How To Change Domain Name On WordPress – Forbes Advisor INDIA

Domain name is a very important factor while browsing the internet. It provides access to a particular Internet address, website, email service, and much more. It’s an easy way of referring to a particular server with the IP address (in numeric code), where the website or any other internet service is stored. 

In simple words, a domain name –  for example, Google.com acts as a human-readable format of the numeric IP address (192.XXX.XXX.XXX or 192.168.123.132). With more than 300+ million domains registered, it becomes intimidating to start the process of changing your domain name especially, if it’s already registered. 

Also, finding a new unique name for the same purpose is extremely challenging. If it’s done incorrectly, this could easily damage your WordPress’s site search engine optimization (SEO). So, to be aware of the entire process of how to change your WordPress’s domain name is extremely important. 

Why Change Your Domain Name on WordPress

From changing the domain extensions like from “.com” to “.net” or “.org,” to the need to change the domain name due to changed business goals or rebranding. There can be plenty of reasons.

For this, first you need to be sure about your reasons for the change. Carefully analyze the need, relevancy, and future prospects of the required change before proceeding. This will give you a clear path for the process. 

Once it’s clear. You can proceed with the domain-changing process on WordPress.

Things to Do Before You Change Your Domain Name

There are a few important steps you need to do before changing your domain name. These are:

Choose the right domain name 

This is the most important part of the process. Before you start moving everything over, carefully, choose the right domain name for your service or website on the internet. Make sure it is relevant, easy to remember, and short in length. 

Sometimes relevance doesn’t matter much. As in the case of the world’s most popular website Google.com. Originally, before its origin, it wasn’t mentioned in the dictionary. Only after its introduction and popularity, later, the word added. 

So, relevance is important, but it’s not the first priority. However, an easy-to-remember name and its size are important.

As there are plenty of domain registrars, including the ones that offer free domains. Make sure that you choose the one that fits best for your requirements, pocket, and technical support.

Backup your website and content

The most painful incident would be losing all your website data and content while transferring from the old domain name to the new one. Here, backup is the rescue. 

The process can be complex at times, and backup is a quick and easy way to be on the safe side. This will benefit you in case something goes wrong. Also, after transferring to the new domain name, you can easily restore your important data and content in the same manner.

Here are some of the best and most popular WordPress backup plugins. 

Note: Some of these plugins are premium and some are free. You can choose accordingly. 

Broadcast to your audience and clients

Once the new right name is chosen and the backup is secured by you. The next step is to inform your audience and clients about the new changes. 

Inform them about what they can expect with this new change. It’s great to assure them that your content will be available soon. This will ensure your smooth influence over your audience and clients. Thus, trust will be secured. 

How to Change Domain Name on WordPress (Step-by-step process)

Changing your primary domain name is a technical process. But, if you follow the steps mentioned below, you can easily change it. 

• Step 1: First, log in to your WordPress account
• Step 2: Go to your Dashboard > Settings > General 
• Step 3: Then, change your WordPress Address and Site Address with your new domain name and click save
• Step 4: Find your FTP credentials from your hosting provider and go to public_html
• Step 5: There, go to wp-config.php and then right-click the file and select Edit
• Step 6: Change ‘yoursitename’ to the new domain name, and click save
• Step 7: Now, go to your hosting control panel and find phpMyAdmin.
• Step 8: Locate wp_options, then type your new domain in ‘siteurl’ and ‘home.’
• Step 9: Then, Click Go to save

Redirect the Former Domain

Even after finishing the process of the domain transfer. Make sure to provide proper redirection toward your new site. As your audience and clients may stumble upon your old URL, or forget that you already changed it to a new domain name.  it’s better to provide them with redirection.

To set up these choose your file manager. Go to the .htaccess folder, and right-click on edit. 

Add the code, changing ‘newdomain’ to your new domain:   

#Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteEngine on

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Notify the Search Engines 

After performing all the steps for the domain name change. Make sure you are aware of the change of address tool of Google, to notify the search engines. 

Read: Change Of Address Tool 

After this, you can access the tool here: Tool.

Bottom Line

So, if you finally made up your mind to switch to a brand new domain name, make sure you have adopted the things or methods to do before changing your domain name. Also, carefully analyze each step of the process and implement it carefully.