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WPBeginner» Blog» Tutorials» How to Easily Move WordPress to a New Domain (without Losing SEO)

How to Easily Move WordPress to a New Domain (without Losing SEO)

Last updated on February 14th, 2019 by Editorial Staff
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How to Easily Move WordPress to a New Domain (without Losing SEO)

Do you want to move your WordPress site to a new domain? Changing your website’s domain name can significantly impact your SEO rankings, and it’s a process that needs to be done very carefully.

While you cannot avoid temporary SEO fluctuations when moving your website to a new domain, you can definitely minimize the impact and quickly regain your search traffic and rankings.

In this guide, we will show you the proper way to move WordPress to a new domain without losing SEO.

Properly moving WordPress to another domain name

Here’s the 5 step process that we will cover to help you migrate your WordPress site to a new domain name:

  1. Create a Duplicator package of your WordPress site
  2. Create a database for new domain name
  3. Unpack WordPress on new domain
  4. Setup Permanent 301 redirects
  5. Notify Google about the change

Before You Start

Before you start, we want to emphasize a few things.

The process of switching to a new domain will temporarily affect your search engine rankings as Google and other search engines adjust to the changes.

Yes, this will also temporarily affect your search traffic as well. Please keep in mind that this is normal, and it happens to all websites that switch to a new domain.

However, you can dramatically decrease the SEO impact by following this guide. We will show you the right way of moving your WordPress site to a new domain name, setting up proper 301 redirects, and notifying search engines.

Please note that this guide is not for moving WordPress site to a new web host. This is for switching a domain name. Yes, while the process is similar, there are extra things involved in this process.

Pre-Steps

In this guide, we are assuming that you have your WordPress site setup on oldsite.com, and you are trying to migrate it to newsite.com.

We are also assuming that you already have a web hosting account, and you are familiar with your web hosting control panel.

You will also need to know how to use FTP.

In case you don’t have a web hosting account, we recommend using Bluehost (great for small sites + comes with a free domain) or WP Engine (great for large sites).

Once you have your new web hosting account and domain name, you’re ready to start the process.

Step 1: Create a Duplicator package of Your WordPress Site

The first thing you need to do is create a full backup of your WordPress site. While there are many WordPress backup plugins available, the one we’re going to show in this step does both backups and migrations.

It’s Duplicator and it’s a completely free plugin.

Let’s start by installing and activating the Duplicator plugin on your old domain name. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once activated, the plugin will add a Duplicator menu item in your WordPress admin. You need to click on the Duplicator menu, and then click on the create button to create a new package.

Create a new Duplicator package

After that, you will be asked to click on the Next button to continue.

Duplicator will now run the website duplicator wizard. First, it will run some tests to see if everything is in order. If all items are marked ‘Good’, then click on the ‘Build’ button.

Build Duplicator package for switching to new domain name

The plugin will now start creating a duplicator package of your WordPress site. This process may take a few minutes depending on the size of your website.

Once finished, you’ll see download options for Installer and the Archive package. You need to click on the ‘One click download’ link to download both files to your computer.

Download Duplicator package

The archive file is a complete copy of your website, and this will allow you to move WordPress to another domain name. The installer script will automate and run the migration by unpacking the archive file.

Step 2. Create a Database for New Domain Name

Before you can move, you’ll need a database to unpack WordPress on your new domain name.

If you have already created a database, then you can skip this step.

To create a database, you need to visit your hosting account’s cPanel dashboard, scroll down to the ‘Databases’ section, and then click on the ‘MySQL Databases’ icon.

Database icon in CPanel

On the next screen, you’ll see a field to create a new database. Simply provide a name for your database and click on the ‘Create Database’ button.

Create database for switching to another domain name

cPanel will now create a new database for you. After that, you need to scroll down to the MySQL Users section.

Next, provide a username and password for your new user and click on the ‘Create a user’ button.

Adding a new MySQL user

The new user you just created, still does not have permission to work on the database. Let’s change that.

Scroll down to the ‘Add User to Database’ section. Simply select the database user you created from the dropdown menu next to the ‘User’ field, then select the database, and click on the add button.

Add user to database

Your database is now ready to be used on for moving WordPress to the new domain name. Make sure to note down the database name, username, and password. You’ll need this information in the next step.

Step 3. Unpacking WordPress on New Domain Name

Now you need to upload the Duplicator files you downloaded earlier to your new domain name.

First, connect to your domain name using an FTP client. Once connected, make sure that the root directory of your website is completely empty.

After that, you can upload the archive and installer files to the root directory.

Upload Duplicator files to new domain name

Once both files have finished uploading, you are now ready to unpack WordPress.

Open a new browser tab and go to the following URL:

http://example.com/installer.php

Don’t forget to replace example.com with your new domain name. This will launch the Duplicator migration wizard.

Duplicator wizard

The installer will look for the archive file. You need to check the terms and conditions checkbox and click on the next button to continue.

Now, the installer will ask you to enter your WordPress database information.

Your host will likely be localhost. After that, you will enter the details of the database you created for your new domain name in the earlier step.

Connect to the database for your new domain name

Once done, click on the next button to continue.

Duplicator will now unpack your WordPress database backup from the archive into your new database.

Next, it will ask you to update site URL or Path. You shouldn’t have to change anything since it automatically detects the URL of your new domain name and its path.

If it doesn’t, then you can change the URL to your new domain name. After that, click on the next button to continue.

Update URL to your new domian name

Duplicator will now finish the migration.

You can click on the ‘Admin Login’ button to enter the WordPress admin area of your website on the new domain name.

Finishing WordPress migration to new domain name

Step 4. Setting up Permanent 301 Redirects

Setting up a permanent 301 redirect is very important for both SEO and user experience.

This step will allow you to automatically redirect users and search engines to your new domain name.

In other words, whenever someone lands on one of your old posts or pages, they will be automatically redirected to your site on the new domain.

To setup a permanent 301 redirect, you need to connect to your old site using FTP and edit the .htaccess file.

This will be located in the same directory as your wp-includes or wp-admin folder. Open the .htaccess file and paste the following code at the very top:

#Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.newsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Note: Replace newsite.com with your new domain in the above code.

Once you have applied these changes, then visit your old domain name. It should automatically redirect you to the new domain.

If it doesn’t, then it means the redirection is not setup properly, and your server likely doesn’t support redirect rules. You need to reach your web hosting’s support to get RewriteEngine turned on.

Step 5. Notifying Google About the Change

Now that you have moved WordPress to a new domain name and setup redirects, it is time to notify Google about the change of address. This will help Google find your new domain name quickly and start showing it in search results.

First, you need to add your new domain name to the Google Search Console. See step 1 in our Google Search Console guide for instructions.

After you have added your new site, you need to switch to the old version of Google Search Console.

Go to old version of Google Search Console

Next, you need to switch to your old domain name and then click on the gear icon at the top to launch change of address tool.

Change of address tool

On the next screen, Google Search Console will show you a step by step wizard to submit your change of address request.

First it will ask you to select your new site from the drop down menu. After that, click on the check button to test 301 redirects and then confirm verification.

Change of address for your old domain name

Finally, click on the submit button to send your address change request.

Notify Users About the Move to New Domain Name

While the 301 redirects do their job, it is always good to make a public announcement about the migration.

You can do this by simply writing a blog post on your new site and sharing it on your social media accounts.

If you have an email marketing list, then you should send a newsletter to let all your subscribers know.

This can be helpful in a lot of ways.

First and foremost, your users are more likely to remember the new domain once they read about it.

Second, you can ask your users to let you know if they see any bugs. You alone cannot test your site in all different type of browsers and system environments. It’s always helpful to have a fresh pair of eyes looking at it.

We hope that this tutorial helped you move your WordPress site to a new domain name. You may also want to see our guide on how to track your search keyword rankings after moving to a new domain name.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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About the Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi. Trusted by over 1.3 million readers worldwide.

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464 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Andy says:
    Feb 10, 2021 at 2:02 pm

    I’m having a little trouble with Step 5. Notifying Google About the Change.

    When I filed the change of address (the Search Console seems to have changed since you wrote this post, but I figured out the new procedure OK), the validation failed because Google couldn’t fetch the home page for my old site.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 11, 2021 at 9:53 am

      Thank you for letting us know, for this situation, you would want to point Google to your new site for it to test the redirects.

      Reply
  2. Sharon says:
    Feb 7, 2021 at 3:11 pm

    Thank you so much for this tutorial it was so easy for me to redirect my old domain

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 8, 2021 at 10:48 am

      Glad our guide was helpful :)

      Reply
  3. amir says:
    Feb 4, 2021 at 5:25 pm

    can I delete the old host and domain after I did all the steps? or I should renew the host and domain after then

    Thanks

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 5, 2021 at 9:43 am

      It is normally a good idea to redirect the old domain to the new one for some time but you can end the old hosting and still redirect the old domain if you wanted.

      Reply
  4. Dejan says:
    Jan 30, 2021 at 8:41 am

    Hi Wpbeginner!

    Very good article as usual, i have a question just to double check, will all paths be changed? For example media links and so on? Thanks again

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 1, 2021 at 2:06 pm

      Using this method, your links to images and other media should be updated as well.

      Reply
  5. dariu says:
    Nov 28, 2020 at 4:08 am

    Thanks for this. What is the difference for migrating to new host (and domain)? Is there any difference in steps and instructions?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 30, 2020 at 10:57 am

      You would use the same steps for a new host as well.

      Reply
  6. Penny says:
    Nov 20, 2020 at 12:44 pm

    I had to put in mine in the public_html folder to work. Very frustrating at first until I tried that!

    Reply
  7. Jose says:
    Nov 17, 2020 at 7:33 am

    Thanks for a great tutorial!

    I’ve ran into a quirk after following all the steps.

    My site redirects everything EXCEPT the content of the home page.

    I updated the name servers about two days ago.

    I did the redirection via .htaccess.

    I’m not sure where to look to troubleshoot the issue. Any direction is appreciated. Thanks again!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 17, 2020 at 12:48 pm

      We would recommend checking for any caching plugins as well as reaching out to your hosting provider for the most common reasons for that issue and your hosting provider can normally take a look from their end as well.

      Reply
      • Jose says:
        Dec 7, 2020 at 8:28 pm

        Following up.

        I was/am using W3 Total Cache.

        Before I migrated, I forgot to disable caching. And that caused issues.

        After the migration, I had to manually remove W3 Total Cache in order to get the new site working again.

        There was a section of caching code left over in the new .htaccess file.

        All has been good since then!

        Reply
        • WPBeginner Support says:
          Dec 8, 2020 at 10:01 am

          Glad you were able to get the issue sorted :)

  8. Haitham says:
    Nov 4, 2020 at 11:32 am

    Hi,

    Great tutorial. I have to ask about the SSL redirects since it may cause issues for domains that use cloudflare for instant.

    So while adding the code on the .htaccess file in the old website how do I add a newwebsite.com/1$ to that command ?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 5, 2020 at 9:42 am

      If you mean how to update your site to a new domain using a CDN like Cloudflare, we would recommend reaching out to the CDN you are using for their current methods for that kind of change.

      Reply
  9. Joe says:
    Oct 30, 2020 at 10:38 am

    In the last step you mentioned “notify google about the change”.

    But what if don’t notify Google about the change, just move the website to new domain, and remove all the pages from old domain (as my website is new and doesn’t have any organic traffic)?

    Is it valid?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 2, 2020 at 9:50 am

      You can do that if you want but you would likely take a negative hit in your search engine rankings.

      Reply
  10. Jay Dee says:
    Oct 26, 2020 at 7:46 pm

    I have a question about subscribers the website who have created profiles. Would I have to do redirects for their individual profile pages ?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Oct 27, 2020 at 10:32 am

      If you are using the same systems then you shouldn’t need an additional redirect unless the tool you are using says so.

      Reply
  11. Rajesh says:
    Oct 1, 2020 at 2:42 am

    I have a question, I already set 301 redirection, and all the request to the old site is redirecting, now my question is, when I can delete old site and its content permanenty?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Oct 1, 2020 at 9:12 am

      After you create your redirects you can remove the old content.

      Reply
  12. Morgan says:
    Sep 24, 2020 at 12:10 pm

    Hello, please I’m confused on this sentence “Once connected, make sure that the root directory of your website is completely empty.”

    How can make the root directory to be empty cause is showing some files and folders. Please I need an answer on how to do that. Thanks

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Sep 25, 2020 at 9:40 am

      You can either use FTP or some hosts have file managers you can use to delete the folders or you can reach out to your host for assistance

      Reply
  13. Braeden says:
    Sep 23, 2020 at 12:34 pm

    Thanks for this! How would you handle domain1 is moving to domain2, but, many of the URL slugs on domain1 are different on domain2. For example, domain1/this-is-a-post/ will be going to domain2/this-is-the-new-post/

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Sep 24, 2020 at 11:21 am

      It would depend on the specific changes but depending on how drastic the change you may need to manually set up the individual redirects.

      Reply
  14. Marco says:
    Aug 26, 2020 at 12:31 pm

    Thank you for this guide. It helped me.

    I tried the 301 redirect on htaccess. However it only redirects the homepage. Any chance for help? Thanks

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 27, 2020 at 10:24 am

      You may want to try clearing your caching and checking with your hosting provider to ensure they don’t see any errors on their end.

      Reply
  15. Gosia says:
    Aug 19, 2020 at 8:58 pm

    This is great if moving a complete old site to a new domain. But what to do to when you are setting up a new site and want to move over only a few posts from the first site? I don’t want to lose organic traffic.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 20, 2020 at 10:17 am

      You can check under Tools>Export and select the specific posts you want to transfer to your site.

      Reply
  16. Alexandre says:
    Jul 29, 2020 at 3:49 am

    Thanks a lot for this tuto.
    I don’t understand why we have to set up permanent 301 redirects if I keep the same domain name ?

    Thank for your answer,

    Alex

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 29, 2020 at 11:10 am

      This article is for moving a site to a new domain name. If you only want to change hosting providers, you would want to take a look at our article below:

      https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-move-wordpress-to-a-new-host-or-server-with-no-downtime/

      Reply
      • Alexandre says:
        Jul 30, 2020 at 3:29 am

        Sorry, thanks a lot.

        You blog posts have always helped me a lot

        Reply
        • WPBeginner Support says:
          Jul 31, 2020 at 10:02 am

          Glad our guides have been helpful :)

  17. Prasad Rane says:
    Jul 26, 2020 at 2:37 pm

    Hey thanks a lot for this step by step tutorial.I was able to move clients site in just 30 mins. He was surprised. Thanks a lot.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 27, 2020 at 1:22 pm

      Glad our guide could help :)

      Reply
  18. Luiz Pedao says:
    Jun 10, 2020 at 5:51 pm

    Hello, got a bit of a problem here. I transferred my good php and zip files to the public directory, and yet when I browse to mydomain/installer.php it just doesn’t find the page. What could be the problem?

    Thanks in advance

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 11, 2020 at 8:52 am

      You may want to reach out to your hosting provider to ensure the domain is set up to the correct location that you’re adding the files.

      Reply
  19. Razi says:
    Jun 8, 2020 at 3:32 pm

    Thanks, Buddy, After reading your article It’s just like the peace of cake

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 9, 2020 at 9:21 am

      Glad our article could be helpful :)

      Reply
  20. hassan says:
    Jun 7, 2020 at 9:25 am

    GOOD guide.
    but if I want to change my URLs in a new domain

    my post in the old domain is: oldedoman.com/best-products-2020/
    I want to change to newdomain.com/best-products/

    How to redirect all my posts
    Thanks

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 9, 2020 at 8:44 am

      For that type of change, you would need to create manual redirects following our guide below:
      https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-to-creating-redirects-in-wordpress

      Reply
  21. Adrian Filip says:
    May 25, 2020 at 1:49 pm

    Brilliant tutorial. Thank you! Work like a charm!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 27, 2020 at 9:13 am

      Glad you found our guide helpful :)

      Reply
  22. Megan says:
    May 19, 2020 at 9:55 am

    Does this process work with a bluehost basic account? I have purchased my new domain but can’t assign it as an Addon domain since I can only have 1 website. What is the best way to work with this?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 20, 2020 at 8:44 am

      If you’re unable to create an addon domain we would recommend reaching out to your host and some offer support or different ways to set it up.

      Reply
  23. Megan says:
    May 19, 2020 at 8:45 am

    Does this method work if I am using the Bluehost Basic plan where I can only have one website? I can’t make my new domain an add on domain.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 19, 2020 at 9:39 am

      You can move from a host to BlueHost’s basic plan following this guide

      Reply
  24. Utsav says:
    May 13, 2020 at 4:44 pm

    Hi,
    I have questions that where to use 301 redirect, in new domain .htaccess or old domain .htaccess.
    In my case I have changed my website domain as well as web hosting. Then where to apply 301 redirect and how many time I should active my old domain and hosting active?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 14, 2020 at 9:09 am

      You would want to add 301 redirects to the old domain. It depends on your old site and personal preference for how long you should keep the old domain active but you shouldn’t need the old hosting.

      Reply
  25. Suchitha says:
    May 8, 2020 at 12:27 pm

    I earlier had my domain in a WordPress site that I do not own. I developed my website there. Now, I have moved my domain to a new WordPress site that I own and also used the Export/Import option to transfer my content to the new site. However, I am having to re-design my website again. Does the procedure mentioned here ensure that my site is transferred intact?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 11, 2020 at 1:34 pm

      The method in this guide should let you keep your theme and plugins how they are set up.

      Reply
  26. Adz says:
    May 5, 2020 at 11:36 am

    Hi, thanks for sharing.

    Once I’ve successfully migrated my old website to the new domain, will the 301 redirect continue to redirect even after ive deleted my old website? The reason I’m asking is because I have several posts on facebook that point to my old site.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 6, 2020 at 10:29 am

      As long as the redirect remains in your htaccess file it will continue to redirect to your site.

      Reply
  27. Ejimurphy says:
    Apr 20, 2020 at 6:02 pm

    After moving the the old site to new site, do I still need to purchase new SSL certificate or the SSL certificate for old site will work for the new site

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 21, 2020 at 1:49 pm

      Most hosts should offer Let’s Encrypt as a free option but you would need to set up SSL for your new domain.

      Reply
  28. Mark says:
    Apr 20, 2020 at 1:23 pm

    Perfect! Thank you for a great post!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 21, 2020 at 1:40 pm

      You’re welcome :)

      Reply
  29. Joshua says:
    Apr 17, 2020 at 1:49 pm

    OK, I’m tracking with most of this guide, but what particular steps do I need to take if my website is hosted with HostGator, my old domain is registered with GoDaddy, and my new domain is registered with Domain.com? Do I have to link the new domain with HostGator hosting in some way before I can create a new database in Step 2?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 21, 2020 at 12:48 pm

      You would normally want to point your domain’s nameservers to where the new domain would be hosted to link the domain to your host.

      Reply
  30. Kay says:
    Apr 13, 2020 at 9:36 am

    Thanks for these clear steps! I have one question. So I moved everything to the new domain name and have applied the 301 redirect at the old domain. Should I keep the pages and posts on the old domain or simply remove those? Because doesn’t google see those pages as copies now I’ve basically duplicated the website? Also, I thought it would free up some spaces if I remove them. However, I would love to hear what’s the best thing to do here.

    Extra info: I’m not planning to use the old domain anymore so once the subscription for that domain ends later this year I will not extend it.

    Thank you!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 14, 2020 at 12:52 pm

      If you have moved all of the content over and created your redirects then you can feel free to remove the old site and its content

      Reply
  31. Manuel says:
    Apr 4, 2020 at 4:18 pm

    Hi. I have two questions. The first is how long should the 1st step from the installer take? It’s been extracting the archive files for about 20 minutes and my site isnt that big.

    Also, is setting up the 301 redirects and updating google about the changes necessary if I’m only using the cloned site as a template for the new one? Any pages that are remaining the same will be deleted from the old site.

    Thanks in advance!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 6, 2020 at 8:54 am

      It would depend on the size of the site for how long it would take and the 301 redirects are to ensure traffic from your old site is sent to the new site rather than the old address that would not have the content anymore

      Reply
  32. Darren says:
    Mar 31, 2020 at 8:33 pm

    I have never done this before, so your instructions were excellent. For any newbies like me – just go through slowly and read each instruction carefully and it will work perfectly.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 1, 2020 at 8:32 am

      Glad our guide was able to help you transfer your site :)

      Reply
  33. Christopher Jan Benitez says:
    Mar 30, 2020 at 10:41 am

    Great guide! I successfully moved my site to a new domain using the exact processalthough I have to purchase Duplicator Pro to make it work.

    My question is this: what should I do with the WordPress content on the old domain? Should I just uninstall/delete everything and leave the .htaccess file in there?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Mar 31, 2020 at 10:09 am

      That would be a personal preference question, you certainly can remove it and leave the .htaccess as the simplest option :)

      Reply
  34. Rohan says:
    Feb 27, 2020 at 12:14 am

    Hii
    After changing domain name do I need to take apply for AdSense again? my previous domain already has AdSense approved. Do I need to reapply for a new domain name?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 27, 2020 at 8:56 am

      You would need to add the new domain to your sites list on your current AdSense account

      Reply
  35. Mickey gee says:
    Feb 25, 2020 at 3:46 pm

    this is what i get after i uploaded the file successfully
    Error establishing a database connection

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 26, 2020 at 8:46 am

      There are a few possible reasons, you would want to start by taking a look at our guide here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-the-error-establishing-a-database-connection-in-wordpress/

      Reply
  36. Dileep kumar says:
    Feb 2, 2020 at 6:10 am

    After Move WordPress to a New Domain , How can i change url in Adsense account. And any effect on my adsense earning becouse my blog 2 year old.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 3, 2020 at 9:01 am

      You would need to add your new domain to your sites list in your Adsense settings. For earnings, there are too many factors beyond the domain name for us to give you an idea about any changes.

      Reply
  37. Karina says:
    Jan 16, 2020 at 5:31 pm

    How do you do with old 301s in htaccess that go from old sub-pages to new sub-pages in the old domain?Thanks for a very good guide!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 17, 2020 at 9:18 am

      With how the redirect code is set up it should redirect all of your content on your site not only the home page.

      Reply
      • Karina says:
        Jan 23, 2020 at 11:44 am

        But old 301 on the old domain then?

        Reply
        • WPBeginner Support says:
          Jan 24, 2020 at 8:40 am

          Correct, create the 301 redirects on the old domain.

  38. Jip Meertens says:
    Jan 3, 2020 at 5:52 am

    Great hands-on tut up to the almost-end of step 3.
    Now did I oversee something? I am completely blank on how (which user/pw combination to use) to log in to the new WP admin?
    Nowhere on the journey did I make a new WP installation, so I do not store any log-in credentials for the WP dashboard… Pls?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 3, 2020 at 10:18 am

      You would use the same login information as the previous site as the user table would be duplicated in this process as well :)

      Reply
  39. shantell smith says:
    Sep 27, 2019 at 1:20 pm

    I searched for two days until I came across your blog. I have tried 3 or 4 different codes and none of them worked. I tried yours and it worked like a charm. Thanks. But this post needs to be updated. You can no longer switch back to the old version of Console and I was unable to find a change of address option.

    But still great posts. Thanks a bunch!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Sep 30, 2019 at 9:47 am

      Glad our recommendation worked, Google has changed where it is located but if you use their search for tools in your console you should still be able to use the change of address tool.

      Reply
  40. Viral says:
    Aug 22, 2019 at 1:38 pm

    Many thanks for this very helpful tutorial. It has worked perfectly!

    Just a small query… In the last step 5, Google Search Console says this ‘Change of Address’ function works only for root level domains (while I’ve a blog address in the form abc.co.in/example)

    Hence, is there an alternative method that can be used here, or will the 301 redirects (incorporated in Step 4) suffice?

    Many thanks again for the wonderful help throughout all the articles… Lots of good wishes!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 23, 2019 at 9:25 am

      If it is not only the root domain then the 301 redirects would be what you want to stay with and should be good enough for now

      Reply
  41. Matt Pettitt says:
    Aug 20, 2019 at 9:29 am

    Hi, thanks – this is interesting.

    Two weeks ago I migrated 3 sites into 1 new site, using the above process. All looks good as far as 301 re-directs are concerned but very few of the posts on the new domain are showing in the SERP. Also, many still have the old domain – because of this, organic traffic is down about 60% currently.
    Do you know how long it takes for Google to re-crawl, re-index and sort this stuff out?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 20, 2019 at 10:09 am

      Sadly, when merging multiple sites rather than only changing the domain, it can vary from site to site for how long it takes.

      Reply
  42. Samson Ogola says:
    Aug 2, 2019 at 2:42 pm

    This tutorial is always my go-to piece whenever I’m moving or redirecting a website. A life-saver I must say.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 5, 2019 at 10:45 am

      Glad our guide can help :)

      Reply
  43. John Akpama says:
    Jul 31, 2019 at 6:58 am

    Thanks for being such an immense help. I have a challenge in using Duplicator. I went as far as creating the package and uploaded it to the new domain (a subdomain actually). The problem is when I try to install it I get a 403 error that keeps me stuck at the 1st step. How do I resolve this please?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 1, 2019 at 9:29 am

      There are a few possible reasons, you would want to take a look at our article here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-the-403-forbidden-error-in-wordpress/

      Reply
  44. Ibrahim Garba says:
    Jul 28, 2019 at 5:20 pm

    I’m so excited! Finally moved my wp site without any issue. Thanks

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 29, 2019 at 11:54 am

      You’re welcome, glad our guide could help :)

      Reply
  45. Himanshu Nishad says:
    Jul 27, 2019 at 10:51 pm

    Here, you told the old domain is redirected to the new domain.
    If I have to show a website in the old domain name. I will be able to upload website old domain name?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 29, 2019 at 11:40 am

      You would need to clarify your question. If you redirect the old domain but want a site on the old domain then you would need to remove the redirection for the site content to show

      Reply
  46. zeeshan malik says:
    Jul 22, 2019 at 8:39 am

    as usual very well explain each step. i want to add one more point some websites leave a message in old domain when someone visit to old domain he
    reads about website transferred to an other domain like stumble upon when i visit to this site i read stumble up move to mix.

    i want to know is it possible to move data like classified ads from one website (website created in WordPress to another website with same domain name but CMS platform change to Joomla or Drupal or in reverse? without effecting website SEO?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 22, 2019 at 1:21 pm

      Changing platforms will always have a temporary effect on your SEO but overall there shouldn’t be any long-lasting effects on your site’s SEO

      Reply
  47. Ana says:
    Jul 22, 2019 at 8:10 am

    Best articles on the planet! Thank you WPBeginner for making life so much easier for the non-tech website owners!

    Keep up the good work

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 22, 2019 at 1:22 pm

      Thank you, glad you like our articles :)

      Reply
  48. Alix says:
    Jul 18, 2019 at 3:13 pm

    Thank you so much for this!

    I always thought this was a daunting task but you have made it so very easy.

    Great article.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 22, 2019 at 11:34 am

      Thank you, glad we could help simplify the process :)

      Reply
  49. Paul Therond says:
    Jul 14, 2019 at 1:10 am

    How long do you recommend keeping the old website domain redirecting to the new domain for the purposes of SEO? Is it best to keep it forever or is there a point where all the juice from the old domain has been passed onto the new one and the old domain can be discarded?

    Thanks for your article it gave me the push to finally do the rebrand launch!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 15, 2019 at 11:47 am

      Sadly, that question varies from site to site and what works best for the individual

      Reply
  50. Michael Chibuzor says:
    Jul 3, 2019 at 8:50 pm

    Thorough content. Thank you. My question is, in Step 3 you said “make sure the root domain is completely empty.” I’m a bit confused here. I want to be able to move an old site to a new one site, these are not empty domains but functional websites with about 50 pages each.

    The reason why I want to merge Site A and Site B (the main site becomes Site B) is because they’re both in the same industry, so I want to stay focused.

    Can I still use this tutorial to migrate my old site to the new site — seeing the root domain isn’t completely empty?

    Please help me.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 5, 2019 at 3:16 pm

      For what it sounds like you’re wanting to do, you wouldn’t want to use this guide, you would want to import your content on to the site where you want it to appear and then have your hosting provider set the secondary domain to point toward your primary domain.

      Reply
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