If the old domain still describes you well enough, keep it. If it misleads customers, move: redirect every old page to its new match, keep the old domain and its email working for years, and tell Google.

A name chosen for a smaller business

Most small business domains were chosen in an afternoon, years ago, to describe the business as it was then: one town, one service, sometimes the founder's name.

Then the business grew. It covers the whole region now, or the service in the name is a third of the work, or the founder has retired and sold up.

The domain still works. Email arrives and the site loads. But it describes the business as it used to be, and every new customer meets that description first.

Changing it is a real decision, with costs on both sides.

How a domain stops fitting

The first is common in BC, where a business that began in one suburb often works across the whole Lower Mainland. A customer two cities over sees the town in the address and assumes it is not for them.

When the old name still works

Plenty of outgrown domains are fine. If customers know the business by that name, if it is short and easy to say, and if the mismatch is minor, moving can cost more than it gains.

A domain is an address, not a description. The site itself can say what the business does now and where, and for many businesses that is enough.

The test is what the name makes a stranger assume. If it makes them assume something false that sends them elsewhere, it is costing work. If it only looks dated, it probably is not.

When it holds the business back

Some signs are concrete. Customers outside the named town ask whether you serve their area. People spell the address out on the phone and still get it wrong.

Or the business is moving into work the name contradicts, such as a company named for windows that now mostly builds decks.

A founder's name may still carry trust after they leave.

But if the domain is registered in the founder's own name, the business does not control its own address. That needs fixing whatever else is decided.

What a move puts at risk

A domain collects things over the years: its standing in search results, links from other sites, email addresses on old invoices, and the address painted on vans and printed on cards.

Each of those points at the old name. A careless move breaks them all at once.

A careful one carries them across, and most of the care comes down to one rule: the old domain never stops working.

Redirects, page by page

The heart of the move is a set of permanent redirects, called 301s, sending each page of the old site to the same page on the new domain: old services page to new services page.

Google reads a permanent redirect as a page that has moved for good, and passes its standing along. A bookmark or a link in an old email lands exactly where it should, too.

Sending everything to the new home page throws that away. Google can treat it much like a page that no longer exists, and a visitor following an old link has to start searching again.

Whoever maintains the site should list every old page first, from the site and from Search Console, then map and test each redirect.

Telling Google and everyone else

Search Console has a change of address tool for exactly this. Verify both domains, put the redirects in place, then use the tool to tell Google the site has moved.

Then update every place you control that names the old domain: your Google My Business listing, the Facebook page, directories, AdWords ads, email signatures and the analytics settings.

Ask the sites that link to you and matter most, such as associations and suppliers, to update their links. The redirects cover everyone else, and some movement in search over the following weeks is normal.

A worked example

A vending machine operator started fifteen years ago with snack machines in one Fraser Valley city, and its domain was the city's name followed by the word snacks.

It now runs coffee machines and fresh food fridges in offices and warehouses across three cities. Facilities managers in the other two kept asking whether it served them, and coffee, now its biggest line, was nowhere in the name.

Every machine also carried a sticker with the old address and a refund number, a few hundred stickers in all.

The owners chose a new domain made from the company name alone. Every old page was redirected to its match, and the change of address tool was used the same week.

The old domain was renewed for ten years, with its email still delivering. Drivers swapped the stickers on their regular service rounds, since they visit every machine anyway.

Keep the old domain for good

Renew the old domain for as long as the registrar allows, set it to renew automatically, and keep it in the same account as the new one.

If it ever lapses, the redirects stop, old email addresses bounce, and in time anyone can register it and receive whatever is still sent there.

Customers, suppliers and the bank will keep using the old addresses for years, so keep each one delivering into the right new mailbox, with a short automatic note giving the new address.

The counter-case

Some businesses should not move, or not yet.

If most customers still come from the named town, or the name is what people ask for by word of mouth, keeping it and widening what the site says may serve better.

A business with a fleet of lettered vans may stage the physical change, using the new name as each van is repainted, though the website itself moves at once.

Where the name misleads customers, though, move it deliberately, with page-by-page redirects and the old domain kept for good.

The order to do it in

  1. Register the new domain in the business's name.
  2. List every page on the old site.
  3. Map each old page to its new address.
  4. Set permanent redirects page by page.
  5. Use Search Console's change of address tool.
  6. Keep the old email addresses delivering.
  7. Renew the old domain for years ahead.

Step three is what protects everything the old domain earned. Each old address that lands on its true match keeps its visitors; each one sent to the home page loses them.

Choosing the ending for the new name is covered in new domain endings and whether to buy one.

Frequently asked questions

When is an outgrown domain still good enough?

When customers know you by it, it is easy to say and type, and the mismatch only looks dated rather than sending people somewhere else.

Will changing domains hurt our search standing?

Some movement for a few weeks is normal. Permanent redirects from every old page to its match, plus Search Console's change of address tool, carry the standing across.

Can we redirect everything to the new home page?

No. Google can treat that much like pages that no longer exist, and visitors following old links lose their place. Send each old page to its true match.

What happens to our old email addresses?

Keep them delivering into the right new mailboxes for years, with an automatic note giving the new address. People will use the old ones long after the move.

How long should we keep the old domain?

Indefinitely, set to renew automatically. Old invoices, signs and links keep pointing at it, and a lapsed domain can eventually be registered by someone else.

Should a departed founder's name stay in the domain?

It can, if the name still carries trust. But a domain registered in the founder's own name should move into the business's name regardless.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Domain naming a town you outgrew?

Tell us the old address and the name you want. We will plan a move that keeps every link working.

Start a Conversation