Moving a website to a new domain is one of the highest-risk SEO operations a business can perform. This checklist turns it into a process you can control.
01 / NOTE
Change one thing at a time.
Most domain migrations fail for one of three reasons: missing redirects, broken internal links on the new domain, or moving during a period when the site is also undergoing a redesign. Each of these introduces variables that make it impossible to isolate what caused a traffic drop.
If you are moving domains, do not simultaneously redesign the site, restructure your URL paths or overhaul your content. Move the exact same site to the new domain first. Let Google settle. Then make your other changes weeks later.
If you are migrating because of the 2026 auDA eligibility changes to .com.au, the good news is that a registrant entity change on the same domain is simpler than a full domain move. But if your domain itself is no longer eligible and you need a new one, this checklist covers the full process.
02 / NOTE
Crawl and benchmark before you touch anything.
Before the migration you need a complete snapshot of your current SEO state. This is your baseline for measuring whether the migration succeeded or caused damage.
Run a full site crawl using Screaming Frog, Sitebulb or a similar tool. Export the list of all indexed URLs, their status codes, canonical tags and internal links. Then pull your current data from Google Search Console: total impressions, clicks, average position and indexed page count. Export your top 50 keywords and their current rankings. Save your Google Analytics traffic data for the last 90 days.
This benchmark is not optional. Without it you will have no way of knowing whether a post-migration traffic drop is within normal range or a sign that something broke.
03 / NOTE
Pick your new domain with search in mind.
If you need a new domain, choose one that matches your registered business name or trademark. This is especially important under the updated auDA rules, where your domain must correspond to an eligible entity. But even beyond compliance, a domain that matches your brand makes the migration cleaner for users and for search engines.
Our names and domains tool checks domain availability alongside brand naming, so you can validate that your preferred name actually works as a web address before you commit. If you are choosing a brand name for the first time, start with our guide on how to choose a brand name and check the domain in the same session. As we cover in our piece on brand name versus domain name, the two should work together from day one.
04 / NOTE
Build a one-to-one redirect map for every URL.
Open the URL list from your crawl in a spreadsheet. For each URL that has organic traffic, backlinks or is currently in Google’s index, assign the corresponding URL on the new domain. The path structure should stay the same unless you have a strong reason to change it.
For example, if your old URL is olddomain.com.au/services/web-design, the new URL should be newdomain.com.au/services/web-design. Changing the path at the same time as the domain doubles the risk of something breaking.
If a page on the old domain has no equivalent on the new domain, redirect it to the closest relevant page, not the homepage. Redirecting orphaned pages to the homepage is treated by Google as a soft 404, and the ranking value is lost. For the full technical walkthrough, see our guide on how to redirect a domain without losing SEO.
05 / NOTE
Get SSL and internal links right before the switch.
Get SSL installed and working on the new domain before you redirect any traffic to it. A redirect from HTTPS on the old domain to HTTP on the new one will trigger browser security warnings and kill trust immediately.
Upload your site to the new domain and test it on a staging URL or by editing your local hosts file. Check that every internal link, image source and canonical tag references the new domain, not the old one. Hardcoded internal links that still point to the old domain will create redirect chains once the old domain starts redirecting.
Update your XML sitemap to use the new domain’s URLs. Have it ready to submit the moment you flip the switch.
06 / NOTE
Execute on a low-traffic day.
Tuesday or Wednesday morning Australian time is usually the lowest-traffic window for most business sites. Avoid Mondays (email campaigns and start-of-week search spikes) and Fridays (less time to fix issues before the weekend).
Implement all 301 redirects on the old domain. Update DNS records if needed. Then immediately verify the new domain in Google Search Console and use the Change of Address tool. Submit your new sitemap. Request indexing for your most important pages.
The first hour is critical. Spot-check at least 20 redirects manually using your browser. Check that the old homepage, your top landing pages and any pages with significant backlinks all resolve to the correct new URLs with a single 301 hop.
07 / NOTE
Manually update everything that redirects cannot reach.
A 301 redirect catches search engine crawlers and users who click old links. But it does not update your listings, profiles and external references. These need manual attention.
Start with Google Business Profile, as it directly affects local search visibility. Then update your social media bios, email signatures, business directories, and any advertising campaigns that link to the old domain. If you have guest posts or contributor bios on other sites, reach out to those publishers and ask them to update the link. A direct link is always better than a redirected one.
This is also a good time to refresh your brand assets if your visual identity references the domain name anywhere. Business cards, letterheads, social media templates and email signatures all need the new address.
08 / NOTE
Watch the data, not your feelings.
A traffic dip in the first two to four weeks is normal and expected. Google needs time to recrawl, follow redirects and reindex. What matters is the trend, not the individual data points.
In Google Search Console, monitor the Index Coverage report on the new domain daily for the first month. You want to see indexed pages climbing as Google discovers the new URLs. On the old domain’s Search Console property, watch for crawl errors that indicate missed redirects.
Compare your keyword rankings at the four-week and eight-week marks against your pre-migration benchmark. If your top 20 keywords have recovered to within 10% of their previous positions, the migration is on track. If specific pages have dropped significantly, check their individual redirect status, canonical tags and internal linking.
09 / NOTE
Keep the old domain active for at least a year.
The old domain must remain registered and serving 301 redirects for a minimum of 12 months. Backlinks from external sites will continue pointing to the old URLs for a long time, and each of those links passes value to your new domain through the redirect.
If the old domain has a particularly strong backlink profile, consider renewing it indefinitely. The annual registration cost of a .com.au domain is a fraction of the SEO value those backlinks provide.
Under the new auDA rules, holding the old domain means maintaining an eligible registrant entity for it. Factor that compliance cost into your decision. If you are weighing up whether to keep or release multiple domains, our guide on consolidating multiple domains walks through the decision framework. And if you are curious what actually happens when a domain is lost entirely, see what happens to your rankings when you lose a domain.
10 / NOTE
What to do if rankings do not come back.
If your traffic has not recovered after 12 weeks, do not assume the migration failed entirely. First, rule out external factors: a Google algorithm update, a seasonal traffic pattern, or a competitor that overtook you independently of the migration.
Then check the technical fundamentals. Are there redirect chains with more than one hop? Are any canonical tags on the new domain pointing back to the old domain? Are there pages on the new domain returning 404 that should be returning 200? Is the new sitemap being crawled?
If you are dealing with a broader brand transition and the migration is part of a rebrand, our brand strategy tool can help you align your new positioning with the domain and identity changes. If you are thinking about starting fresh, our guide on how to build a brand from scratch covers the full process. And if you want a second pair of eyes on your situation, book a consultation and we can look at it together.