What Happens When You Change Your Website Address (And Why It Matters for Your Business)
Have you ever moved your business to a new location? You probably notified customers, updated your business cards, and maybe even put a sign at the old location directing people to your new address. The same principle applies when your website address changes—except online, we call this process “URL redirection.”
When Businesses Need Website Redirects
There are several common scenarios where businesses need proper redirects:
1. Rebranding Your Business When “Bob’s Plumbing” becomes “Valley Plumbing Services,” your website address needs to change too. Without proper redirects, customers searching for your old business name will hit dead ends.
2. Consolidating Multiple Websites Many businesses start with multiple domains (maybe you bought both .com and .net versions). Redirects ensure all traffic flows to your main site, strengthening your online presence.
3. Updating Your Website Structure During a website redesign, page addresses often change. That popular service page that ranks well in Google? It needs to redirect to the new version, or you’ll lose that valuable search traffic.
4. Switching Website Platforms When businesses move from one platform to another, the URL structure often changes completely. Proper redirects preserve the SEO value you’ve built over the years.
The Hidden Cost of Getting Redirects Wrong
Here’s what happens to businesses that don’t handle redirects properly:
Lost Customers: People clicking old links get error messages instead of your website. Imagine if every business card you handed out last year suddenly stopped working.
Damaged SEO: Google rankings you spent years building can disappear overnight. Search engines interpret missing pages as deleted content and remove them from search results.
Wasted Marketing: Those business cards, flyers, ads, and directory listings with your old web address? They lead nowhere.
Broken Customer Trust: Nothing damages credibility faster than broken links. Customers may question whether you’re still in business.
Consider this real-world example: A restaurant changed their domain name without proper redirects. They lost 70% of their web traffic overnight because Google couldn’t find their new site. It took three months to recover their rankings—and their customer traffic suffered the entire time.
Understanding Professional Redirect Implementation
When developers manage website transitions, they implement what’s called “301 redirects”—think of them as permanent forwarding addresses for your web pages. Here’s what this means in practical terms:
Seamless Customer Experience Whether visitors click an old link, type your old address, or find you through an outdated Google search, they’ll automatically arrive at your new site. They won’t even know a redirect happened.
Preserved Search Rankings All that SEO value you’ve built transfers to the new address. Google understands that the page has moved, not disappeared.
Complete Coverage Every old page connects to its new equivalent. This includes your homepage, service pages, blog posts, and contact forms.
Maintained Analytics You can still track where visitors come from, even through old links, helping you understand your marketing effectiveness.
Why DIY Redirects Often Fail
Many business owners attempt to handle redirects themselves, but technical limitations quickly become apparent:
Most website builder platforms don’t allow proper redirect implementation. They might offer basic forwarding, but not the comprehensive 301 redirects that preserve SEO value.
Incorrect redirect setup can actually harm your search rankings. Google can interpret improper redirects as an attempt to manipulate search results.
Missing even one important redirect can cost you customers. If your most popular service page doesn’t redirect, you lose all that traffic.
Technical errors can make your site appear suspicious to search engines, potentially resulting in penalties that take months to resolve.
Types of Redirects and When They’re Used
301 Redirect (Permanent) This tells search engines the page has permanently moved. Use this for domain changes, rebranding, or permanent URL structure changes. This is the most important type for businesses.
302 Redirect (Temporary) This indicates a temporary move. Use this for seasonal pages or temporary maintenance. Search engines won’t transfer SEO value with this type.
Meta Refresh An older method that redirects after a delay. Not recommended for business use as it can confuse both visitors and search engines.
Best Practices for Website Transitions
Create a Redirect Map Before making any changes, document every important page on your current site and where it should point on the new site.
Test Everything After implementing redirects, test every old URL to ensure it reaches the correct new page.
Monitor Your Traffic Watch your analytics closely for the first few weeks. Any sudden drops in traffic might indicate a redirect problem.
Update Your Marketing Materials While redirects handle old links, update your business cards, ads, and directory listings with your new web address as soon as possible.
Keep Redirects in Place Don’t remove redirects after a few months. Keep them active indefinitely—you never know where old links might still exist.
When to Seek Professional Help
Contact a web developer about redirects if you’re:
- Changing your business name or domain
- Upgrading from a DIY website builder
- Seeing “404 error” reports in your analytics
- Merging multiple websites
- Redesigning your site structure
The Bottom Line
Your website address is like your business’s digital street address. When it changes, proper forwarding ensures customers can still find you. Redirects aren’t just technical details—they’re about preserving your online reputation and the customer relationships you’ve built.
Understanding how redirects work helps you make informed decisions about your website, whether you handle them yourself or work with a professional. The key is ensuring they’re done right the first time, because fixing redirect problems after the fact is always more difficult than preventing them.
If you have web development questions, or are in need of having a website developed, please feel free to contact me at info@ecurtisdesigns.com.
