entry the report two, three, and 4 months afterward to watch shifts.
It’s a great signal if no sections, classes, or URLs decline greater than others — the transfer seemingly produced no structural issues.
If some areas slipped greater than others, flip to the Wayback Machine.
Wayback Machine
Area modifications continuously embrace altering the positioning construction, particularly with acquisitions or product variations. Wayback Machine helps determine which structural modifications lowered visitors.
Having famous in Search Console the URLs with materials drops, examine archived variations of these pages in Wayback Machine to the brand new ones, guaranteeing:
- The principle navigation contains the URLs as prominently because the earlier area,
- The URLs are interlinked all through the positioning — in associated merchandise, guides, sidebar widgets, footers, and so forth.
Semrush
A loss in hyperlink fairness from the outdated web site to the brand new might account for the visitors decline. Semrush may also help pinpoint the loss.
To start out, run each domains by the software’s major evaluation bar. Then proceed to Backlink Analytics > Listed Pages and test the field “Damaged hyperlinks.” The report for each websites will checklist the pages which have damaged backlinks and return 404 or 410 errors.
Semrush’s “Damaged hyperlinks” report lists the pages that return 404 or 410 errors. Click on picture to enlarge.
Screaming Frog
Area modifications usually produce surprising structural glitches. Therefore it’s vital to run the brand new web site by an internet crawler similar to Screaming Frog, JetOctopus, or related.
Most crawlers enable restricted entry without cost. Screaming Frog, for instance, crawls 500 pages with out cost. Past that, the paid model is $259 per 12 months. It features a crawl-compare function, useful for contrasting crawls of the outdated web site and the brand new.
When crawling a web site, search for redirect chains. These lure exterior and inner hyperlink fairness and lengthen the crawl time. Each could trigger visitors declines.
