We’re going to be making a lot of website changes, and creating a ton of online PR for your website. Now is the time to make sure you’re satisfied with your domain name (main website URL).
The domain name itself is a ranking factor that search engines consider when calculating ranking order. When you registered your domain name tells Google how long you’ve been in business; older is better, so don’t feel the need to change it.
Time: 1 day
Ingredients:
- Country specific .com address
- One website
- Google Search Console account
Directions:
Get rid of any free domains, such as zachprez.wordpress.com. Abandon any forwarded domains, for example zachprez.net or sacramento-photographer.com.
Choose a memorable .com domain, usually containing your business name such as zachprez.com or zachprezphotography.com. International users should select a country domain like zachprez.co.uk (or zachprez.com/uk/). See moz.com/learn/seo/cctlds.
Tell Google Search Console if you prefer www or the non-www version of your site. See support.google.com/webmasters/answer/44231?hl=en
Consolidate all domains and subdomains into a single domain.
Hanging on to multiple sites will dilute your SEO efforts. For example, zachprez.com/blog/ is better than blog.zachprez.com.
If you change or remove any of your domain names, complete the following:
- Register a change of address with Google Search Console. See google.com/webmasters/answer/83106?hl=en.
- Create “301 redirects” for each page that moved to a new location. See com/learn/seo/redirection or use a WordPress plugin like Redirection at urbangiraffe.com/plugins/redirection/.
