Key Takeaways
- A rebrand that changes your domain name or URL structure creates broken links at every point where old URLs are referenced — internally, externally, and in Google’s index
- The preparation phase matters more than the migration day — most SEO damage from rebrands happens because groundwork wasn’t done in advance
- Domain changes require maintaining the old domain’s redirects indefinitely, not just for a few months
- After the migration, a broken link audit is one of the first things to do — not the last
Rebranding a Shopify store is one of the highest-risk SEO events you can run. Done carefully, you preserve most of the authority you’ve built. Done carelessly, you can watch rankings that took two years to build disappear in a week.
The difference is usually in the preparation. Most rebrands fail from an SEO perspective not because of the change itself, but because the groundwork wasn’t laid before the switch happened.
This checklist covers every step — before, during, and after — with a focus on protecting your link equity and avoiding broken links.
Before You Start: Audit What You’re Protecting
Before changing anything, document what you have.
Document Your Current URL Structure
Export a complete list of your current URLs:
- All product URLs (
/products/[handle]) - All collection URLs (
/collections/[handle]) - All page URLs (
/pages/[handle]) - All blog post URLs (
/blogs/[blog-name]/[post-handle])
This is your migration map. Every URL on this list may need a redirect.
How to get this list: Use Google Search Console’s URL inspection, a site crawl tool, or export from your Shopify admin. For a large store, a crawl tool (Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or Relink’s scan output) will give you the most complete list.
Check Which URLs Have External Links
External links pointing to your current URLs are assets. If those URLs change without redirects in place, you lose the authority those links send.
Check Google Search Console → Links → Top linked pages to see which URLs have external backlinks. These are the highest-priority pages to redirect correctly.
Check Which URLs Have Organic Traffic
Not every URL is equally valuable. Use Google Analytics or Search Console to identify which product, collection, and blog pages drive meaningful organic traffic. These pages need the most careful redirect handling.
Check Where Your Current URLs Appear Internally
Search your store content for your current domain and URL patterns. Every internal link to old URLs becomes a broken link the moment the URLs change.
The Rebrand Checklist
Phase 1: Domain Change (if applicable)
If your rebrand includes a new domain name:
- Register the new domain before announcing anything
- Set up the new domain in Shopify (Online Store → Domains)
- Keep the old domain active and set up a 301 redirect from old domain to new domain at the domain level (not just in Shopify — configure this at your registrar or hosting)
- Update your Shopify store’s primary domain to the new domain
- Submit the new domain to Google Search Console and request indexing
- Add the new domain as a property in Google Search Console (keep the old one too — you’ll need data from both)
- Update your sitemap to reflect the new domain and resubmit
Critical: Keep the old domain pointing to the new domain indefinitely — not just for six months. External links to your old domain will continue to appear for years. Dropping the redirect early kills the authority transfer.
Phase 2: URL Handle Changes (if applicable)
If your rebrand changes product handles, collection slugs, or page URLs:
- Create a mapping spreadsheet: old URL → new URL for every changed page
- Import redirects via CSV before making any handle changes (Shopify → URL Redirects → Import)
- Verify redirects are live before changing handles
- Change handles in Shopify
- Verify each redirect works by accessing the old URL in a browser
Why before, not after: Shopify does not automatically create redirects when you manually change a handle. If you change the handle first, there’s a window where the old URL returns 404 with no redirect. Even a brief 404 period can be crawled by Google.
Phase 3: Content Updates
- Update your store name in all title tags and meta descriptions (verify in theme settings)
- Update your store name in the footer, header, and About page
- Update any hardcoded references to the old domain or store name in product descriptions, blog posts, and pages
- Update email notifications (Shopify Settings → Notifications) with new branding and URLs
- Update any apps that display the store name or use your domain in their configuration
Phase 4: Internal Link Audit
After all URL changes are in place, run a full internal link audit:
- Scan all product descriptions, blog posts, and pages for links to old URLs
- Update internal links to point to new URLs directly (removes redirect dependency)
- Check navigation menus for any links that need updating
- Check any custom homepage sections or landing pages for old URLs
This step is where most rebrands fall short. Setting up redirects covers external traffic and Google’s index. Updating internal links improves link equity flow by removing redirect hops from your internal structure.
Phase 5: External Notifications
- Update your Google Business Profile with the new domain
- Update social media bios and link-in-bio tools
- Contact major external websites that link to you (especially high-authority ones) and request link updates to the new URL
- Update any partner or supplier websites where your store is listed
- Update the URL in your Shopify App Store listing (if you have one)
Phase 6: Post-Migration Monitoring
- Run a full broken link scan within 48 hours of migration completion
- Monitor Google Search Console daily for the first two weeks — watch for 404 spikes
- Check GSC’s “Coverage” report for any indexing issues with new URLs
- Monitor organic traffic for 4–6 weeks — some temporary drop is normal; sustained decline indicates problems
- Check for redirect chains: if you had existing redirects before the rebrand, some may now chain through new redirects
What to Expect After a Rebrand
Some Traffic Drop Is Normal
Google needs to recrawl and reindex your content under the new domain or URLs. This typically takes 2–8 weeks for most pages, longer for a large site. A temporary decline in organic visibility is expected.
What’s not expected: a sustained decline that doesn’t recover after 8–12 weeks. This usually indicates missing redirects, broken internal links that are leaking authority, or crawl issues with the new domain setup.
Ranking Recovery Timeline
After a domain migration with 301 redirects properly in place, most stores see rankings return to baseline within 4–12 weeks. Some recovery takes longer for highly competitive keywords.
If rankings don’t recover after 12 weeks, check:
- Are all redirects returning 301 (not 302)?
- Are there redirect chains that need to be flattened?
- Are there broken internal links leaking authority?
- Is Google correctly associating the new domain with your old content?
What Speeds Up Recovery
- Fewer redirect hops (update internal links to point directly to new URLs, not through redirects)
- No broken links in high-authority pages
- Consistent crawl signals (sitemap updated, GSC domain change request submitted)
- New domain having some pre-existing authority (even a newly registered domain that existed previously carries history)
Common Mistakes
Letting the old domain expire. After a domain change, renew the old domain every year. The redirects from the old domain are assets as long as external links point there. Losing the old domain removes the authority transfer for all those links.
Changing handles and setting up redirects after the fact. Set up redirects first. Even a brief 404 period can be crawled and indexed.
Updating only the homepage. Every page on your store needs attention. A product description deep-linking to an old URL creates a broken link just like a broken navigation item.
Assuming Shopify handles it. Shopify creates automatic redirects when product handles change through the admin, but not for domain changes, collection restructures, or manual URL changes. Verify every redirect rather than assuming it exists.
After a rebrand, a broken link scan is one of the first things to run. Relink scans your entire Shopify store’s content and surfaces every broken link with suggested fixes. Install free on Shopify.