# Your site's official address

> How your site tells search engines, link previews and AI search which address is its real one, and what changes when a custom domain goes live.

Last updated: October 16, 2026

Source: https://www.willo.ai/docs/domains/your-sites-address

Every page on your site carries an "official address": the URL that search engines index, that link previews on social sites show, and that AI search engines cite. Willo sets it for you and keeps it right as your domain changes.

## Where the official address lives

Three tags in each page's code name the address: the canonical link, the Open Graph URL (used by link previews) and the address inside the page's structured data. The site's sitemap lists the same address for every page. All of them come from a single setting, and Willo rewrites that setting and rebuilds the site whenever:

- a custom domain finishes verifying and HTTPS is live,
- a custom domain is removed, or
- the business is renamed and its `bywillo.ai` address moves.

So a domain change needs no edits from you or from Willo to these tags. They always point at the live site, never the draft preview.

## The gap while a domain connects

Between adding the domain and HTTPS going live, the official address stays on `bywillo.ai`. That is deliberate: pointing search engines at an address that does not answer yet would cost you more than waiting. The switch happens on the first build after the domain is live.

## After a custom domain is live

Your custom domain is the public address. The `bywillo.ai` address keeps working, but treat it as internal: anything a visitor or customer can see that still says `bywillo.ai` should be fixed.

Willo moves the tags and sitemap itself. It does not rewrite addresses typed into other places, such as:

- page text and footer lines,
- blog posts and other content items,
- email templates and scheduled emails,
- PDFs and other published files,
- your backend functions and any chatbot or knowledge-base records.

Ask Willo in chat to sweep them: "find every place my site still shows bywillo.ai". It reports how many it found and offers to fix them. These are ordinary text edits; the address tags themselves never need one.

## Checking what search engines see

If an SEO audit or a search result still shows `bywillo.ai` after your domain is live, ask Willo to check the published tags. It fetches your live pages, compares their official address with your domain, and says whether they disagree. When they do, the fix is a republish, which Willo runs after you confirm. Hand-editing the tags does not work: the next build overwrites them.

> **Note: Renaming a business.**
>
> A rename moves the `bywillo.ai` address to the new name and retires the old one, so anyone using the old `bywillo.ai` link gets nothing. A connected custom domain keeps working. If people know your site by its `bywillo.ai` address, connect a custom domain before you rename.

Related: [Get started with domains](https://www.willo.ai/docs/domains/get-started), [Change or replace your domain](https://www.willo.ai/docs/domains/change-your-domain).