Before you switch your domain to a new website, verify seven things: lower the DNS TTL a day or two ahead, record and protect your email MX records, confirm SSL will work on the live domain, map 301 redirects from every old URL, test every form end to end, make sure analytics and tracking are installed, and remove any noindex tag or blocking robots.txt rule left over from staging. Then check them all again straight after the switch.
Most launch problems are not dramatic. They are quiet: emails that stop arriving, enquiries going nowhere, or a site that disappears from Google over a few weeks. Each item below exists because it is easy to miss.
A few days before: lower the DNS TTL
Every DNS record has a TTL, or time to live, which tells other servers how long to cache it. If your current TTL is several hours or a day, a change can take that long to reach everyone, and fixing a mistake takes just as long.
A day or two before launch, lower the TTL on the records you will change, typically the root domain and www, to something short such as five minutes. Wait for the old TTL to expire before you switch. After launch, once everything is stable, raise it again. If your DNS is managed by your registrar, check whether they allow short TTLs; some set a minimum.
Protect your email: copy the MX records
Your domain’s DNS also controls your email. The MX records say where mail is delivered, and TXT records such as SPF, DKIM and DMARC help your mail get delivered rather than marked as spam. A website launch should not touch any of these, but it often does: a new host offers to “take over DNS”, or someone moves nameservers and only copies the website records.
Before anything changes, export or screenshot every existing DNS record. If you are moving DNS to a new provider, recreate every record there first, not just the website ones. After the switch, send a test email to and from the business address, and check from an outside account such as a personal Gmail.
Changing nameservers moves all DNS records at once. Changing an A or CNAME record only moves the website. If you only need to point the website somewhere new, the second is usually much lower risk.
SSL: will https work on the real domain?
A staging site on the host’s own address already has a certificate. Your real domain may not until DNS points at it. Most modern hosts issue a free certificate automatically once the domain resolves, but it can take a few minutes, and some need you to trigger it. Ask your host how it works. After launch, visit both https://yourdomain.com.au and https://www.yourdomain.com.au, confirm the padlock, and check that http redirects to https.
Redirects: map every old URL
If any page addresses change, old URLs need 301 redirects to their new equivalents. Without them, links from other sites, bookmarks and Google’s index all lead to error pages, and rankings built up over years can slide.
- Export a list of old URLs from your current site, your sitemap and Google Search Console.
- Match each one to its closest new page. Redirect to the homepage only when there is genuinely nothing similar.
- Set up the redirects on the new site or host before launch.
- After launch, test a sample of old URLs, including your most visited pages and any linked from other sites.
There is a longer guide to this in moving to a new website without losing your Google traffic.
Remove the staging blocks
Staging sites are usually hidden from search engines, which is correct until launch day. The two common settings are a noindex meta tag on every page and a robots.txt file containing Disallow: /. In WordPress, the setting is under Settings → Reading, labelled “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”. Other platforms have their own equivalent.
After the switch, view the source of a few live pages and search for noindex, then visit /robots.txt on the live domain. This is one of the most common launch mistakes, and because nothing visibly breaks, it can go unnoticed for weeks.
Forms: test every one, end to end
A form that looks fine can still send its submissions nowhere. On the live domain, submit every form: contact, quote, booking, newsletter sign-up. Check the email arrives, the right person receives it, any auto-reply goes out, and the entry lands in your CRM or mailing tool, such as Mailchimp, if it is connected. Email sent from a new host is a frequent cause of silent failure. Is your contact form actually delivering? covers the usual causes and fixes.
Analytics and tracking
Confirm your analytics tool is installed on the live site and recording visits. Check that key events still fire, such as form submissions or purchases, and that any advertising or conversion tags are in place. Add or verify the domain in Google Search Console and submit the new sitemap. If you are setting up analytics from scratch, GA4, Plausible or Fathom helps you choose.
The launch-day checklist
- DNS TTL lowered at least a day ahead.
- All DNS records exported, including MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
- Redirect map in place and tested.
- No
noindextag, androbots.txtallows crawling. - SSL working on root and
www, withhttpredirecting tohttps. - Every form submitted and received.
- Analytics recording, Search Console verified, sitemap submitted.
- Test email sent and received on the business address.
- Old site and database backed up and kept for a few weeks.
- Someone available for a few hours after the switch in case anything needs rolling back.
Launch early in the week and early in the day. A Friday afternoon switch leaves nobody around when something is noticed on Saturday. If you are launching a store, also run a real test order through to payment confirmation; Stripe, Square or Tyro covers payment set-up for Australian sites.
If you only do three things
Copy every DNS record before touching anything so email keeps working. Remove noindex and check robots.txt on the live domain. Submit every form and confirm the emails arrive.
If you would like someone to run these checks with you before and after the switch, our technical SEO service covers redirects, indexing and launch audits as a defined job. Audits from $600. Most technical SEO jobs land between $600 and $3,000.
