A question regarding SEO and domain change

So to be short I have a .pro domain that is ranking first on google for a few keywords but as the business grew bigger we had to upgrade to a .com domain that is a few weeks old.
Now we would like to redirect the old website domain to the new .com domain but I am worried on how that is going to affect the ranking of the .pro domain.

Would the process for redirecting just be to redirect it from my namecheap account panel?
Will it stop being first in google after that.
Thanks.

viking011 said:

Would the process for redirecting just be to redirect it from my namecheap account panel?
Will it stop being first in google after that.

Click to expand...

- yes you simply redirect from your domain name registrar,
- the site may or may not stay first; as the new site is newer, and also a redirect does not transfer 100% of the link juice; but then if google decides it is the same site (especially if it is just .pro changed to .com with the exact same domain name), then they may keep it first; so imo it should stay near the top, maybe #1 still.

You should also redirect on WMT to advise Google on it.

safeSEOboost said:

- yes you simply redirect from your domain name registrar,
- the site may or may not stay first; as the new site is newer, and also a redirect does not transfer 100% of the link juice; but then if google decides it is the same site (especially if it is just .pro changed to .com with the exact same domain name), then they may keep it first; so imo it should stay near the top, maybe #1 still.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input. Appreciate it .

When you will update the domain name, you should have the proper redirection. All type of redirection have some risks in case of SEO ranking. It's recommended to use the 301 redirection and you should make sure that there is link to every single page on the website. There should not be 404 error after updating the domain name.

Make sure you will contact your hosting provider when you will update the domain name. There are number of links which should get replaced at the hosting provider's end. It is very important for the SEO ranking. After that make sure if there is nay CMS then update the site URL and home URL. Submit a change of address in Google Search Console (GSC) and Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT). Update all the internal links. Make sure to update the Google Analytics settings too.

you can also use .htaccess to redirect