How to Change Your Website Domain Name

Updated March 2025

If you’ve ever wondered, “Can I change my domain name,” we’re happy to answer with a resounding “Yes!” 

You might change your domain to rebrand, improve your SEO, or address a trademark issue. Regardless of the reason, we’ll discuss how to change a domain name in this post. Additionally, we’re going to explore how a domain name supports your business and brand, reasons why you should consider changing your domain name, and how to mitigate any risks that changing your domain name might incur. 

Changing your domain name: Is it a good idea? 

The decision to change your domain name carries significant weight and can’t be done on a whim. It’s similar to changing the physical address of a brick-and-mortar store: while the new address might be better, there’s a transition period where you might lose some foot traffic as customers adjust.   

Your domain name is often the first encounter potential customers have with your brand. It’s the gateway where your audience can access your services or products, making it a critical component of your business’s online presence.   

A well-chosen domain name can enhance brand recognition, strengthen your marketing efforts, and build trust with your audience. It serves as a digital address that should be easy to find, remember, and type, aligning closely with your brand name and what you offer.  

Changing your name changes everything we previously listed. And it isn’t as easy as requesting a new name either. You’ll need to go to a registrar, check if your ideal domain is available, and finally buy it before others can take it. 

So, what’s the value in changing your domain name? Without a good reason, it’s best to leave it alone, but that’s not why you’re here. Before we discuss how to change your website domain name, it’s wise to take a minute and consider the motivations behind that decision.   

5 reasons why you should change your domain name 

Changing your domain name only because you don’t like it isn’t a good enough reason.  

However, several compelling reasons might justify this change, ranging from brand evolution to improving memorability and alignment with your professional goals. 

Here’s some of them:  

Reason 1: Your business name changed  

If you’ve changed your business name for any reason—whether for legal, marketing, or strategic purposes—it’s crucial to align your domain name with this new identity.   

Consistency across your business name and domain name strengthens brand recognition and prevents confusion among your customers. A domain that matches your business name also enhances your brand’s professional appearance and searchability online. 

Reason 2: Your current domain name doesn’t reflect your brand and business  

Industries shift and evolve. Perhaps your domain name is no longer relevant or helpful in distinguishing your product and business in the marketplace. As businesses grow and evolve, so too should their brand representation in the digital space.   

Your domain name sets the tone for their perception of your brand. If your business has undergone substantial changes, such as a rebranding or a shift in product lines or services, your current domain name may no longer reflect your brand accurately.   

Updating your domain to better represent your brand can reinforce your business’s identity and ensure consistency.  

Reason 3: Your domain name doesn’t set the right tone for your website  

You’ll want a formal domain if you’re targeting a more serious, professional demographic. Conversely, a domain that’s too formal might alienate a younger, more dynamic audience.  

If the current tone of your domain name doesn’t align with the image you want to project, changing it to something more appropriate can enhance your brand’s appeal and ensure it resonates with your target audience.  

Reason 4: Your domain name isn’t getting traction  

Too many hyphens and numbers in your domain name? Or is it super long? All of these decrease your domain name’s memorability, and if people can’t remember your domain name, they can’t make it to your site.  

Such difficulties can lead to lost traffic and diminished brand visibility. Opting for a simpler, catchier and memorable domain name can ensure that potential customers can easily find and return to your site.  

Pro tip: Make sure the domain name you decide to use passes the “Radio Test.” If someone were to hear your domain name spoken aloud on the radio and never see it in print, could they be reasonably expected to understand the spelling and make it to your site?  

Reason 5: You want to change your domain extension  

Maybe the .com domain name you originally desired wasn’t in your budget, so you chose a different TLD. But now, you’ve saved money and can purchase the domain name you always wanted. Inversely, perhaps you bought a .com or .org, and have since discovered a TLD more relevant to your niche that you’d like to use, like .tech or .club.  

Top 8 risks of changing your domain name  

Risk is inherent to the nature of business. However, there’s never an excuse for exposing your business to more risk than necessary.   

Changing your domain name can be great for your business, but as we mentioned earlier, it comes with its fair share of risks. Let’s further explore what issues may arise and what you can do to change your domain name with as little risk as possible.  

Risk 1: Loss of money and time   

While primary domain name registrations aren’t expensive, some premium domain names are a bigger investment. Either way, if you’re just changing your domain for the sake of change, that’s time and money that can be invested in other ways instead.  

Here’s a quick rundown of potential expenses to look out for: 

• Domain registration fees. If you’re buying a new domain, you need to pay for registration. Shorter, more memorable, or keyword-rich domains can be much more expensive than standard ones, especially if they are highly sought after. 

• Website redesign or rebranding. A domain change may require you to update your website’s branding, design, and content to reflect the new domain name. This could involve hiring designers or developers to make necessary adjustments to your site, which can be costly. 

• Updating marketing materials. Any printed or digital marketing materials that feature your old domain will need to be updated. This includes online listings, social media profiles, and email signatures, all of which could add up in terms of design and printing costs. 

• Paid advertising updates. If you run paid advertising campaigns, you will need to update those campaigns with your new domain. This can involve reworking your ads, testing, and optimizing, leading to additional costs. 

• SEO and link-building costs. You might also need to rework your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to ensure your site ranks well with the new domain, which may require hiring SEO professionals or purchasing SEO tools. 

• Redirect and technical setup. Setting up 301 redirects can involve technical work, including setting up server-side redirects, which may require professional assistance. These tasks can be more expensive if you’re unfamiliar with them. 

• Email setup and migration. Migrating email accounts to the new domain may also require technical support. 

• Legal and trademark check. Legal consultations or trademark searches can incur additional costs, especially if you run into any legal complications during the process. 

Weigh your budget carefully before committing to the domain change. Be sure you’re ready for any unexpected expenses so you don’t get surprised during the transition process. 

Risk 2: Loss of search traffic and rankings  

Losing traffic or your search rankings are one of the biggest risks you’ll face when changing your domain name. However, there are ways to mitigate these risks.  

When you update your domain name for your website, search engines need to rescan your site to learn about it and re-index it. There’s no exact time frame for how long that will take, so your search traffic may be down for a while. One thing that can help in this scenario is keeping your domain age in mind.   

Domain age is an SEO ranking factor, and older domain names tend to be given more credibility by search engines like Google. Consider purchasing your desired domain name and holding on to it for a while before using it. Doing this doesn’t guarantee that you won’t see any drop in search traffic, but it does help to mitigate that risk.   

Another option is to purchase a premium domain name when changing your domain name. Premium domains are shorter, more memorable, and keyword-rich. Additionally, since they’ve been previously registered, they often have a history of web and search traffic, so they’re already familiar with search engines.   

If you decide to go that route, look into the history of the premium name. There are domain history tools you can find with a quick online search, and they’ll help you determine if the premium name you want has ever had issues with spammy site traffic or black hat SEO practices, neither of which will help with SEO.  

Risk 3: Website downtime and technical issues  

As we mentioned in the previous point, there’s a chance you’ll experience some website downtime when your search engines rescan and re-index your site. It doesn’t always happen, but if it does, it’s good to know why: 

• DNS propagation.  Your domain settings update need time to spread across the internet, which can take between a few hours to 48 hours. If some servers still have outdated information, some visitors are directed to your old domain, while others are directed to the new one.  

• Server setup. You may need to update your web server’s settings so when someone types in your new domain, your server knows where to find the website files. If not done properly, the server may still be looking for the old domain and your website could become temporarily unavailable. 

• Redirects. If your redirect isn’t done properly or takes too long, users might be unable to find your site or users jump between the old and new domain endlessly due to an infinite redirect loop. Redirects might not even catch all the old links—especially if there are numerous old URLs, which can lead to broken links or 404 errors. 

• CMS updates. If you’re using a content management system like WordPress, you’ll need to update the domain settings within the system. Just like the other issues mentioned, improper redirects or configuration can lead your visitors to your old domain and show an error on their screens instead. 

• Caching issues. Websites use caches to load faster. After changing the domain, old caches may still try to load the old domain, causing issues until they are refreshed. 

Potential visitors might end up in the competition instead when they see errors when they click on your site.  

To minimize these risks, it’s important to check the points above thoroughly to make sure everything is running smoothly. You can also work with a knowledgeable web developer or IT professional if you don’t have the time to do it yourself. Scheduling the domain switch during off-peak hours can also reduce the impact on your visitors.  

Risk 4: Loss of brand awareness  

Brand awareness is something that you have more control over when changing your domain name. If you have frequent direct traffic site visitors, you might lose them when you change your domain name. Direct visitors type your domain name into their browser instead of finding you via online search. They may type in your old domain, and when the site doesn’t load, they might think that you’ve gone offline permanently.   

Many site visitors will catch on and notice the new domain name, but you can’t count on everyone being observant. Instead, think about including a message or pop-up on your site announcing your new domain name or rebrand to make sure they see it and use the new domain name moving forward.  

Risk 5: Impact on reputation and trust  

As we said before, customers and search engines all recognize your old domain as part of your brand identity. When you change it, there’s a risk of losing the trust that you’ve built over time. If visitors are confused by the change or can’t find your website, it can negatively impact your business’s credibility. They might think your new domain is from a malicious entity stealing your identity. They might end up thinking you’re a fraud.  

To mitigate this, communicate the change clearly with your audience. Post announcements on your website, social media, and through email to inform people about the switch. Also, maintain redirects from the old domain to the new one to ensure visitors are still able to find you easily. Transparency will help maintain trust and make the transition as smooth as possible for both users and search engines.  

Risk 6: Loss of backlinks and traffic  

Backlinks are links on third-party sites that direct back to your site. These are part of any ﷟HYPERLINK “https://www.domain.com/blog/a-guide-to-seo-basics-for-beginners/”good SEO strategy. If you’ve invested a lot of time in building your backlinks then changing your domain name will affect those links.  you’ve invested a lot of time in building your backlinks then changing your domain name will affect those links.   

Keeping your redirects alive will help mitigate this risk; however, redirects on backlinks don’t carry as much weight in SEO algorithms, so you’re likely to lose some traffic. You can either reach out to these third-party sites, letting them know about your new domain and providing new links for them to use, or work on your backlink strategy with your updated domain name. 

Risk 7: Disruption of email communication  

Most businesses link their email addresses to their domain to add a professional feel to their branding. It looks more credible, secure and intuitive as well. So it’s not a surprise plenty do it. 

That said, it can be a problem if you change your domain. Customers and partners might be unable to reach you once you get a new name. Questions and request for assistance might be lost to the old domain. You might even overlook important correspondences. 

To prevent this risk, set up email forwarding to your new domain. Notify your contacts in advance and update your: 

• Email signatures 

• Social media profiles 

• Business cards  

If you manage this properly, you’ll minimize future confusion and problems in your operations. 

Risk 8: Legal and trademark issues  

Your new domain name shouldn’t infringe on any trademarks. If your new domain is too similar to an existing trademark, the owner of that domain might demand legal action. It’s a hassle, a financial drain, and a reputation risk that you don’t really want to deal with. 

So, thoroughly researching your ideal domain is always the best first step. But if you’re still unsure after looking it up on domain search tools, talk with a legal expert.  

How to choose your new domain name?  

1. Reflect your brand identity 

Your domain name should be a direct reflection of your business name or the services you offer. This alignment ensures that customers can easily connect your domain to your brand, enhancing recognition and trust. Avoid complex words, numbers, or hyphens that might confuse potential visitors. Complex names aren’t easy when trying to remember a web address. 

2. Keep it short and memorable 

Aim for brevity. A shorter domain name is easier to remember, type, and share. It reduces the risk of typographical errors when users enter it into their browsers. Choose a catchy name that stands out in the minds of your audience. A memorable name can significantly boost your word-of-mouth marketing effort. If they it’s hard to pronounce, it’s hard to promote.  

3. Consider SEO and keywords 

Keywords are key. Incorporating keywords related to your business can improve your website’s SEO and make it easier for potential customers to find you via search engines. For example, if you sell organic products, you might consider including the word “organic” in your domain.   

While it’s helpful to include keywords, your domain must remain relevant even as your business evolves. Avoid overly specific keywords that could limit your business growth, unless you’re sure about your niche. 

4. Choose the right domain extension 

While .com is the old reliable, don’t shy away from newer, flashier domain extensions like .tech or .design if they align better with your brand or industry. Consider your audience and the nature of your business when selecting an extension. And if your business primarily targets a local market, try using a geographic domain extension like .nyc or .london to connect more directly with local customers. 

5. Conduct a thorough availability search 

Use a reputable domain registrar, like Domain.com, to check for availability. Then, use the domain search tool to type in the name of your desired domain name.   

But if your first choice isn’t available, be prepared with variations or synonyms that capture the essence of your brand. You can also use an AI domain name generator tool to simplify your choosing process.   

Make sure you can snag the same name across your social media accounts to keep your branding consistent everywhere your customers might find you. 

6. Check existing trademarks 

It’s all fun and games until someone waves a trademark infringement notice. Registering a domain name that’s already trademarked by another company can lead to serious legal issues and potentially force another change. 

7. Consider future scalability 

Don’t forget to think long-term and choose a name that grows with you. Today’s business venture could be tomorrow’s global sensation, and your domain should keep the doors open for possibilities.  

Key tips for a smooth domain name change 

When changing your domain name, thorough planning ensures that both the technical and communicative aspects of your business transition smoothly. Here is an expanded checklist that outlines critical steps and considerations:  

• Create and maintain redirects. Implement 301 redirects from your old domain to the new one. These redirects are permanent and inform search engines and visitors about the change, helping to preserve your search engine rankings and user access. It’s essential to keep these redirects in place for at least 120 days (ideally permanent) to cover all possible user behaviors and search engine crawls.  

• Update Google Search Console. Register your new domain with Google Search Console to monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search results. Updating this service is crucial for understanding how your new domain is performing and to ensure Google recognizes the change.  

• Update Google Analytics. Change the domain settings in your Google Analytics account to continue tracking visitor data without interruption. This ensures you maintain accurate analytics data, vital for assessing your website’s performance and making informed marketing decisions.  

• Review and update internal links. Audit all internal links throughout your website. Ensure that they point to the correct URLs under the new domain to avoid broken links, which can negatively impact user experience and SEO.  

• Manage backlinks and notify third parties. Inventory all backlinks leading to your old domain. Reach out to the administrators of these external sites to update them with your new domain URL. This step is vital for maintaining the strength of your backlinks, which significantly influence your search engine ranking.   

• Update your professional email addresses. Adjust all your professional email addresses to reflect your new domain, ensuring continuity and brand consistency. Don’t forget to update email signatures across your organization to include the new domain as this helps in reinforcing the new brand identity in communications.  

• Revise all company materials. Compile a comprehensive list of all company materials—both digital and physical—that mention your old domain. Update all promotional materials, official documents, business cards, and digital assets like downloadable PDFs and eBooks with your new domain name.  

• Plan customer notifications. Determine the most effective ways to inform your customers about the domain change. This might include email blasts, prominent on-site announcements, or social media posts. Clear communication helps manage customer expectations and prevents any confusion regarding your new online identity.  

• Create a custom 404 page. Design a custom 404 error page on your previous domain name to inform visitors that your website has moved to a new domain. This page should provide a link to the new domain and explain the reason for the change, which can help redirect traffic effectively and retain visitors.  

Creating a 301 redirect 

Creating a 301 redirect from your old domain name to your new domain address is essential. Doing so helps Google and other search engines and visitors reach your site with the new domain name so that you don’t lose organic search traffic or visibility.   

If you’ve never created a 301 redirect before, we recommend working with a professional. The process can be technical, so if you need help, we’ve got you covered. Or you can follow the instructions and video in this knowledge base article to create a 301 redirect.  

To complete this process, you’ll need to use a couple of 3rd party tools, like FileZilla or any 301 code-generator tools.   

If your domain registrar is Domain.com, navigate to FileZilla and connect to ftp.domain.com. Every Domain.com WebsiteBuilder account receives a root FTP user and you’ll need to use this information (it’s your account username and password) to connect. After doing that, you’ll have .htacess, which you can edit with any 301 code generator tools to create your 301 redirect(s).   

Reasons to back up your website when changing your domain name 

When you’re planning to change your domain name, creating a comprehensive backup of your website becomes more crucial than ever.   

Here’s why backing up your website is essential when changing your domain name and how it relates to the overall integrity of your domain name system and existing website.  

• Preventing data loss. Changing a domain name involves modifying DNS settings and potentially migrating data to new servers or configurations. During this process, the risk of data loss can increase due to human error, misconfigurations, or technical failures. By having a complete backup, you ensure that all your website data, including posts, settings, and user information from your WordPress site, can be restored to its original state if something goes wrong.  

• Maintaining website functionality. For websites that are heavily integrated with their domain names—such as those using WordPress where URLs within the database are domain-specific—a change in domain name could disrupt site functionality. Prior to making DNS changes, a backup allows you to preserve the operational version of your site. This ensures that if the domain change impacts your site’s functionality, you can revert to the previous state while you troubleshoot issues.  

• Securing SEO efforts. A domain name change can affect your search engine rankings if not handled correctly. Your existing website’s SEO is built on the stability and continuity of URLs, which are indexed by search engines. Any disruption during the domain change can lead to 404 errors and link rot, negatively impacting your SEO. Backups allow you to quickly restore any lost content and ensure that all redirects from the old domain to the new domain are set up correctly, preserving your SEO efforts.  

• Testing in a safe environment. With a full backup of your website, you can create a staging environment to test the new domain settings without risking your live site. This is important for websites with complex domain name systems or those heavily reliant on database integrity, like WordPress sites. Testing in a safe environment helps identify and resolve any issues that could affect the live site, ensuring a smooth transition when you do go live with the new domain.  

• Ensuring compliance and record keeping. Backups also serve as a record of your site’s state before major changes. This can be important for compliance reasons in regulated industries, where maintaining records of data states and configurations is mandatory.  

To effectively make backups for a domain name change, follow these simple steps:  

1. Choose a reliable backup tool like UpdraftPlus or BackupBuddy for WordPress sites.  

2. Ensure your backup includes databases, files, plugins, themes, and any custom code.  

3. Test the backups by restoring them on a staging environment to ensure they work correctly.  

4. Save copies of your backups both locally (e.g., external hard drive) and off-site (e.g., cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox).  

5. Set up automated backup schedules to ensure you always have recent backups, especially before making major changes.  

6. After implementing DNS changes, monitor your site for issues and test to ensure everything functions as expected.  

Steps to change your domain name with Domain.com 

The exact steps to change your domain name will vary depending on where you build and host your site. 

1. Log in to your Domain.com account.  

2. Click “Domains” at the top of the page.  

3. If you haven’t purchased the domain name you plan to use, do so now by clicking the blue “Purchase Domain” button at the top right-hand side of your account. If you’ve already purchased your new domain name, skip to step 4.  

4. Click “Manage” under the domain name you currently use for your website.  

5. Click “WebsiteBuilder” in the left-hand menu.  

6. Click on the three dots to the right of “Settings” and click “Change Domain Name.”  

7. Select your new domain name from the drop-down menu.  

8. Click “Change.”  

Match your domain name to your business needs 

Having a domain name is important if you want to establish credibility with customers in the online space. It’s an easy way to tell shoppers what you’re selling and to gain a foothold in your market.  

Unfortunately, some people wind up with a domain name that doesn’t accomplish these. As a result, they’re forced to change the name. Fortunately, this process is simple: follow the steps listed above to land the perfect domain name.  

If you feel like your domain doesn’t match your business, change your domain name today and take a significant step towards enhancing your market visibility. 

Domain name change FAQs