How do you choose a new domain and maintain external links?

When choosing a new domain, first consider whether the name reflects your brand and is easy to recognize. Then check whether the domain and matching social media handles are available, and whether a previously owned domain has any harmful backlinks. If you are changing the domain of an existing website, inventory inbound links from other sites before the change. Afterward, prioritize asking important sites to update their links, and continue addressing broken links. Here, external link maintenance mainly means maintaining backlinks from other websites to your own. The goal is to ensure that references point to the correct pages, not to guarantee higher rankings.

Keep the name close to your brand, without limiting yourself to .com

A 2023 Semrush article recommends that the second-level domain—the part of the web address representing the website’s name—should match or closely resemble the brand name. The reasoning is that searchers who recognize the brand may be more willing to click a matching URL. This does not mean that the domain name itself will necessarily improve rankings.

The top-level domain is the ending, such as .com or .net. The article generally recommends .com as the first choice, but explicitly notes that it is not always the best option. If a suitable .com is unavailable, consider a memorable .co or .net address, or another ending that better fits your business. You do not need to sacrifice the connection between the name and your brand just to secure a .com.

Check past links as well as availability

Before deciding, you can complete three checks:

• Domain availability: Confirm that the name you want is still available.
• Social media name consistency: Check whether matching handles are available so your website and social media presence remain consistent.
• Existing link history: If the domain was previously owned, check whether it has accumulated a large number of harmful backlinks.

Semrush cautions that harmful links can sometimes hinder SEO performance. This is a risk worth checking, not a suggestion that every previously used domain has problems. Previous ownership alone is not enough to determine that a domain is unsuitable.

Export a list before changing domains and focus on important links

If you are migrating a website, first inventory and export the backlinks pointing to the old site. Semrush recommends identifying authoritative sources relevant to your website’s subject matter and prioritizing outreach to those sites for link updates.

Redirecting old pages helps with SEO, but the article suggests that having external sites link directly to the new domain is usually better. These approaches are not mutually exclusive, and you should not rely solely on redirects. Since requesting updates takes time and not every message will succeed, focus your limited time on the most important links.

Specify where links appear in update requests, and keep checking for broken references

When reaching out, first find the right contact. Then explain which page on their site contains the link, which old page it currently points to, and the new URL you would like them to use. For example: “The further-reading section of an article on your site links to our old tutorial page. Our website has moved to a new domain. Could you please update the link to the new URL below?” Do not simply say “our website has moved” and leave the recipient to find the link.

Maintenance is not limited to site migrations. A 2020 awoo article recommends regularly looking for links that have broken because another site entered the wrong URL or the referenced page was deleted, then asking the site operator to replace them with the correct or suggested URL. This can inform your maintenance work, but the article’s descriptions of SEO benefits should not be treated as ranking guarantees.