Whether you're rebranding, optimizing for SEO, or simply moving to a better domain name, migrating your existing Webflow site to a new domain can be a significant but manageable task. This resource will guide you through the process to help you achieve a smooth transition for your website and visitors.
Note: This resource is tailored for existing/live Webflow sites with standard hosting setups where your domain is pointed to Webflow servers using our DNS records. The domain migration process for alternative setups (such as those with a reverse proxy or migrations that will involve project splitting) may entail some of these steps and/or additional configurations (e.g., in external servers or in separate projects).
Planning for migration
Before beginning the migration process, it's essential to plan thoroughly. Consider the following:
- Choose and purchase your new domain: If you don’t yet own your new domain, you can purchase a domain from any domain name provider, or you can buy a domain and connect it to your site automatically through Webflow (from IONOS).
- SEO considerations: Assess the SEO impact of the migration and plan strategies to minimize any potential negative effects on your search engine rankings.
- Content audit: Take inventory of your existing site content and ensure it's up to date. This is an excellent opportunity to refresh or remove outdated content.
- 301 redirect mapping: If the top-level domain will be the only part of your URLs subject to change, you may not need to set up new 301 redirects. However, if your URL changes will also include page slugs or folder slugs, create a comprehensive list of old URLs and map them to their corresponding new URLs.
- Note: For ease of uploading your 301 redirects into Webflow during a later step, create this list as a CSV file with two columns. The left column should contain old URLs as a relative path (the slug or subdirectory only, excluding the top-level domain) and the right column should contain the new target URLs (these can be either relative or absolute URLs).
Preparing your site
Prepare your Webflow site for migration by checking for and implementing any necessary changes.
Updates to your page content and page settings can be staged on page branches to remain isolated from production, and then merged when you’re ready to begin the domain migration. Updates to your Site settings should occur shortly before migration or during a freeze to reduce the risk of changes being unintentionally pushed to production.
- Update internal links: If you have any internal links that direct visitors to absolute URLs with your previous domain (generally set as a URL link type in your Link Settings), update those destination URLs to reflect the new domain. Although your upcoming redirects may automatically send visitors to the new domain, it’s best practice for site performance to reduce internal redirects as much as possible; this step also reduces the risk of missing redirects that would otherwise result in broken links.
- Note: You won’t need to update any internal Page type links, Collection page type links, or URL link types with relative paths. When you later add your new default domain, these URLs will be considered relative to that new domain.
- Update custom code: If you have any custom code snippets or integrations (e.g., analytics, experimentation, or cookie consent tools) referencing the old domain, update them accordingly to avoid disruption of services or expected functionality.
- SSL certificate:
- If you have Webflow’s standard SSL enabled, no action is needed since Webflow will automatically generate a new SSL certificate for your new domain.
- If you have an existing custom SSL certificate uploaded for your old domains, you must upload new SSL certificates for your new domains (even if it is the same certificate being used for multiple domains), including the www and non-www versions of your new domain.
- Note: Do not delete or remove the existing SSL certificates for your old domains, as you will still need them for the site that is currently live on those domains.
- Security headers: If you have any custom security headers enabled, such as a content-security-policy (CSP) header, check for directives that reference the old domain and update them accordingly to prevent unexpected behavior, such as critical resources getting blocked.
- Canonical tag: Update your canonical tags with your new domain so that search engines can understand it is now the primary or preferred version to display in search results. If your Global Canonical Tag URL is set in Webflow, you can update this globally from your Site settings.
- 301 redirects: As previously noted, if the top-level domain will be the only part of your URLs subject to change, you may not need to set up any specific 301 redirects. However, if your URL changes will also include updates to page slugs or folder slugs, you should upload your 301 redirects in Webflow at this point to ensure those redirects take effect upon domain migration.
Migrating your domain
When it's time to migrate your Webflow site to the new domain, follow these steps to deploy the changes to your live site:
- Add your new domain: On your Site settings > Publishing page, add your new domain as a secondary custom domain under the Production section.
- Update your DNS records: Through your DNS provider, create or update the DNS records provided by Webflow on your Site settings page.
- Be sure to verify your domain ahead of time (with the TXT record provided by Webflow), as you won’t be able to publish to your new domain until the verification process is complete.
- Note: Consider reducing the time to live (TTL) values for relevant records, at least a few days prior to the anticipated DNS change. This will reduce the DNS propagation time, making the switch to Webflow faster and decreasing the potential length of downtime. Once DNS has propagated, TTL can be restored to normal levels.
- It may take some time for your DNS records to propagate. Once you’ve confirmed your domain is pointing to Webflow (through the “Check status” step), you can move on to the next step.
- Set your new default domain: Once your DNS records have propagated, you can set your new domain as the new default domain for your site. This step allows Webflow to automatically redirect all traffic from the other domains (such as your old domain) to the new default, which helps you avoid SEO penalties due to duplicate content.
- Note: Most DNS providers will only allow you to use the 'www' version of your site as the default. Using the root domain as your default may not be supported by your DNS provider, which can then result in redirect errors.
- Note: In order for Webflow to automatically redirect traffic from your old domain to your new one, you must keep the old domain on your Webflow site, and its DNS records must remain pointed at Webflow. Do not delete or remove the old domain settings unless you wish to handle all domain-level redirects yourself.
- Publish changes: Publish your Webflow site with the new domain settings for them to take effect on your live site.
Post-migration tasks
After migrating your Webflow site, don't forget these crucial post-migration tasks:
- Inform search engines: Submit your site’s new domain through search engine tools such as Google’s Change of Address Tool.
- Submit updated sitemap: Submit an updated sitemap to search engines to expedite the indexing of your new domain.
- Monitor for 404 errors: Continuously monitor for any 404 errors and promptly set up redirects for any missing pages.
- Update external links: Update any external links pointing to your website to reflect the new domain.
- Communicate with users: Inform your audience (e.g., site visitors, customers, directory partners, media partners, etc.) about the domain migration via email, social media, or website notifications to avoid confusion.
Conclusion
Completing the domain migration for your Webflow site marks a significant milestone in growing and evolving your online presence. Following the best practices outlined in this guide ensures a smooth transition while safeguarding the user experience, functionality, and security of your website. Going forward, it's essential to monitor your website's performance, promptly address any issues that arise, and remain proactive in maintaining it.