For a certain something, you could struggle with finding another unique domain name. Furthermore, if you’re not altogether sure of how to do it accurately, you could harm your WordPress site’s SEO— or try and totally lose your content.
This post will take about how to change your current Google domain name inside WordPress, and will also address a few significant pointers for doing so successfully. Let’s get started!
It’s important to know everyone all the steps of changing a domain name before you begin, from choosing a new domain name to backing up your website to redirecting URLs.
Why Would You Need to Change Your Google Domain Name
It merits exploring a part of the reasons you could change your domain. The following are a few examples:
- You’ve changed your business name – obviously, if you change the name of your organization because of an acquisition or change in focus, you’ll want your site should change, as well. At the point when your domain name matches your business name, it’s simpler for clients to find you.
- You’re rebranding – While hoping to draw in new or different customers, you should seriously think about an updated domain name that better mirrors your picture. Another name that cross-sections with your brand voice can also assist with advertising efforts.
- You need to change your domain extension – Regardless of whether you just need to change your domain extension, you need to register for a new name. For example, on the off chance that you began as a .org site yet need to move to a .com site URL to instill confidence, this guide is for you.
Before Changing Your Domain Name
There are some important points to have in order before you start digging into the wp-config.php or the FTP.
1. Choose a New Domain
Before you start moving everything once again, you’ll have to choose and possess your new domain name.
There are a lot of domain registrars online, and some hosting services significantly offer free domains.
2. Backup Your Website
There would not be anything worse than totally losing all of your content under your own domain name while moving to another domain name.
The process can get mind-boggling at times, yet backing up your site is a speedy and simple method for defending your work in case something doesn’t go very right. Fortunately, we will go more in-depth here on an assortment of plugins that will assist you back up your site easily.
3. Notify Your Audience
When you have another domain name set, you’ll need to begin telling your audience that they could see a few changes as you change to another domain name.
Tell them when they can hope to see your new domain and console them that they’ll still be able to access your content.
How to Change Primary Domain Name on WordPress
Ready to learn how to change your essential domain on WordPress? Things can get a little specialized here, yet by following these steps closely, the process will be seamless.
1. Change the Domain in WordPress
Sign into your WordPress account, and from the dashboard, go to Settings > General. Change both the WordPress Address and Site Address to your new domain name, then, at that point, save.
2. Update the wp-config.php
What is wp-config.php? This is an essential file in your WordPress installation that contains important information and setup data from your site.
To access and update this with your new domain, you’ll have to find your FTP credentials from your hosting provider. When you approach the FTP, go to public_html > wp-config.php, then, at that point, right-click the file and select Edit. What you will see is:
define('WP_HOME','http://yoursitename.com');
define('WP_SITEURL','http://yoursitename.com');Change your website name to the new domain name, then save.
3. Update the WordPress Database
Go to your hosting control panel and track down phpMyAdmin. Track down wp_options, then type your new domain into ‘siteurl‘ and ‘home‘. Click Go to save.
4. Redirect the Former Domain
Now is the right time to guarantee your old site is redirected to the new site, as audiences could in any case find your old URL or forget that you’ve changed to a new domain. By redirecting, they can type in the old domain regardless and end up in your new domain.
To set up these 301 redirects, as they are called, go to your hosting control panel and choose the file manager. Go to the .htaccess folder, and right-click for edit. Add the following code, changing ‘newdomain‘ to your new domain, to the highest point of the page:
#Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
5. Notify Search Engines
Search engines, especially Google, have tools to change your website address. You’ll finish up a basic structure to inform search engines of the change, so they can direct search traffic to your new domain name. Ensure you satisfy the requirements for Google here, then access the Change of Address tool here.
WordPress Change Domain Plugins
Need help backing up your site or redirecting your URLs? There’s a plugin for that! Here are a few famous choices that can assist you with these tasks and more as you handle your WordPress domain change.
1. Duplicator
Duplicator is a first-class plugin for WordPress migrations and backups. You can easily backup your website and move your site, and this tool is particularly useful in the event that you’ll also be exchanging hosts during your domain change. Duplicator will download your whole WordPress website — plugins, topics, and all — into a .zip record file as a backup or for improved migrations with no downtime.
2. Backup Guard
One more option for backups and migrations, Backup Guard offers backup and restore usefulness for your site’s files. In the event that you move up to the premium version, Backup Guard will likewise deal with migrating your site starting from one domain to another.
3. Redirection
The suitably named Redirection plugin handily takes care of 301 redirects. It additionally tracks 404 errors to ensure your site isn’t suffering in that search rankings because of broken links, whether domain change-related or not. Down the line, you could also track down different reasons behind redirects, and this plugin considers conditional redirects.