Will new domain (new URLs) impact SEO from old posts?

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  raomegan · Member · Jul 8, 2017 at 10:00 pm

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  I’m interested in upgrading my current WordPress account to a .com domain. However, I have excellent SEO on a number of my posts that I don’t want to risk losing. If I upgrade to a domain, will the SEO of my old posts be impacted when the links change? How will that work? Thank you!

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  christineoakfield · Member · Jul 9, 2017 at 10:24 pm

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  Hi, @megjoliease,

  Congratulations on great SEO on your posts!

  Here is information from a staff member on this subject in a Recent Post:

  If you add a custom domain you will also experience a drop in search engine traffic at first while search engines re-index your site at the new domain, but then it should return to the same level it was before the change.

  Let me know if you need additional information.
  ~Christine

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  raomegan · Member · Jul 14, 2017 at 3:24 am

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  Thanks, Christine! I did some research over the last few days… would I need to set up a 301 redirect? Or will it happen automatically if I upgrade my wordpress account?

  I’m planning on changing the name from jolieasie to something else too… I’m hoping that won’t have an impact.

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  raomegan · Member · Jul 14, 2017 at 3:53 am

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  Actually… let me rephrase. I’d like to change the name of my blog, set up a domain with the new name, and preserve the SEO from my old content. Can this be done? And if so, in what order should I make these changes? First change the name, then upgrade to a domain, then set up the site redirect? OR, first change the name, then set up the site redirect, then upgrade to a domain?

  Thanks so much for your help!

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  justjennifer · Member · Jul 14, 2017 at 6:40 am

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  Adding a custom domain to your WordPressdotcom URL automatically creates those redirects. Here’s more on domains: https://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/

  However, as @christinemaze mentioned, initially you will have a drop in search engine traffic.

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  christineoakfield · Member · Jul 14, 2017 at 10:30 am

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  @raomegan- Yes, as @justjennifer mentions the custom domain will take care of that for you. WordPress.com makes it super easy. :-)

  @justjennifer- Thanks so much for following up. You are awesome – in case you haven’t heard that yet, today. :)

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  raomegan · Member · Jul 15, 2017 at 4:02 am

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  Thank you both! Sorry to ask so many questions… let’s say I want my new blog to be Cookie, hypothetically. Should I change my current wordpress URL to cookie.wordpress.com, THEN upgrade to a .com domain? Or could I just purchase cookie.com and the content from my current blog will be moved under the cookie.com domain automatically?

  Thank you again for your help, this is all new and overwhelming to me!

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  justjennifer · Member · Jul 15, 2017 at 6:04 am

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  @raomegan- There is a small advantage to having the same name on your underlying WordPressdotcom URL, but it isn’t 100% necessary. Your media URLs will display the underlying WordPressdotcom URL and you will always see the underlying WordPressdotcom URL when using the site’s admin pages.

  Take some time to read the references in the support doc on domains I linked to earlier as well as this one and then come back to us if you have any further questions. :)