Changing your domain name on Wix is more straightforward than it sounds, but getting it right matters. The domain you use affects your Google rankings, your email setup, and how visitors find your site. Whether you are rebranding, upgrading from a free Wix subdomain, or replacing a domain that never performed well, this guide walks you through every step using the current Wix dashboard.
Before You Change Your Wix Domain: A Pre-Switch Checklist
Rushing a domain change can cause real problems, lost search rankings, broken email, and confused visitors. Before you touch anything in your Wix dashboard, run through this checklist.
1. Understand the SEO impact of a Wix domain change
If your current domain has any Google rankings, links pointing to it, or indexed pages, switching to a new domain will reset those unless you redirect properly. Google treats a domain change as a site migration. With a proper 301 redirect in place, most of your ranking authority transfers over time, but it is not instant. Expect some ranking fluctuation in the weeks after the switch.
If your current domain has zero rankings and no backlinks (for example, you are moving off a Wix free subdomain like yoursite.wixsite.com), there is very little SEO risk involved.
2. Plan your 301 redirects
A 301 redirect tells Google and browsers that your old URL has permanently moved to your new one. Without it, anyone visiting your old domain hits a dead end, and any link equity you had built up is lost. You will need to set up a 301 redirect on Wix from your old domain to your new domain before disconnecting the old one. Do this step before you remove the old domain from your Wix account.
3. Check your email accounts
If you use a professional email address that matches your current domain (e.g. [email protected]), those email accounts are tied to your domain. Switching domains means you will need to either migrate to a new email address or update your email DNS records to point to the new domain. Notify contacts of the change and set up forwarding where possible to avoid missing messages during the transition.
4. Note your current domain's expiry date
If you registered your domain through Wix, you do not need to worry about this, Wix manages renewal automatically. If your domain is registered with a third-party provider (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, etc.), check when it expires before you start the migration. You do not want your domain to lapse mid-transition.
5. Make sure you are on a paid Wix plan
Custom domains require a paid Wix subscription. Free accounts only get a Wix-branded subdomain (yourname.wixsite.com). If you are not sure which plan covers your needs, see our breakdown of how much Wix costs and what each tier includes.
How to Change Your Domain Name on Wix: Step-by-Step
The steps below reflect the current Wix dashboard as of 2026. Wix updates its UI periodically, so the exact labels may shift slightly, but the overall flow remains the same.
Step 1, Log in to your Wix account
Go to wix.com and click Log In in the top right corner. Enter your email address and password. If you use a social login (Google, Facebook, Apple), use the same method you signed up with. Once logged in, you will land on your My Sites dashboard.
Step 2, Go to your site's dashboard
From My Sites, find the website you want to update and click on it. This opens that site's individual dashboard. You will see your site's stats, settings, and management tools on the left-hand panel.
Step 3, Open the Domains section
In your site dashboard, look at the left-hand navigation panel and click Domains. This takes you to a page showing all domains currently connected to your site. You will see your current primary domain listed here, along with any additional domains you may have attached.
Alternatively, you can access domains from the top of your Wix dashboard by clicking your account avatar, selecting Account Settings, and then navigating to Domains, this shows all domains across all your Wix sites in one place.
Step 4, Add your new domain
Click + Add Domain (or Connect Domain depending on your view). Wix gives you three options:
- Buy a new domain through Wix, Search for and purchase a domain directly. Wix registers it on your behalf and handles DNS automatically. This is the simplest option if you do not already have a domain. See our guide on how much a Wix domain costs for pricing details.
- Connect a domain you already own, If you registered a domain with another provider (GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.), you can point it to Wix by updating the DNS records at your registrar. You keep ownership and management at the external registrar. Read our full guide on how to connect a domain to Wix for the exact DNS steps.
- Transfer a domain to Wix, Move full management of your domain from another registrar to Wix. This is a longer process (requires an authorization code from your current registrar and can take several days) but centralises everything under your Wix account.
Choose the option that fits your situation and follow the on-screen prompts. If you are buying through Wix, the domain is ready almost immediately. If you are connecting or transferring an external domain, you will need to wait for DNS propagation, which can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours depending on your registrar's TTL settings.
Step 5, Set the new domain as your primary domain
Once your new domain is connected and verified, go back to the Domains section of your site dashboard. You will see both your old domain and your new domain listed. Click the three-dot menu (or the action options) next to your new domain and select Set as Primary.
Your primary domain is what visitors see in the address bar and what Wix uses as the canonical URL for your site. All other connected domains become secondary and will redirect visitors to your primary domain automatically by default.
Step 6, Verify the change and test your site
After setting your new domain as primary, open a new browser tab and type in your new domain. Confirm that your Wix site loads correctly. Check a few internal pages to make sure navigation works as expected.
If you connected an external domain and your site is not loading yet, DNS propagation may still be in progress. You can check propagation status using a free tool like whatsmydns.net, enter your domain and look for the A record or CNAME to confirm it has updated globally.
Step 7, Set up your 301 redirect from the old domain
Do not disconnect your old domain immediately. Instead, keep it connected to Wix and set up a 301 redirect so that anyone visiting your old domain gets sent automatically to your new one. This protects your search engine rankings and ensures no one lands on a broken page.
In Wix, you can set up URL redirects from your site dashboard under Settings > URL Redirect Manager. For a full domain redirect (rather than individual page redirects), you will typically manage this at the domain or DNS level, keeping the old domain pointed to Wix and using Wix's redirect tools to forward all traffic.
Keep the old domain active and redirecting for at least 6-12 months. This gives Google time to fully crawl and recrawl your site under the new domain.
Step 8, Update any third-party tools and listings
Your new domain needs to be updated anywhere your old domain was referenced. Work through this list:
- Google Search Console, Add your new domain as a property and submit your sitemap. Use the Change of Address tool to notify Google of the migration.
- Google Analytics, Update the domain in your GA4 property settings if you are using domain-level configuration.
- Social media profiles, Update the website URL on your Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and any other profiles.
- Email signatures, Update your domain across any email signatures or templates.
- Business listings, Google Business Profile, Yelp, directories, and any citations that link to your site.
- Backlinks, Reach out to important linking sites to update their links to your new domain, where feasible. Your 301 redirects handle the authority transfer in the meantime.
What Happens to Your Old Wix Domain?
When you switch your primary domain, your old domain does not disappear unless you actively disconnect or let it expire. Keeping it attached to your Wix site (even as a secondary domain) means visitors who type the old address will be redirected to your new primary domain. This is the recommended approach for at least the first year after a domain change.
If your old domain was a free Wix subdomain (yourname.wixsite.com), you cannot control or redirect that URL the same way, Wix does not allow you to set up 301 redirects from free subdomains. This is one of the strongest reasons to move to a custom domain as early as possible.
How Long Does a Wix Domain Change Take?
The time varies depending on the method:
- Buying a new domain through Wix: Near-instant, usually live within minutes.
- Connecting an existing domain via DNS: 1-48 hours for propagation, depending on your registrar's TTL settings.
- Transferring a domain to Wix: 5-7 days, domain transfers require an authorization code and have a mandatory waiting period set by ICANN rules.
Troubleshooting Wix Domain Change Issues
If your domain change is not behaving as expected, here is how to diagnose the most common problems:
New Domain Shows a Blank Page or Error
This almost always means DNS propagation has not finished yet. Wait a few hours and try again. If the issue persists after 48 hours, go to your registrar and confirm that the nameservers or CNAME records are pointing to Wix correctly. The nameservers Wix requires are ns1.wixdns.net and ns2.wixdns.net, confirm those are set at your registrar and have not reverted. You can also use whatsmydns.net to check whether your domain's DNS is resolving to Wix globally.
Old Domain Is Still Loading Instead of the New One
Your browser may be caching the old domain. Try opening your new domain in an incognito or private browsing window, or clear your browser cache. If the old domain still loads across multiple devices and browsers, check that you correctly set the new domain as primary in your Wix Domains settings, it is a common mistake to connect the new domain but forget to change the primary setting.
Can't Set the New Domain as Primary
Wix requires that a domain be verified and active before you can set it as primary. If the "Set as Primary" option is greyed out, the domain has not finished connecting yet, DNS propagation may still be in progress. If the domain shows as connected but the option is still unavailable, try disconnecting and reconnecting the domain, then waiting a few minutes before attempting to set it as primary again. If you see an error about your Wix plan, you may need to upgrade to a plan that supports custom domains.
Email Stopped Working After Domain Change
If your professional email stopped working after switching domains, the MX records for your email provider are still pointing to your old domain setup. Go to your domain registrar (or Wix if your domain is managed there) and update the MX records to reflect your new domain. If you use Wix Email Hosting, go to your Wix Dashboard, navigate to Email & Marketing, and reconnect your email under the new domain. Contact your email provider's support if you are unsure which DNS records need updating.
What to Expect for SEO After a Wix Domain Change
Even with a perfect 301 redirect setup, a domain change causes a temporary disruption to your search rankings. Here is a realistic timeline of what to expect:
- Days 1-14: Google begins discovering your new domain. You may see ranking drops as Google processes the migration. This is normal and not permanent. Submit your new domain as a property in Google Search Console and use the Change of Address tool to speed up Google's recognition of the migration.
- Weeks 2-6: Rankings gradually stabilize as Google recrawls your site under the new domain and transfers authority from your old domain via the 301 redirects. Sites with strong backlink profiles recover faster than those starting from scratch.
- Months 2-3: Most sites have returned to or exceeded their pre-migration rankings by this point, assuming the 301 redirects are in place and the new domain is properly set up in Search Console. If you are still seeing significant drops after 3 months, check that your old domain is still redirecting (it sometimes lapses if you forget to renew it) and that your sitemap is submitted under the new domain property.
Sites migrating from a Wix free subdomain (yourname.wixsite.com) to a new custom domain typically see a faster recovery since the subdomain rarely had significant ranking authority to begin with. The bigger risk in this scenario is that Google has already indexed some of your pages under the wixsite.com URL, those indexed pages will 404 since you cannot redirect from a Wix free subdomain. There is no fix for this other than time: Google will de-index the old subdomain pages and reindex under your new custom domain as it crawls.
How to Monitor Your Wix Domain Migration in Google Search Console
Google Search Console is the most reliable tool for tracking whether Google is picking up your new domain and processing the migration correctly. Set this up on day one so you have baseline data from the start.
Add Your New Domain as a GSC Property
Go to search.google.com/search-console, click the property dropdown at the top left, and select "Add property." Choose the "Domain" property type for the broadest coverage, as this tracks all subdomains and both HTTP and HTTPS variants under one property. Verify ownership using your DNS provider by adding the TXT record GSC gives you. Once verified, go to the Sitemaps report in the left menu and submit your Wix sitemap URL, which is usually yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml or yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml.
Use the Change of Address Tool
GSC's Change of Address tool tells Google directly that your site has moved to a new domain. It is only available if you have verified both the old domain and the new domain as separate properties in GSC. To access it, open the old domain's property in GSC, click Settings in the left panel, then select "Change of address" and follow the prompts to select your new domain. This does not replace 301 redirects. It works alongside them to help Google process the migration faster than redirects alone would achieve.
Reports to Check Every Week After the Migration
Three reports give you the clearest picture of how the migration is progressing:
- Pages report (Index section): Watch for a spike in "Not found (404)" errors on your old domain property. Some 404s are expected while Google processes the change, but if they are still rising after four weeks, your 301 redirects may not be working.
- Performance report: Compare clicks and impressions on your new domain property against your old domain property. You want to see the new domain's numbers rising as the old domain's fall. If both are declining at the same time, your redirects may not be passing authority correctly.
- URL Inspection tool: Enter specific URLs from your new domain to confirm Google has indexed them. If important pages show as "URL is not on Google," use the "Request indexing" button to push them to the front of the crawl queue.
How a Domain Change Affects Wix Members and Stored Data
If your Wix site uses Wix Members, Wix Stores, or any feature that stores user data such as forms, bookings, or CRM contacts, a domain change has effects beyond the URL that are easy to overlook.
Wix Members and Login Access
Member login links embedded in system emails (password reset emails, sign-up confirmations) reference your site's primary domain. After changing your primary domain, send a test registration and password reset to yourself to confirm those email links have updated. Member-gated pages and login redirects in Wix are managed at the site level and should update automatically when you change your primary domain, but it is worth verifying before you announce the switch to your audience.
Wix CRM and Form Submission Emails
Your Wix CRM stores contact data submitted through your forms. The data itself does not change when you switch domains. What can break is the "return to site" link inside form submission confirmation emails. Check your Wix Forms notification templates in your dashboard and update any hardcoded references to your old domain. Look in your dashboard under Inbox and then the Automations settings for each form.
Wix Stores Order Confirmation Emails
Wix Stores order confirmation emails include a link back to the order status page. After a domain change, verify that this link resolves correctly under your new domain. Test by checking the email template in your Wix dashboard under Email Marketing, then Transactional Emails. Your customer order history and CRM data in the dashboard are not affected by the domain change.
Wix Blog Comments
Visitor comments on your Wix Blog are stored in Wix's database and remain attached to the correct posts regardless of your domain change. No action is needed for comment data. Share URLs that visitors may have saved for specific posts will continue working as long as your old domain is redirecting to your new one.
5 Common Wix Domain Change Mistakes That Hurt Your SEO
Most domain change problems are avoidable. These are the specific mistakes that show up most often and cause the most lasting damage.
1. Disconnecting the Old Domain Too Soon
Removing your old domain from Wix on the same day you switch to the new one is the single most damaging mistake you can make. Without an active redirect, anyone visiting your old domain (including Google's crawlers following old backlinks) hits a dead end. Those visits register as 404 errors, and the link equity from backlinks is not passed to your new domain. Keep your old domain connected and redirecting for at least 12 months after the switch.
2. Forgetting to Submit a Sitemap for the New Domain
Submitting your sitemap under your new GSC property tells Google exactly which pages to prioritize for crawling. Without it, Google has to discover your new domain's pages by following links from other sites, which is slower. This matters most for sites with more than 20 pages or sites that do not have many external backlinks pointing to them.
3. Skipping the Change of Address Notification
The Change of Address tool in Google Search Console is specifically designed to speed up domain migrations. Skipping it means Google processes the change the slow way, relying only on 301 redirects and organic crawling. Using the tool alongside your redirects consistently produces faster ranking stabilization on the new domain. It takes about five minutes to set up and is one of the highest-value steps you can take.
4. Updating Social Profiles Before DNS Has Propagated
Changing your website URL on your Google Business Profile, Instagram bio, or other directories before your new domain is fully live means anyone who clicks those links lands on a broken or blank page. Wait until your new domain loads reliably across multiple devices and locations before updating external profiles. Give DNS propagation at least 24-48 hours to complete, then verify using whatsmydns.net before making those profile updates.
5. Setting HTTP Instead of HTTPS as the Primary Domain
If your new domain loads on both http:// and https://, make sure the HTTPS version is set as primary in Wix. Google has used HTTPS as a ranking signal for years, and having the HTTP version as your canonical URL will hold back your rankings. Check this in your Wix Domains settings and confirm the primary domain displayed starts with https://. Wix handles SSL certificates automatically for domains registered or transferred through them, but domains connected externally may need the SSL confirmed at the registrar level first.
Notifying Key Contacts After a Wix Domain Change
Most domain change guides stop at the technical steps. But forgetting to notify the right people and services causes real, avoidable problems. Work through each of these after your new domain is confirmed live.
Email Contacts
Send an announcement to your main contact list explaining the domain change and any change to your email address. Where possible, keep both the old and new email addresses active for at least two to three weeks so replies to old threads still reach you. Update your email signature immediately so outgoing messages reflect the new domain.
Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile listing stores your website URL as part of your business information. An outdated URL here hurts local SEO because GBP ranking factors include consistency between your listed domain and your actual site. Log into Google Business Profile at business.google.com, click Edit Profile, go to Business information, select Contact, and update the website field to your new domain.
Google Analytics and Tag Manager
In GA4, go to Admin, then Data Streams, click on your stream, and update the Stream URL to your new domain. In Google Tag Manager, check any tags that reference your old domain directly (such as cross-domain tracking or custom HTML tags), update those references, and test in Preview mode before publishing. Skipping this step means your analytics data may split across two domains.
Third-Party Tools and Platforms
Payment processors, email marketing platforms, and app integrations often have your domain stored as a whitelisted URL or OAuth callback address. Check and update:
- Payment processors (Stripe, PayPal): Update webhook URLs and domain whitelists in your account settings.
- Email marketing platforms (Mailchimp, Klaviyo, etc.): Update your sender domain, unsubscribe page URL, and any embedded signup form links.
- Social login apps: If your site uses "Login with Google" or "Login with Facebook," the OAuth app settings at Google Cloud Console or Meta for Developers will need your new domain added as an authorized redirect URI.
- CRM systems: Update domain-specific configurations, tracking scripts, and contact form endpoints.
Wix App Market
Apps installed on your Wix site can have domain-specific settings that do not update automatically. Go to your Wix Dashboard, open the App Market, and click Manage Apps. Review each installed app's settings for any references to your old domain, particularly apps that handle bookings, forms, memberships, or third-party integrations.
Domain Change Quick Reference Checklist
Changing your domain name on Wix is a straightforward process when you follow the right order of operations. Set up your new domain, make it primary, then redirect your old domain before you do anything else. Take the extra time to notify Google Search Console and update your third-party listings, these steps are what protect your traffic and rankings through the transition.
If you are still working out which domain to use, our guide on Wix domain pricing and Wix plan costs can help you budget the full setup.
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