How To Change My Registered Domain Name Wordpress

Irresolute domains can seem similar quite a daunting task at kickoff, but it doesn't have to be. Typically this involves routing traffic to go from your old domain (olddomain.com) to your new domain (newdomain.com). One of many people'southward biggest and valid concerns is how to maintain SEO benefits (rankings, traffic, backlinks) throughout the entire process, every bit not to harm your business organisation.

We run into a lot of these types of migrations at Kinsta and so nosotros've put together this in-depth guide below with everything you lot need to know on how to safely change WordPress domains, without destroying all the hard work y'all've done. 👍

Reasons to Change Domain Names

In that location are a lot of different reasons why y'all might desire to change domain names. Hither are a few common examples:

Your concern is rebranding from one name to another and you accept a new domain proper noun to go on with information technology.
Perhaps you lot were using a less popular meridian level domain (TLD) (such as .internet or .io) and finally acquired that new and shiny .com for your business.
Your merging multiple backdrop into 1 domain.
Your quondam domain is suffering from a site-wide penalization and you lot demand to start from scratch.

Of import Things to Consider

When it comes to irresolute your domain there are a few caveats and important things to remember.

URL Structure

If yous are merely irresolute domain names, and so information technology'due south recommended to keep the same URL structure. Instance: olddomain.com/virtually-the states/ to newdomain.com/well-nigh-u.s.a./ . You lot tin theoretically change names and structure at the same time, but generally, when it comes to SEO, the fewer changes the better. A domain change is already a pretty major modify. 😉

If perhaps your old site isn't using pretty permalinks (which are amend for SEO), then it would probably be better to alter to your new domain name first, wait vi months, and then alter the construction.

HTTPS

If your electric current site is running over HTTP, at that place's never a improve fourth dimension to migrate to HTTPS. This is slightly different than changing your entire URL structure and in the long run, you'll reap the rewards. Equally of July 2018, Google Chrome started marker all non-HTTPS sites as "not secure."Other HTTPS benefits include encryption, better referral information, performance improvements with HTTP/2, and it's fifty-fifty an SEO ranking bespeak.

You lot can easily migrate to HTTPS while changing domain names.

Also, if you're site is already HTTPS, it's of import to have a plan in place for your 301 redirects before proceeding. This is due to the fact that the client needs to plant an SSL connexion to the host before it sees the redirect. Skip downwards to our 301 redirects section where we discuss this in particular.

Indexing and Crawling

Don't be alarmed when y'all change your WordPress domain if you run across a slight dip temporarily in traffic. This is normal as it volition take a few weeks for Google to re-index and crawl your new URLs.

Changing your website's domain proper noun tin seem like a daunting job! 😳 But information technology doesn't take to be. Follow our in-depth guide. Click to Tweet

How to Change WordPress Domain

Follow the steps below on how to change your WordPress domain.

Back up your current WordPress site
Create a new site, clone, or update existing site address
Update all internal and hardcoded links
Add together 301 redirects
Update Google and Bing spider web backdrop
Submit new sitemap files
Update Google Analytics and Google Search Console
Misc. post domain change updates

1. Support Current WordPress Site

The very first thing you should do before changing your WordPress domain is to back up your current site. This fashion no matter what happens, you can ever revert if needed.

Option one – One-Click Fill-in for Kinsta Clients

If you're a Kinsta client, you tin but use our elementary backup tool in your MyKinsta dashboard. Select your site in the Sites department and click on the backups tab. You'll see a list of your bachelor backups. Simply click on "Back up now," choose a fill-in proper noun (such equally beforedomainchange), and information technology will create an boosted fill-in/restore indicate.

You can then restore your backup at whatever time with a single click.

Option ii – Back upward Your Site With a WordPress Plugin

Y'all can too dorsum up your WordPress site with a third-party plugin. Nosotros always recommend utilizing those that have incremental backup options. Fifty-fifty though you probably won't demand the incremental feature for this tutorial, these are the ones yous should familiarize yourself with or invest in long-term, as the incremental characteristic decreases server load, disk space, and helps improve reliability. Here is a list of recommended plugins:

VaultPress (premium)
ManageWP Backups (premium)
WP Time Capsule (incremental choice in premium)

Or if you simply want a one-off backup, you can use the costless Duplicator plugin and create a local archive backup.

Download archive and installer files — Create WordPress backup with the Duplicator plugin

Option 3 – Back Up Your WordPress Site Manually

Your third choice is to support your WordPress site manually past exporting your MySQL file and connecting to your site via SFTP and downloading your files. Unless you have a special configuration, typically you only need to download your /wp-content/ folder (as this contains your plugins, themes, and uploaded media).

If y'all're a Kinsta customer, you can likewise create a manual backup of your entire site (MySQL file and files) from within the MyKinsta dashboard. Click into "Backups" and then into "Download." Click on "Create fill-in now" and y'all'll get an electronic mail with a link to your .nil archive file.

2. Create a New Site, Clone, or Update Existing Site Address

Once you take a fill-in of your site, the next step is to update your WordPress URL and site address. There are a few ways yous can approach this.

Option 1 – Create a new site
Option 2 – Clone your site with Kinsta
Option 3 – Update existing domain

Option 1 – Create New Site/Account

Your starting time option would be to create an entirely new WordPress install with your new domain and and then migrate your data over. Y'all would so change the domain later the fact. Why this approach? Sometimes people prefer to get out their old site intact for a while as some other backup. Or perhaps you are also moving to a new WordPress host in the process besides.

In this instance, you would simply create a second site. If you're a Kinsta customer you would want to add a new install and ensure that your new domain is set as the primary domain. You lot can and then migrate a re-create of your WordPress site over. Check out our in-depth tutorial using the WordPress Duplicator plugin.

Option 2 – Kinsta's Clone Characteristic

If yous're a Kinsta customer, y'all could go an fifty-fifty easier road and to utilize our one-click clone feature. This allows you to instantly create a re-create of your existing WordPress site into a 2nd business relationship.

Choice iii – Update Existing WordPress URL and Site Address

The 3rd and final selection would be to simply update your existing site'southward WordPress URL and site address. Y'all would yet need to follow these steps, even if you created or cloned a new site above.

Be careful when editing these values, every bit you could bring your entire site downward if they are entered incorrectly. On the left-hand side, under "Settings," click into "General." You lot tin can and then update the following:

WordPress Accost (URL):The accost of your WordPress core files.
Site Address (URL): The address to reach your web log.

Both should match unless you are giving WordPress its own directory. Remember that after you click "Save Changes," your WordPress dashboard is now just accessible via the new domain.

Check out additional ways to update these values, such as with your wp-config.php file, straight in the WordPress database, or with WP-CLI.

three. Update all Internal and Hardcoded Links

Now that you lot have your WordPress site address and URL changed to the new domain, information technology's time to update all of your internal and hardcoded links. By and large, it is not recommended to hard-code URLs but most likely over time you probably have, we all practise it. This includes interlinks between your own content, media, links to JavaScript and CSS on your site, etc. Beneath are a couple of options you have for updating your links.

Choice 1 – Kinsta Search and Replace Tool

If you're a Kinsta client, we take an like shooting fish in a barrel to use search and replace tool in our MyKinsta dashboard.

Here are elementary steps to update your old domain to your new domain:

Enter in thesearch field the value yous want to search for in the database, which in this case is our onetime domain:https://olddomain.com. (Make sure you utilise the correct protocol: HTTP:// or HTTPS://)
Enter in thesupervene upon field the new value that should be used to supervene upon the value that y'all are searching for. In this case, it is our new domain:https://newdomain.com.
Ensure the "Dry Run" option is selected starting time, as this volition count how many replacements volition be made without actually making the replacements. Then click "Replace."
Y'all can then run "Replace" again without Dry Run selected to make the changes in the database.

Search and replace in WordPress database

Check out our search and supplant tutorial for additional details. You tin always reach out to our support squad if yous need assistance with this.

Option ii – Update Links With WordPress Plugin

Another easy method you tin utilize is a free plugin called Better Search Replace, past the awesome WordPress squad over at Succulent Brains. Just install information technology, enter in your old domain and new domain, and your done!

Update domain with Better Search and Replace — Update domain with Better Search Replace

Choice 3 – Search and Replace with WP-CLI

For y'all more tech-savvy folks and developers that don't like to leave the command line, you can likewise update your links using WP-CLI. We recommend checking out this avant-garde search and replace WP-CLI guide.

Update your CDN

If you're using a CDN along with a CNAME, such every bit cdn.domain.com, you will probably likewise want to run the steps nosotros shared above again, merely this fourth dimension replacing your custom CDN URL. This is due to the fact that things tend to become hardcoded past blow sometimes from copying and pasting.

Subscribe At present

Supervene upon https://cdn.olddomain.com with https://cdn.newdomain.com.

You will most likely also demand to add together a new CNAME DNS record for your CDN since your domain has changed.

four. Add together 301 Redirects

Next, information technology is time to add 301 redirects. This is past far ane of the near important parts of a domain proper noun change. This ensures that all traffic from your sometime domain (olddomain.com) is automatically routed to your new domain (newdomain.com). Here are a couple of reasons why 301 redirects are so of import:

Over time people backlink to your site and content. Backlinks are used as a ranking signal by Google. Therefore, yous don't desire to lose any of what they phone call your "link juice." In other words, links agree authority, and if you lot were to all of a sudden lose them, it could seriously damage your site's SEO and take a long fourth dimension to recover. According to many SEOs and case studies, 301 redirects pass between 90-99% of link juice.
Besides SEO regarding backlinks, redirects are too of import for usability. The last thing you want is for someone to click on a backlink and they no longer reach your site. Broken links are never practiced.
Social signals are another type of ranking gene, although some might disagree on this point. Either way though, it's never good to accept links to your site from social media sites such equally Pinterest or Twitter suddenly not work.

If you lot don't add redirects, it will, without a doubt damage your website.

A disappointing few months on this ane…client moving domains wouldn't redirect the previous domain. Fifty-fifty worse, they and so allow the old domain expire & it's been grabbed by someone else. We gave them *plenty* of warnings…information technology had 1 million links pointing to it 😱 picture.twitter.com/Zbd0hC44W2

— Will O'Hara 👨🏽‍💻 (@willohara) May 26, 2019

Caveat – You Should Leave Redirects Up Forever

And then this is where information technology can get a little tricky. If you have a lot of history on your old domain you're virtually likely going to want to exit your 301 redirects upwardly forever (or at least a very long time). 😲 Why? Because unless you want to go back and try and update all your backlinks manually, which is impossible, it could harm you to remove them. This ways you should probably go along renewing that old domain foreveralso.

Also, regarding 301 redirects, if you're old domain was running over HTTPS, it means you'll too demand to go along an SSL cert installed on it. This is due to the fact that the customer needs to constitute an SSL connexion to the host before information technology sees the redirect. But don't worry, this doesn't necessarily mean you need to keep your one-time site/hosting upward and running.

Below are instructions on how to add 301 redirects. These redirects are done where your old domain is hosted. If you want to go rid of your old domain and or hosting, nosotros'll dive into that a little further down.

Option i – Adding Redirects at Server-Level

.htaccess on Apache

If your WordPress site is running on Apache, you can add the following rule to your old site's .htaccess file, which is typically found at the root of your site.

          #Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on RewriteRule (.*) https://newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,50]

Nginx

If your WordPress site is running on Nginx, you can add the following rule to your old site's config file.

          server { server_name example.com; return 301 $scheme://newdomain.com$request_uri; }

Option 2 – Calculation Redirects With Your Host

If you're a Kinsta client, you lot could e'er add your old domain at Kinsta, install a free Let's Encrypt certificate on information technology, and then add together a wildcard 301 redirect using our redirect tool that points to your new domain. Below is an example of the dominion yous would add:

          olddomain.com - ^(.*)$ - https://newdomain.com$ane

You can then exit this redirect in place forever to ensure you retain all your backlink juice.

Option 3 – Add together 301 Wildcard Redirects With Cloudflare

The tertiary way to get around the SSL 301 redirect issue is by utilizing Cloudflare. They will allow you lot to add together 301 redirects for your site for free, even if at that place is no hosting connected to it. 🤘 This can exist an effective way to add redirects without having to worry near keeping your old host in identify or needing to do whatsoever additional configuration.

A wildcard redirect ensures that any traffic that tries to access olddomain.com/web log redirects to newdomain.com/blog. And so in this instance, the following 301 redirects work:

http://olddomain.com/ 301 redirects to https://newdomain.com
https://olddomain.com/ 301 redirects to https://newdomain.com
http://olddomain.com/* 301 redirects to https://newdomain.com/*
https://olddomain.com/* 301 redirects to https://newdomain.com/*

This ensures that all the backlinks on both the HTTP and HTTPS versions don't break for SEO purposes. To add a wildcard redirect, simply add together your erstwhile domain to Cloudflare, and so create a "Forwarding URL" page rule for it. Make sure you choose "301 – Permanent Redirect" and that you apply the correct syntax equally shown below.

Selection 4 – Add together 301 Wildcard Redirects With Domain Registrar

A 4th mode to add redirects would be at the domain registrar level. Some domain registrars, such every bit NameCheap, support 301 wildcard redirects. However, this choice will only piece of work if you're redirecting an HTTP site to an HTTP or HTTPS site. Remember, the original domain needs an SSL certificate for redirects from HTTPS to HTTPS to work properly.

Double Check Your Redirects

Later you have the redirects in place, you can use a free tool like Redirect tracker to ensure your redirects are working properly, making sure you didn't accidentally add a redirect loop that triggers the 'besides many redirects' error to appear to your visitors. There is also a great niggling Chrome extension, Redirect Path, which is quite handy!

After you add redirects to your site, information technology's very important to exam dissimilar variations of your URLs. If something isn't working properly you tin likewise achieve out to your WordPress host for help. It's also important to bank check to make sure y'all don't have too many redirects chained together, as this tin cause performance bug.

Bank check out our in-depth mail on WordPress redirects and best practices for faster performance, or watch the video version below:

5. Update Google and Bing

Now that you have your old domain routing requests to your new domain, information technology's time to update your web properties with Google Search Panel and Bing Webmaster Tools. If you never set these up for your olddomain.com, get ahead and create them, verify them, and repeat the steps for your newdomain.com. Then follow the steps below. You should accept four properties in full between Google Search Panel and Bing Webmaster Tools (2 quondam and 2 new).

Change of Address in Google Search Console

In Google Search Panel you will want to do what they call a "change of address." This is very important equally it lets Google know instantly that everything is changing. And so don't skip this step! You will need a verified property for both your old domain and new domain.

Merely click into your old domain's profile, click on the gear icon in the upper right-paw corner, and select "Modify of Address." And then follow the remaining prompts.

Change of Address with Google Search Console

If your site is only in the new Google Search Panel. You tin easily add together information technology once again using the "URL prefix" method and then yous tin admission your site in the old Google Search Console. They will virtually likely motility this tool over to the new GSC eventually.

Google Search Console URL prefix — Google Search Panel URL prefix

Site Move in Bing Webmaster Tools

Merely similar Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools has the same blazon of process chosen "Site Motion." And again, you will need a verified belongings for both your old domain and new domain.

Only click into your onetime domain's profile, and click into "Diagnostics & Tools > Site Motility." Then choose the pick to "move URLs from this site to another verified site."

six. Submit New Sitemap Files

At present that yous have new verified spider web properties and you've notified them almost your domain change, it's recommended to submit your new sitemap file. A sitemap is basically just a listing of URLs that you desire to be publicly available. This isn't required, but will nearly likely aid speed upwards the itch and re-indexing process.

If you're using the Yoast SEO plugin you can find a link to your XML sitemap file under "SEO" → "General." Click into the "Features" tab and so on the question mark tooltip adjacent to the XML sitemaps header. The URL should look something like this: https://newdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml

Submit Sitemap in Google Search Console

In Google Search Panel you tin can submit your new sitemap nether "Index → Sitemaps." Input the URL you lot grabbed from Yoast SEO and click on "Submit."

Submit sitemap file in Google Search Console

Submit Sitemap in Bing Webmaster Tools

In Bing Webmaster Tools you lot can submit your new sitemap under "Clamber > Sitemaps." Click on "Add together/Test Sitemap" and input the URL you grabbed from Yoast SEO.

Submit sitemap file in Bing Webmaster Tools

seven. Update Google Analytics and Google Search Panel

The side by side step is to update your Google Analytics profile. If you aren't using Google Analytics on your site, you should be as this is by far the all-time complimentary way to analyze traffic, patterns, and conversions on your site! The easiest fashion to do this is to click into "Admin," go to your "Property Settings" and update the default URL. The reason nosotros recommend just changing your existing property rather than creating a new i is that it makes information technology much easier to compare history and traffic down the line (especially if you're keeping the same URL structure).

Update Google Analytics profile

Reconnect Google Search Console

Below on that same page, you'll also want to reconnect your Google Search Console contour to Google Analytics. Simply click on "Adjust Search Console" and follow the steps. This allows for extra data to menstruation through into the "Acquisition > Search Console" department in Analytics, such as Landing pages, Countries, Devices, and Queries (probably the most important ane).

8. Misc Post Domain Change Updates and Checks

Due to the fact that every website uses different software and services, there will most likely be a few additional things you lot'll want to cheque. Beneath is a listing we have compiled of some common ones we've experienced:

If you migrated or cloned your site we commonly come across changes or misconfigurations in the robots.txt file.
If you lot are running a comment plugin such as Disqus, you will need to drift your Disqus comments to a new domain.
If you take electronic mail marketing software you will most likely need to update your domain, too as authenticate your domain again with new DNS records.
Update Social Media Links (Facebook Page, Twitter Bio, Pinterest, Google+, etc.)
Update PPC Ad URLs: AdWords, Bing Ads, AdRoll, Facebook Ads, etc.
If you are involved in any chapter programs or ad networks such as Mediavine, you might need to update your address with them as well as get through a re-approval procedure.
Make sure to monitor 404 errors after moving to a new domain and then that you can ready whatsoever broken links that pop upwardly. You tin view these in Google Search Console under "Clamber > Crawl Errors" or use a third-party WordPress plugin such equally Redirection which has 404 error reports. Notation: We commonly recommend Google Search Console for these kinds of things because plugins like these merely utilize boosted server resource.

Summary

As you can see, there is quite a bit that goes into irresolute your WordPress domain. Simply with a lilliputian careful preparation and the right guidance, you tin can ensure that you keep your SEO benefits and non harm your business organization. Remember, you might run into a picayune dip, and this is to be expected. The aforementioned applies to website redesign. You tin lose a lot of your SEO traffic if you are not careful plenty. Just as long as yous keep going forward yous should be perfectly fine. After all, moving to a brand new domain should likewise be an exciting experience!

Exercise y'all have any thoughts regarding WordPress domain changes? Did we miss anything important? Let us know below in the comments.

Suggested reading: Parked Domains: How to Identify, Buy, or Park One.

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