Your domain in search results

When you connect a domain you own, or one I bought for you, your website's address changes for visitors right away — but search engines also need telling, or they keep ranking the platform address instead of yours. That part is handled for you.

What happens automatically

Once your domain is connected, your website is updated so search engines treat your own domain as its real address — the hidden tags and site map that tell search engines which address is the real one switch from the platform address to yours. You don't need to ask for it or approve anything. It happens at your site's next search check-up, which runs after each change to your site (your co-founder publishes regularly) and at least once a month regardless. You'll see one line in your activity, something like "I'm updating your website so search engines use yourbusiness.com", and the update publishes like any other change to your site.

Until that update lands, the pages still name the platform address. If you ask for an SEO check in that window it may be flagged — that isn't something you need to fix, and it clears on its own once the update is live. It also won't turn into a repeated request to approve SEO fixes: once you've said yes or no to one, you won't be asked again for a month unless your site's score actually drops.

Your other addresses forward to your domain

Once your domain is live and pointing at your website, anyone who visits your old platform address — or the "www." version of your domain — is sent straight to the same page on your domain. Search engines see one website at one address instead of two copies. Your domain's plain form (yourbusiness.com, without "www.") is the address everything forwards to.

If the "www." version of your domain doesn't open anything at all, your domain provider has no record for it yet — the records to add are on your Domain settings page.

If you disconnect

The same happens in reverse. Disconnecting your domain stops the forwarding and sends visitors back to your platform address within a few minutes, and at the next check-up your site is updated the same way so search engines use that address again.

What isn't covered yet

• Carrying over search history. Any ranking the platform address earned doesn't move across yet; your domain builds its own from here.

Connecting a domain in the first place, and what to do if it isn't live yet, is covered in Connecting a domain you already own.