Renaming your Help Center Sub Domain
It is not uncommon for established companies to make a name change and start again. In fact, there are plenty of very good reasons for the same. For instance, the name no longer represents what they do; the brand has become stagnant; or for trademark and legal purposes. Often, a strategic rebrand will also incorporate a brand identity refresh starting from renaming the subdomain of your Zoho Desk Help Center.
But, this brings up the following questions:
- What will happen if end users access the old domain?
- Is there a possibility to forward the links to the new domain?
- Is it possible to retain the SEO rankings of the old domain?
Well, we’ve got a solution for this too. Introducing primary and secondary domains. It’s the new way for users to migrate their Help Center from one subdomain to another while preserving the links and ranking.
What is the primary and secondary domain?
The primary domain is the main domain at which your end users access your Zoho Desk Help Center. For example, if the users should access your Help Center at any sub-domain, e.g. support.mycompany.com or care.mycompany.com, you can add it as the primary domain.
The secondary domain is the old subdomain which is no longer valid. Anyone who navigates to this secondary domain will automatically get redirected to the primary domain configured for the Help Center. You can add up to 3 secondary domains for a Help Center.
So if you want to change your Help Center domain from "support.mycompany.com" to "care.mycompany.com", you must set the former as the secondary domain and the latter as the primary domain.
How does it work?
Technically, the secondary domains are added with a server-side 301 redirection so that end users who access it will automatically get directed to the primary domain. This way, your customers receive a consistent experience while accessing links on the old domain. It also ensures that the old domain's search engine rankings are transferred to the new web address without having to start from zero visibility in search engines.
Setting Primary and Secondary Domains
Setting the primary domain and selecting which domain you want to be the secondary doesn’t take very long at all, and the effect is almost immediate. You can have up to 3 secondary domains within your Help Center, all being pointed to the Primary. Please keep in mind that you can only set verified domains as primary or secondary.
To set a primary/secondary domain:
- Click the Setup icon (
) in the top bar.
- Click Help Center under the Channels menu.
- Select a branded Help Center to view its details.
- On the Rebrand page and under the Domain section, hover your mouse pointer over the new domain and click Set as Primary.
You will notice that the old domain is automatically marked as Secondary. - Click Save.
Note:
- The above steps are only applicable to branded Help Centers.
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