🗺️ Overview
When migrating a website from one domain version to another — for example, from www.ideation-digital.com to ideation-digital.com — you may run into two common issues in Search Atlas: DNS or redirect conflicts between domain variants, and a 'website exists' error when trying to create a new project. This article walks you through both problems and how to resolve them.
🔍 Understanding Domain Variants
Search Atlas treats different versions of a domain as distinct entries. The following are all considered separate domains:
- www.ideation-digital.com (www version)
- ideation-digital.com (non-www version)
- http://ideation-digital.com (non-secure)
- https://ideation-digital.com (secure)
If your website redirects from one version to another (for example, www redirects to non-www), Search Atlas needs to track the canonical version — the final destination URL that your server resolves to. Using the wrong variant as your project domain is the most common cause of data discrepancies and project creation errors.
✅ Step 1 — Identify Your Canonical Domain
Before making any changes in Search Atlas, confirm which domain version your site actually uses:
- Open a browser and type your domain with the www prefix (e.g., www.ideation-digital.com).
- Watch the address bar after the page loads. If the URL changes to ideation-digital.com (without www), that is your canonical domain.
- You can also use a redirect-checking tool such as httpstatus.io to trace the full redirect chain and confirm the final URL.
Make a note of the exact canonical domain — including whether it uses http or https — before proceeding.
⚙️ Step 2 — Update Your Existing Project Domain
If you already have a project set up with the wrong domain variant, update it rather than deleting and recreating it. This preserves your historical data.
- In the left sidebar, click Site Metrics.
- Locate your existing project in the list.
- Click the settings or edit icon next to the project.
- Update the domain field to your canonical domain (e.g., change www.ideation-digital.com to ideation-digital.com).
- Save the changes.
Search Atlas will begin pulling data for the updated domain. Allow up to 24 hours for metrics to refresh fully.
🚫 Step 3 — Resolve the 'Website Exists' Error
If you try to create a new project and see a 'website exists' error, it means a project using that domain (or a variant of it) is already registered in your account — or in another account on the platform. Here is how to resolve it:
- Go to Left sidebar → Site Metrics and review your full project list.
- Look for any project using the same domain, including www and non-www versions, or http and https versions.
- If you find a duplicate project you no longer need, delete it first, then try creating the new project again.
- If you do not see a duplicate but the error persists, the domain may be registered under a different workspace or account. Check any other Search Atlas accounts you have access to.
- Once the conflicting project is removed, create your new project using the confirmed canonical domain from Step 1.
💡 Best Practices for Domain Setup
- Always use the final redirect destination as your project domain — not the version that redirects away.
- Use https if your site has an SSL certificate (most modern sites do).
- Avoid creating multiple projects for the same domain. Update the existing project instead.
- If you are migrating to a completely new domain (e.g., from old-brand.com to new-brand.com), create a fresh project for the new domain and archive or delete the old one.
🛠️ Still Seeing Issues?
If you have followed all the steps above and are still unable to update your domain or create a project, there may be a platform-level conflict that requires manual review. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.