How To Change A Domain Name Of An Existing Website

There are many instances where you lot need to change your domain name, but without migrating your website to a new server.

For example, if you decide to rebrand or you want to switch between an sometime domain and a new one.

It can be tricky to practise, particularly if you want to make the switch with SEO in listen.

So, hither are the steps of how to change a domain name for WordPress while still keeping search engines happy.

Fix? Let's kickoff.

1. Buy a New Domain Proper noun

Earlier you're able to modify your domain proper name, yous need to purchase one starting time. For that, y'all tin go to a domain registrar.

Prices vary depending on the registrar every bit well as the type of domain you lot're buying.

For a Superlative-Level Domain (TLD) such as a .com or .net, it'southward virtually $10-$20 per year. Other types of domains such as .io can exist nigh $100 per year. So, be sure to consider your budget when choosing a domain name.

How to Choose a New Domain Name

Other considerations you lot should take into account when choosing a domain are:

Who is your target audience and what volition they likely relate to and retrieve?
Do you want your domain to have a keyword in it for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes?
Is the name you're thinking of catchy and memorable?
If you speak to a lot of people in person, you may want a domain that has an obvious spelling.
A .com's still preferred, only other domain extensions are starting to gain popularity.
Be sure the proper noun you choose isn't trademarked or that another company in your industry isn't using a similar i.

Across that, choosing the right domain depends on your specific use instance.

For example, hyphens or numbers in domains are easily forgotten and so they're not desirable.

On the other hand, if you're a law business firm or a local business with these included in your business organisation proper name, information technology would make sense to also choose to have them in your site address.

The same idea applies to using your business' area code.

Keep in mind that a domain is a long-term investment then exist sure to cull one wisely.

While you tin get a new i at any time, if you switch URLs, you lot'll lose out on the credibility you earned for your domain. This, nevertheless, negatively impacts your SEO.

Request for feedback on names you're considering may likewise aid yous brand the correct pick.

two. Alter Nameservers

Adjacent up is irresolute your nameservers.

If you lot bought your domain from ane of these registrars Namecheap, GoDaddy, or Domain.com, but your site is hosted elsewhere, you'll need to update your nameservers.

Update them at the same registrar where you purchased your domain using the steps outlined below. Skip down to the section that's relevant to you depending on where yous got your new domain proper name.

Domain.com: Changing the Nameservers

After logging in to your Domain.com account, click the Domains push button toward the top of the folio.

Click the Domains push to see a listing of your domain names.

So, find the domain listed that you want to adjust. Click the Manage push button.

Click Manage for the domain you need to update.

Next, click DNS & Nameservers in the carte on the left-manus side. A listing of your domain's electric current nameservers will be listed in the main expanse of the folio.

Select the three vertical dots icon next to the get-go nameserver you lot want to change. Then, cull Edit from the small driblet-down options bill of fare that appears.

Y'all tin can edit the nameservers in your domain's settings.

A pop-up overlay volition then be displayed with a field to enter the new nameserver.

You can find this data in your account of the hosting provider you're using for your website. Y'all may have also been emailed these details when yous signed upward for a hosting plan.

In one case you have typed it in, click Submit your changes.

Enter the new nameserver and save your changes.

Click the three vertical dots icon next to the other listed nameserver and update it in the aforementioned way.

If your host requires you to enter in more than two nameservers, click the Add Nameserver button.

In the pop-up overlay that appears, enter in the other nameserver you need to add. And then, click the Submit your changes push button.

Yous can add every bit many nameservers as you lot need.

Y'all tin go along with these final steps until you take added all the nameservers you need for your new domain proper noun.

GoDaddy: Updating the Nameservers

Log in to your GoDaddy account. Click the My Business relationship button at the top of the folio in the Command Console. And then, select Domains from the submenu.

View your domains after logging in.

Click on the domain proper noun listed on the page that you desire to change.

Click on the domain you desire to manage.

Scroll down to the Nameservers department and click the Alter button.

Click the button to change your nameservers.

You can choose to click the Connect my domain to a website I've built push. Y'all'll be walked through the steps to change your nameservers in a convenient mode.

Yous tin automatically connect to popular hosting solutions such as WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, and more than.

If you already know the nameservers for your website, and so you can enter them manually. Do this by clicking on the Enter my own nameservers (advanced) link.

Click the link to enter in your nameservers.

Enter the nameservers into the fields provided. If you demand to add more than ii nameservers, yous can click the Add Nameserver button on the right.

If y'all decide you want to delete a URL you typed, click the trash icon to the right of the field.

When y'all're done inbound the information, click the Save button.

Type in your nameservers, so save your changes.

Namecheap: Setting the Nameservers

Once you accept logged in to Namecheap, click on Domain List in the menu on the left.

Then, find the domain listed that you lot desire to update and click Manage on the right-hand side.

Click the push button next to your domain name to manage it.

Next, scroll downwardly the folio to the Nameservers section. Select Custom DNS from the drop-downward box.

Cull the option y'all want from the driblet-downwardly box.
So, enter in the nameservers that were given to y'all by your website's hosting provider.

If you need to add additional nameservers, click the Add Nameserver push button below the text fields.

Type in your site'south nameservers and save your changes.

When that's all done, click the dark-green checkmark to salve your updates.

iii. Alter All the Links from the Erstwhile Domain to the New One

At present that you accept successfully changed your domain name, you need to update your website. All the references to your sometime domain need to be changed to your new one. This includes references in button links, menus, image links, and anywhere else the erstwhile domain appears.

Fortunately, this tin be done adequately speedily in near cases if your site uses a database.

You can search the database for every instance of the sometime domain. And so, you can enter the new 1 and supervene upon all instances of it all at in one case.

If you don't have admission to your database, but you have access to your site's files, you can update all references to your quondam site address manually. Although, this can stop upwardly being quite time-consuming.

WordPress: Changing all the Links

Whether you're changing the directory your self-hosted WordPress site is in or you lot're irresolute the entire domain, the process outlined below will help you update all the links on your site. That mode, they'll all point to the new domain proper name.

Backup Your Files and Database

Before updating all the links to your new site address, it'south crucial that you back up your entire site. This prevents you from losing everything if something goes amiss. In such an consequence, you tin can restore your site and try again.

Be certain to backup all your site's files too equally your unabridged database.

For details, check out How to Backup & Restore WordPress.

Modify URLs in the WordPress Settings

Update the WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) fields to your new domain. Then, click Salve Changes at the bottom of the page.

Enter your new domain into the WordPress and Site Address fields.

Your WordPress Address is the URL you desire your visitors to enter to get to your website. The Site Accost field is the bodily location of your site if it'south different from your WordPress Address.

These tin be different if your actual website's location is under something like your-new-domain.com/your-site only y'all want people to be able to visit your-new-domain.com and nonetheless access your site.

If your site is located in the root directory of your server, these ii fields can both be filled out with your new domain.

Manually Changing Your Domain Name in WordPress

If you accept WordPress Multisite enabled, y'all won't be able to access these settings as they aren't available. Instead, you'll need to update your wp-config.php file to hard code your new domain.

Download or open this file from your server. Then, add the following earlier the "happy blogging" line toward the bottom:

ascertain( 'WP_HOME', 'http://your-new-domain.com' ); define( 'WP_SITEURL', 'http://your-new-domain.com' );

Be certain to replace your-new-domain.com with your bodily domain name.

Once that'due south done, save the file and upload information technology back to your site's server.

Search and Supplant Old Links with a Plugin

After you have switched your old domain for your new 1, you demand to search for all instances of your old domain on your site. Then, supersede them with your new address.

This step is necessary because images and other links often break, peculiarly if the old links have been hard-coded into your site.

To fix information technology, you can either update all these links with the steps below or with a plugin.

The free Search and Replace plugin can speedily make the switch for yous in about a few clicks.

MySQL and MariaDB: Search and Replace Old Links

For about other websites that use MySQL or MariaDB, you can employ a query to search and replace the old links with the new ones.

In the command line, enter the following, but supersede your-old-domain.com and your-new-domain.com with your actual one-time and new domains, respectively:

UPDATE domainList Set up      domain_names = Supervene upon(domain_names,         'y'all-former-domain.com',         'your-new-domain.com');

Changing Links When Your Site Doesn't Have a Database

If your site doesn't use a database, y'all'll take to manually find the references to the old domain and replace them yourself.

Brand sure you lot back up your whole site before y'all make any changes.

If you put your code in a code editor, you tin search for every case of the old domain and supplant it with the new site address chop-chop. Although, exist sure to utilize a code editor that has a search and replace feature. Otherwise, you'll need to manually search for each instance of your sometime domain, which is incredibly time-consuming.

Download each of your site's files and open them in a lawmaking editor, update the links, save the file. Then, upload them back to your site's server.

Refer to the documentation of the code editor you choose to know how to conduct a search and replace for links.

To find a great code editor, check out ten Best HTML Editors and ten Best IDE Software.

4. 301 Redirect from Sometime Domain to New Domain

At this point, your site should work just fine. Merely, from an SEO perspective, you lot demand to exercise a few more steps to ensure your ranking won't be affected likewise much.

The offset pace in this process is to create a 301 permanent redirect. It'southward a permanent way to inform search engines that you take changed your site's domain name and you don't program on reverting dorsum to your old domain. That mode, search engines can update their records automatically to preserve your ranking as much every bit possible.

Below are the steps of how to create 301 redirects.

For further details, you lot tin also check out step six in the guide: How to Move HTTP to HTTPS on WordPress.

No matter where your domain is registered, be certain to create a 301 redirect for both the www.your-new-domain.com and your-new-domain.com versions of your site address.

Domain.com: Setting upwards a 301 Redirect

Start by logging into your account and clicking the Hosting button at the top of the folio. Then, click on the .htaccess Editor link in the menu on the left.

It's like a convenient version of a website's .htaccess file.

Then, click the Add URL Redirect push button.

You can redirect your site to your new domain using the .htaccess editor.

In the kickoff field that comes upwards, add the former domain for your site. And then in the field nether it, type in your new domain name.

Double-bank check that the information you entered is right, then click Add Redirect.

Fill up out the course to create a 301 redirect for your site.

GoDaddy: Creating a 301 Redirect

After logging into your account, get to My Account > Domains again and click on the domain you want to manage. It's the same place you went to earlier when you lot were changing the nameservers.

Scroll downwards to the Additional Settings section and click on Manage DNS.

The Manage DNS settings folio has a domain forwarding section.

Then, scroll all the style downwards to the Forwarding section and click Add adjacent to Domain.

Add domain forwarding to redirect your site to the new accost.

Next, fill out the form. If y'all have an SSL certificate installed, choose https:// in the drop-down box at the summit of the class. Otherwise, choose http://. Then, type in your new domain proper noun in the text field side by side to it.

Under Forward Blazon, select Permanent (301) and under Settings, click the Forrad with masking option.

Fill out the site's title, description, and keywords. Yous have to fill up out at least 1 of these three fields.

When you're done, click the Save button at the bottom of the form.

Domain forwarding has an pick for 301 redirects.

Forwarding your domain with masking ways that after a user has visited your site with the new address, they'll keep to see your new domain in the address bar of their browser equally they go from folio to folio. It won't just redirect to the erstwhile domain.

Namecheap: Adding a 301 Redirect

To add a 301 redirect to your Namecheap domain, log in and go to Domain Listing in the carte on the left.

And so, scroll downward to the Redirect Domain section and click the Add Redirect button. You can click it multiple times to add additional fields for each redirect you need.

You can add a URL redirect on the Domain List page.

Blazon in the old domain name under the Source URL field and the new proper noun under the Destination URL text field.

When y'all're done, click the green checkmark adjacent to each line to save your changes.

Type in your onetime domain, then your new one, and click the checkmark icon.

five. Exam and Make Sure Everything Works

At this point, you're most done. Take the time to test your site and make sure you lot can visit your site with your new domain.

Y'all may demand to clear your browser's cache. So, effort that if you're having problem. You may also need to wait a little while for it to work.

Typically, it only takes a few minutes for the changes to take outcome. But, it could take up to 72 hours.

6. Update URL in Google Search Console

The final step you lot need to take is to update Google Console with your new domain name. Doing this will help Google quickly understand you updated your domain proper noun. That way, your ranking won't drib.

For details, check out Google's knowledge base of operations page: Change of Address Tool.

Go to the Modify of Accost Tool and select Add property from the drop-down list toward the top, left-hand corner.

Directions will announced in the main content area of the folio.

Before you lot update Google Panel, y'all need to add your new domain to it.

Then, in the inline popular-upward that appears, choose whether your new domain should have a "www." prefix.

Enter your new domain name and click Proceed.

Choose whether or non y'all want a URL prefix.

Your new domain should automatically be verified. If this isn't the case, and so it's not set up properly and you'll need to go back through these steps to fix it.

Or if it'southward indeed set upwards properly, you lot may just need to wait a few minutes or up to 72 hours equally previously mentioned.

One time you see the "Ownership automobile verified" message, click Done.

If you desire other ways to verify the ownership of your new domain, get to Settings > Buying verification.

Once your new domain has been verified, you tin can update your quondam one.

Next, click the Search belongings drop-downwards box and select your sometime domain from the listing.

Under Update Google, select your new domain from the drop-down box.

Then, click the Validate & Update button.

Select your quondam domain and and then follow the instructions on the page.

Additional Considerations

If your site has backlinks, they'll redirect to your existing website with the new URL.

Don't forget to check your success indicators such equally traffic and conversions. Make sure in that location isn't a huge drop in performance in Google Analytics. If you practise see a huge drop, it ways there's an error somewhere that needs to be fixed.

Be sure to too verify your rankings and visibility and crawl your website for errors.

Don't forget to update social media with your new accost to further straight your search traffic properly.

In Conclusion

At that place are so many tutorials out there that describe how to create a new website. Or, how to migrate your website and change your domain name in the process. But what if you lot merely want to brand a domain name change from your existing domain without switching hosts?

The steps to a higher place should accept helped y'all achieve just that. By now you lot accept switched your electric current domain to a different domain.

If you're not sure yous can make the changes on your own, you lot can contact your webmaster.

Were yous able to successfully make the switch to your new domain proper noun? Did you encounter troubles along the way? Share your experience in the comments below.

Source: https://websitesetup.org/how-to-change-a-domain-name/

Posted by: ammonsmucithe.blogspot.com