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Why we picked it This is the operational, do-this-in-order piece for the scary part of a rebrand: not losing the search traffic you already earned. It walks through a full pre-migration URL audit, a 1:1 301 redirect map, the Google Search Console change of address, and how long to keep the old domain redirecting (at least a year). If your new name means a new domain, read this before you touch anything, then treat it as your migration runbook.
A Strategic SEO Checklist for Startups Undergoing a Rebrand or Domain Migration
From Brand Voice by Brand Voice ~15 min read
- Map every old URL to its new home with 301 redirects before launch; a URL that changes without a redirect loses its accumulated ranking authority
- The Search Console change of address tool is a signal, not a substitute for redirects, and you still update internal links directly rather than leaning on the redirect layer
- Expect roughly three to six months to recover most authority, and keep the old redirects live for twelve months or more since you cannot manually fix every backlink pointing at you