Moving your WordPress site to a new domain can feel risky. You don’t want to lose your hard-earned SEO rankings, and you need to make sure visitors who use your old domain are automatically sent to the new one.
In this guide, we will show you how to move WordPress to a new domain without losing your SEO. We have used these exact steps to migrate hundreds of websites, including our own.
Here is a quick overview of everything we will cover in this tutorial. You can click any link below to jump straight to that section:
- What to Know Before You Change Domains
- What You Need to Get Started
- Step 1: Create a Duplicator Backup of Your WordPress Site
- Step 2: Create a Database for Your New Domain Name
- Step 3: Unpack WordPress on Your New Domain Name
- Step 4: Set Up Permanent 301 Redirects
- Step 5: Notify Google About Your New Domain
- Changing Only Your Domain Name (Same Hosting)
- How to Move WordPress to a New Domain Without a Plugin
- Post-Migration SEO Checklist
- Frequently Asked Questions About Moving a WordPress Site
- Video Tutorial
What to Know Before You Change Domains
Not every domain change needs a full migration. Before you start, pick the scenario that matches your situation:
- You are moving your WordPress site to a new domain, including moving the site to a new hosting account or server. Follow the steps in this guide.
- You only want to rename your domain, and the website hosting stays exactly where it is. Skip to changing only your domain name.
- You are keeping your domain but switching hosting companies. This guide is not for you. See our tutorial on moving a WordPress site to a new host instead.
Switching domains will temporarily affect your search rankings and traffic while Google and other search engines adjust to the change. This happens to every website that changes its domain, and it is normal.
However, you can greatly reduce the SEO impact by setting up proper 301 redirects and notifying search engines the right way. That is exactly what the steps below do.
Lastly, if your old website is on WordPress.com, then you need to follow the instructions in our guide on how to move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org instead.
What You Need to Get Started
In this guide, we are assuming that you have your WordPress website set up on oldsite.com, and you are trying to migrate it to newsite.com.
Here is what you need before you start:
- Both domains added to your hosting account, with the new domain’s DNS pointing at the server where the new site will live.
- Access to your web hosting control panel.
- Basic familiarity with using an FTP client like FileZilla, or the File Manager app in your hosting dashboard.
If you still need hosting for your new domain, then Bluehost plans include a free domain name.
Step 1: Create a Duplicator Backup of Your WordPress Site
The first thing you need to do is create a full backup of your WordPress site. You will use this backup to create an exact copy of your website on the new domain.
While there are many WordPress backup plugins available, we will be using the free Duplicator Lite plugin for this tutorial. It does everything this migration needs, and you will not need a paid plan to move your domain.
Over 1,500,000 professionals use Duplicator, and it has worked reliably for us even on very large sites.
Let’s start by installing and activating Duplicator on your old domain. 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 go to the Duplicator » Backups page and then click on the ‘Create New’ button.
Duplicator will now start the backup wizard and automatically assign a name to this backup.
Click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.
Duplicator will now scan your site to see if everything is in order. Items marked ‘Good’ passed the check, and a ‘Notice’ is just informational.
If the plugin finds a real issue, then you will see a warning with instructions on how to fix it.
If the results look good, then click on the ‘Build’ button.
The plugin will now package your website files into a backup. Depending on the size of your site, this may take a few moments.
Once finished, you will see the download options. Click ‘Download Both Files’ to save the installer and the archive to your computer.
The archive file is a complete copy of your WordPress files. It includes your WordPress themes, permalink settings, plugins, uploads, and any other files created by WordPress plugins.
The installer script is a PHP file that will automate and run the WordPress migration by unpacking the archive file.
If you later want scheduled backups, cloud storage, or 1-click recovery, then the paid Duplicator Pro plan adds those features.
Step 2: Create a Database for Your New Domain Name
The two files you just downloaded contain a copy of your old site’s database. Before you unpack your files, create a fresh, empty MySQL database on your new domain.
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 and find the ‘Databases’ section.
We will show you how to locate it on Bluehost, but the basic instructions are the same and should apply to all hosting providers.
Log in to your Bluehost account dashboard and click on the ‘Manage Site’ button under your website.
Under your site settings, click on the cPanel button under the ‘Overview’ tab.
This will open the cPanel dashboard.
Scroll down to the Databases section and click on the ‘Manage My Databases’ option.
Provide a name for your database and then click on the ‘Create Database’ button.
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 User’ button.
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. First, select the database user you created from the dropdown menu next to the ‘User’ field. Then select the new database you just created and click on the ‘Add’ button.
Next, cPanel will ask you to choose privileges for the user, which define what users can do with the database.
Select ‘All Privileges’ and click on the ‘Make Changes’ button to continue.
Your database is now ready, and you can use it to move 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: Unpack WordPress on Your New Domain Name
Now, you need to upload the Duplicator files you downloaded earlier to your new domain name.
The Duplicator backup includes your WordPress installation as well, so you don’t need to install WordPress on your new domain.
First, connect to your domain name using an FTP client or the File Manager app in your hosting account. Once connected, make sure that the root directory of your website is empty.
After that, you can upload the archive and installer files to the root directory. This is usually called public_html.
Once both files have finished uploading, you are now ready to unpack WordPress.
Open a new browser tab and go to the following URL:
https://newsite.com/installer.php
Don’t forget to replace newsite.com with your actual domain name. This will launch the Duplicator installer wizard, and you will see the ‘Step 1 of 2: Deployment’ screen.
Note: If your new domain doesn’t open or takes you to a different page, then you may need to wait for the DNS settings to update. This can take up to 24 hours, but it usually happens much faster.
The installer will look for the archive file and then automatically select options for you on the screen.
Scroll down to the ‘Database Connection’ section under Setup. Here, you need to enter the information for the database you created in the previous step, then click on the ‘Validate’ button.
Duplicator will now attempt to connect to the database using the information you provided.
Upon success, it will show you a Validation Pass. Otherwise, it will show you a warning with details on how to fix it.
Click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.
Duplicator will now extract the archive, import your database, and automatically update the URLs to your new domain name. Once finished, you will see a success message with an Admin Login button.
You can now click on the ‘Admin Login’ button to enter the WordPress admin area of your site on the new domain.
The installer turns on its ‘Auto delete installer files after login’ option by default. That means once you log in, Duplicator removes installer.php and the archive file for you.
Look for the notification confirming that Duplicator deleted these files, since leaving them on the server is a security risk. You can also remove them manually at any time from the Duplicator » Tools page.
Step 4: Set Up Permanent 301 Redirects
Your site is now live on the new domain, but anyone who types your old address still lands on the old site. So the next thing to do is to redirect them to the new domain.
You can do this by setting up 301 redirects. This is the most important step to protect your SEO.
Whenever someone lands on your old domain, a 301 redirect automatically sends them to the same post or page on your new domain instead of showing them a 404 error.
The redirect also tells search engines that the page has permanently moved, so the links and authority pointing at your old URL count for the new one.
At this point you have two websites: the original on your old domain and an identical copy on the new one, and you need to keep that old installation in place so it can keep redirecting visitors.
There are two ways to set up the redirects.
Method 1: Set Up 301 Redirects With .htaccess
With this method, you’ll edit the WordPress .htaccess file on your old domain. It works on Apache and LiteSpeed servers, which are widely used by WordPress hosting providers.
First, you need to connect to your old site using FTP or your host’s file manager.
You will find the .htaccess file in the same directory as your wp-includes and wp-admin folders. Open it and paste the following lines of code at the very top:
#Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?oldsite.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.newsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]
Make sure you replace oldsite.com with your old domain and www.newsite.com with your new domain in the above code. If your new site does not use www, then remove the www from the last line.
Once you save the changes, visit a few URLs on your old domain, including a blog post. Each one should automatically redirect you to the matching page on the new domain.
If nothing redirects, then your old site is likely on an NGINX server, which does not use .htaccess files.
In that case, you can use the redirect tool in your hosting control panel, since most hosts have one. Your hosting support can also add the redirect for you, or you can use Method 2 below, which works on any server because it runs through WordPress.
Method 2: Set Up a Full Site Redirect With All in One SEO (Pro)
If you would rather not edit server files, then the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) Pro plan can set up the full site redirect from a settings page. Most popular SEO plugins include a similar redirect feature, and we use AIOSEO on our own sites, so that is what we will show here.
First, you need to switch back to the WordPress dashboard of your old website. Then, install and activate the AIOSEO plugin there.
Upon activation on your old domain, you need to visit the All in One SEO » Redirects page and click on the ‘Activate Redirects’ button.
Next, you need to switch to the ‘Full Site Redirect’ tab and turn on the ‘Relocate Site’ toggle.
After that, you need to enter your new domain name and click the ‘Save Changes’ button.
Step 5: Notify Google About Your New Domain
Next, you need to tell Google about your change of address so that it can find your new domain quickly and start showing it in search results.
First, you need to add both your new and old domains to Google Search Console as two different properties. See step 1 in our Google Search Console guide for instructions.
Next, you need to select the old domain name as the active property in your Google Search Console account dashboard.
After that, click on the Settings menu from the left column.
Now, you can click on the ‘Change of address’ tool.
Now, you need to select your new domain from the Update Google section.
Then, you should click on the ‘Validate & Update’ button. Google will now validate that your old domain is redirecting to the new domain and save your changes.
On the next screen, Google Search Console will show you a step-by-step wizard to submit your change of address request.
Before you leave Search Console, open the property for your new domain and submit your XML sitemap under the Sitemaps menu. This helps Google crawl your new URLs faster.
If you get search traffic from Bing, then you should also tell Bing about the move using the Site Move tool in Bing Webmaster Tools.
Changing Only Your Domain Name (Same Hosting)
Sometimes you only want your existing site to use a new domain name, and nothing else changes. If the site stays on the same hosting account, then you do not need a migration plugin at all.
You only need to point the new domain at your site and update the URLs.
First, add the new domain in your hosting dashboard and assign it to your existing website. Most hosts call this setting the ‘primary domain’ or ‘assigned domain’ for the site.
Your hosting documentation will show where to find this setting, and hosting support can also change it for you.
Next, log in to your WordPress admin area and go to the Settings » General page. Here, you need to replace the old domain with the new one in both the ‘WordPress Address (URL)’ and ‘Site Address (URL)’ fields.
After you click ‘Save Changes’, WordPress will log you out. Log back in at the new domain to continue.
Note: If you cannot access the admin area, you can set the same values in your wp-config.php file instead by adding define( 'WP_HOME', 'https://newdomain.com' ); and define( 'WP_SITEURL', 'https://newdomain.com' );.
Your database still contains the old domain in post content, image URLs, and settings. The easiest way to fix all of them is with the free Search & Replace Everything plugin.
Install and activate it, then go to the Tools » WP Search & Replace page. Enter your old domain in the ‘Search for’ field and your new domain in the ‘Replace with’ field, and select all your tables.
The plugin will find all instances of your old domain name in the database. You can then click on the Replace All button to replace them.
Or, if you are comfortable with the command line, then WP-CLI does the same job in one line:
wp search-replace 'https://oldsite.com' 'https://newsite.com' --all-tables
WordPress stores some settings in a special text format called serialized data, and editing it with plain SQL queries can corrupt it. Both tools above handle serialized data safely, which is why we recommend them over direct database edits.
Finally, your old domain still needs to redirect, and Google still needs to hear about the change.
Follow Steps 4 and 5 above, which work exactly the same for an in-place domain change.
How to Move WordPress to a New Domain Without a Plugin
You can move WordPress to a new domain manually, without any plugin. However, it has more steps, and a small mistake can break your website, causing downtime until you fix it.
So, keep your backup files until you confirm the new site works. Here is the short version of the process:
- Export your database. Open phpMyAdmin from your hosting control panel, select your site’s database, and use the Export tab. The Quick method with SQL format is fine.
- Download all your WordPress files from the old domain over FTP, including the wp-content folder and the hidden .htaccess file.
- Upload the files to the new domain’s root folder, usually public_html.
- Create a new database and user on the new domain’s hosting. Step 2 above shows exactly how.
- Import your .sql file into the new database using phpMyAdmin’s Import tab.
- Edit wp-config.php on the new domain and update the DB_NAME, DB_USER, and DB_PASSWORD values to match the database you just created.
- Update the URLs. The database still points at your old domain, so run a search and replace from the old domain to the new one. You can use the free Search & Replace Everything plugin or the WP-CLI command shown in the section above.
- Test the new site, then set up your 301 redirects and notify Google (Steps 4 and 5 above).
This is the same process Duplicator automates in Steps 1-3. But if you are comfortable with FTP and phpMyAdmin, the manual method works just as well.
Post-Migration SEO Checklist
The move is not finished when the new site loads. Work through this checklist over the first few days to protect your rankings:
- Test your redirects. Open several old URLs, including posts, pages, and a few images. Confirm each one lands on the matching new URL and not the homepage.
- Check your canonical tags. These tags tell Google which URL is the official version of a page. View the source of a few pages and make sure they point to the new domain, which your SEO plugin normally handles automatically.
- Update your Google Analytics property. In GA4, edit your data stream’s URL to the new domain so your traffic reporting continues without a gap.
- Update the links you control. Change the URL on your social media profiles, Google Business Profile, directory listings, and email signatures.
- Announce the move to your readers. Publish a short blog post and share it with your email newsletter and push notification subscribers. Ask readers to report anything broken, since they will often catch things you missed.
- Keep the old domain registered and redirecting for at least 12 months, or longer if you can afford it. If the old domain expires, every redirect breaks, and you lose any remaining SEO value.
Frequently Asked Questions About Moving a WordPress Site
Here are the answers to the questions we hear most often about moving a WordPress site to a new domain.
1. Will changing my domain name permanently hurt my SEO?
No. A temporary dip in rankings is normal while search engines process the change.
However, the 301 redirects and Search Console notification in this guide tell Google exactly where you have moved, so it can transfer your existing authority to the new domain.
You may also want to see our guide on how to verify your SEO is intact after WordPress domain migration.
2. How long does the entire domain migration process take?
You can typically complete the technical steps in this guide, from backing up your site to setting up redirects, in a few hours.
However, it will take longer for search engines like Google to fully crawl and index your new domain. While notifying Google speeds this up, it can take several weeks for your rankings to fully stabilize after the move.
3. Can I move my WordPress site without using a plugin like Duplicator?
Yes, you can transfer your files over FTP, export and import your database with phpMyAdmin, and then update the URLs. We cover the exact steps in the manual migration section of this guide.
A plugin like Duplicator simply automates the most error-prone parts, such as URL updates and database packaging, which is why most beginners find it faster and safer.
4. What is the main difference between moving to a new domain vs. a new host?
Moving to a new domain is like changing your business’s street address. Moving to a new host is like changing the company that owns the building, but your address stays the same.
This guide is for changing your domain, which has its own SEO requirements like 301 redirects.
5. How do I change the primary domain in WordPress?
If your site is staying on the same hosting account, point the new domain at your existing site from your hosting dashboard, and then update the ‘WordPress Address (URL)’ and ‘Site Address (URL)’ fields under Settings » General.
After that, run a search and replace for the old URLs and set up 301 redirects. The changing only your domain name section above walks through each step.
Video Tutorial
We hope this tutorial helped you move your WordPress site to a new domain name. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress migration guide or our comprehensive guide on WordPress SEO.
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.
Maya
Should I keep all files on my old domain (the whole WordPress installation) or it is enough just to have .htaccess with 301 redirect?
James
Hi guys,
The 301 redirect doest redirect the pages, what can I do?
Logan Cale
I had a similar problem with the .htaccess redirect only redirecting the domain (front page), and not the sub-pages, but when I also added the line below in .htaccess file, all sub-pages were then redirected if they had the same exact name.
Redirect 301 / https://newdomain.com/Euan
Hi Logan. You, my friend, are a legend. Several hours of searching as I had the same problem – the front page was redirecting but nothing else. I added this line of code and it is now sorted. Thank you!
Kim Saxton
Hi,
This has been really useful thank you so much, but I am now a bit stuck.
I got up to step 2 and ran the deployment button on the installer php site. Then I went away for a week, I made some formatting changes to my newsite (just colour, logo not any changes with pages).
I now want to update my URLs on the installer update page. But I can no longer access it. It comes up with a 404 error page cannot be found. See
My old site is
Can you advise?
Thanks
Kim
Sorin Vizireanu
Excellent post, thank you.
Ashley
I have a question. We are a business and we just had an ecommerce shop built on our regular business website.
We know would like to take just the shop and put that on a separate domain.
How would that process work?
WPBeginner Support
Hi Ashley,
You will have to set up redirects in a way that only your shop URLs are redirected to the new domain name.
Admin
Peter Ishola
How do i download the package files? Do i have to download it from my wordress admin or from my cpanel because i cannot find any download link on my wordpress admin.
Thanks
Manpreet Singh Rehsi
Hi,
Thanks, for such a detailed article. This really helped to moving one of my blog to a new domain last month.
Right now my blog is undergoing a move in google webmaster. Now I want to implement SSL on my new domain.
Should I make a move to implement the HTTPS or wait for move to be completed in google webmasters.
Will SEO will take a negative impact if I implement https now.
Ahmed Rifshaan
Hello,
Regarding 301 Redirect you said, we should edit old .htaccess file…
What if we dont change host, only changing the domain name?
My site doesnt move, only the domain is changing..
In that case what should i do?
Jay Soriano
There is one part that could use a little bit of clarification, and I read through most of the comments and couldn’t find an answer. With regards to the 301 redirect, in the post you mention:
“In other words, whenever someone lands on one of your old posts or pages, then they will be automatically redirected to your new site.”
If they land on an old post (olddomain.com/post), will they be redirected to the post on the new domain (newdomain.com/post), or simply to the root domain (newdomain.com)?
WPBeginner Support
They will be redirected to the post.
Admin
Claudio
How long is it safe continue to keep the older domain and website, after you redirect to new one?
Jo
Hi, I don’t know if you can help me. I purchased a new domain name from my host. I followed the instructions in this article. When I logged into my FTP client I did so under my old domain name first of all (I think I thought I had to) and then on the ‘new session’ tab I logged in under my new domain name. Under my new domain appeared to be all the same files as my old domain.
The article said to make sure the root file was empty so I deleted all the files from the new domain name in the FTP client and uploaded the installer.php file and archive zip file.
When it comes to launching the installer.php file in my web browser it comes up with a 404 error and now I’m stuck. Do you have any advice?
Thanks!
Jo
UPDATE: I finally managed to get onto the Duplicator and have added a new MySQL database and run the tests. However, now when I try to log in to update the permalinks using my same username and password it says it doesn’t recognise my details. I tried ‘forgot password’ but it didn’t recognise my email.
It’s also saying there is HTTP 500 error on my new (and old) domain names.
Any advice would be great, please.
Thanks!
Amirhossein
Hi
I have a theme installed and active on my wp site right now:
1. It has a custom post type called “video_type”.
2. The URL pattern of all video_type post are like this: mysite.com/video_type/the-video-name-url. It means the /video_type/ is always there in all video post URLs.
3. There is another custom post type called “genre”. Which acts as “categories” but only for video_type posts.
4. The URL pattern for “genres” is like this: mysite.com/genre/the-genre-name-url. It means the /genre/ is always there in all genre URLs. And they contain video post lists.
5. All of my videos and genres are indexed in google and they mostly rank very well. Some of them rank 1-3.
Now I want to change the theme. The new theme does not recognize “video_type” and “genre”. And I don’t want theme to be recognized.
I have decided to change the “video_type” to “post” with “Post Type Switcher” plugin. But after changing type:
1.”genre” is no longer available for posts (Only categories are available).
2. And I cannot change the “genre” post type to “categories” with that Plugin.
3. mysite.com/genre/the-genre-name-url genres will be pages with no content.
4. The URL of the video posts changes. (there will be no “video_type” in the URL and I don’t want it to be BUT SEO?)
Here are my goals:
1. change “genre” to “categories”.
2. change the “genre” URLs.
3. change the “video_type” to “post”.
4. change “video_type” URLs.
5. I also want to Prune and Optimize my current categories. (Remove, Add and Edit some of theme).
So I want to know what is the best practice here for “Not having any negative SEO”? And how to achieve these goals anyway?
WPBeginner Support
You will have to set up redirects. You can use Regex to detect URL patterns and redirect them accordingly. Please see our guide on how to setup redirects in WordPress
Admin
Michel Fortin
If I have two different websites and we want to transfer one of them to the other one. The thing is that we want to close the first website now but transfer the content later, what would be the best practice on the redirect side?
Michael Barth
Thanks for that article, but my problem is a bit more complex. I have a 301 redirect for a domain name I use to a hoster for templates websites. I now have a new hoster and a Wordpress site there. I will change my 301 to now redirect to my new wordpress site. I have no access to the htaccess file on the “old” hoster, and need to cancel the contract anyway.
Any idea how to best do that .
Thank you.
Sujeet Thakur
Thanks a lot from bottom of my heart. My all problem are solved to read your blog. thanks again ..!
saeed
I am looking to safely migrate wordpress website to new html website without losing the google ranking. please contact
Sant
Hi SAEED,
Did you move your domain Wordpress to HTML?
I am planning my website to move from Wordpress to HTML, I want to know is this effects any SEO?
Please suggest on this?
Thanks in advance!
Alessandro Bertelli
Hi.
I am moving a site from a dummy/test subdomain to the definitive domain (something like moving from temporary.example.com to example.com.)
While i kept the site mostly offline during developement i forgot for a brief period the site open.
This was enough for googlebot to snuck in and i find many pages indexed already, with the addresses starting with temporary.example.com/whatever instead of example.com/whatever.
Now i am going to put online the site on the real address and i fear that the fact that the same pages are indexed twice will damage SEO.
I have no previous traffic or seo score to save from the test subdomain, can i just delete the old site?
WPBeginner Support
Hi Alessandro,
Once your site is live, you can set up a 301 redirect from temporary url to your current URL. Take a look at our guide on how to set up redirects in WordPress.
Admin
Alessandro Bertelli
Hi, thanks for the answer.
As i said the site i want to move has no SEO to save… i am only worried of google thinking less of it because of the (temp and no more existing) duplicate pages.
The redirect would be just for the search bots.
Is a 301 redirect a better solution instead of just removing the site?
WPBeginner Support
Even if you remove the site, you would still need to tell search engines where it has gone. This way search engines won’t penalize the new and live site for duplicate content. 301 is the HTTP code which tells search engines that the content they are trying to access has moved to this new location.
Jeffrey Collins
I simply made my site secure, changing the url. I have used a 301 redirect from the root, will that redirect all pages? This is a wordpress site.
Ataul Ghani
i just move the old domain to new domain. The process was something like that, just install wp to new domain and import all files and database on it. Then old domain made an permanent redirection to new domain. I shared sitemap to web master and other search engine also. Also old domain web master admin i said to change domain name by using domain name changer tools in web master. But still not remove any files from old domain directory, so is that will be problem for me??? lease let me know.
Thank You!
Rabin Mahmud
Hello,
I have a old site but I want to redirect that to new domain without losting my any permanent SEO juice. But I need to know that should I redirect all the urls of old domain to new site similar urls or I just need to redirect the domain Name.
It’s very important for me to know.
Thanks
Ravi
I have properly 301 redirected my site to new domain. Do i need to add sitemap of new domain after redirection and address change at webmaster tools? Also my site traffic has significantly gone down. Around 70% drop within 10 days. Is this normal? And how much time will it take to go up.
Please answer and help.
Sandy Gogoriya
I want ask you one question. I have two website. One is old and one is new. so i want transfer my old website 5 post to my new website. Like on my old website have 5 smartphones post and i want publish these post on my new domain with old website content that already publish so what i do now.
Ernest
Hi, thank you for the great explanation! I am wondering, Does putting the code in the htacces file mean That i don’t need to redirect all individual links? I was looking at the plug-in 301 simple redirects, but there I need to fill in every single link.
My old site is live for a while so I would like to keep the page values for Google.
BR!
Josh
What should be done with the content on the original site after the duplicate content, all 301 redirects. and change of address in the search console are complete? Is it best to remove the original content? Any chance it will get penalized as duplicate content?
WPBeginner Support
You don’t need to have the content live to set up a redirect from one WordPress install to another. But if you do, then that’s alright too, because your users and search engines won’t stay on the old content and they will be redirected. If your content was hosted on a platform like WordPress.com or Blogger, then we would recommend you to keep your content in private mode for at least six months.
Admin
David Budimir
Hi there,
We’re migrating our blog from a blog.domain.com to domin.com/blog. Out site is currently live on our main domain, will migrate the blog to the same database mean we need to access it differently?
In other words, will it affect our process for creating blog content in the wordpress dashboard?
Thanks!
WPBeginner Support
No, it wouldn’t affect blog creation. However, you may need to update URLs in database to make sure that they are pointing to the new location.
Admin
sudhir
Thanks WPBEGINNER team for writing such an awesome and helpful article. I have followed all steps carefully and migrated my old domain to new domain, everything is working fine except one, that is; my old home url is not redirecting to new one while all internal pages are redirectd to new pages.
Michall Helmbæk
THX for the best article in a long time that really works!
suhan ahmed
I want to move my https enabled site to a new https enabled domain for rebranding purpose. For example,
From https olddomain.com
To https newdomain.com
To put 301 code to the .htaccess file of old domain. I need to keep the installation of old domain untouched.
The problem is here I will need two SSLs, IPs (in some cases, servers) which is a bit costly for me.
What can be the best solution here?
Or
Can I follow the below mention method!!!
If I switch back to my https olddomain TO http olddomain
and then from olddomain TO newdomain.
Will I lose ranking or be penalized by Google here?
roshan christy
Hi.,
This is article exactly something I was looking today but a bit confused now. My blog was hacked and was injected with a conditional redirect malware. Since my hosting provider allows two managed Wordpress installs, I migrated the ‘uploads’ folder and database to the other one. Now I wish to change the domain name too as the current one have many external spam websites indexed by Google as subdomains. I want to keep the old domain name but delete the old site with malwares. But this article is suggesting to keep the old website with the .htaccess edit. Can I use the old domain along with new one by deleting the old website?
Leonardo
Nice, thanks. It was very helpfull!
New
Hello
If I just move my content wordpress to newsite as the same domain I am using, Is it neccessary to do 301 redirect?
Rocky
In new Google Webmaster Tools there is not any option of changes of address option. please tell me now how can i notify google.
Joey Espinoza
Great tutorial, thank you
Aron Jay
Does this work to specific posts or it will automatically redirect everything to the new domain.
I’m planning to move some of my posts to another domain, not entirely the whole blog. Thanks!
Michael J.
Hi WPBeginner – Your step-by-step guide is great…but, I just have a quick question to confirm before moving forward with changing my wordpress domain…
Unfortunately, the Duplicator Plugin is not working for me….so, can I manually copy & paste a backup of the my ‘old’ site into a new directory for the ‘new domain?…and follow the rest of the steps above.
Also, I am using the same hosting for my old & new domain — So, do I create a new directory folder for the ‘new’ domain — and keep the ‘old’ domain folder on my hosting?…basically, my hosting would have (2) site folders?…the old & new.
I’ve read various places say I only need to point to the new domain on wordpress…however, im extremely concerned with losing my SEO rankings from my old domain, so i’ve been kindda hesitant with the process..
Any reply would be greatly appreciated…Thanks!
WPBeginner Support
You should create a new directory on your hosting server. Download all your WordPress files and then upload them to the new directory. You will also need to export your old database. Create a new database in your hosting cPanel. Open phpmyAdmin and then import your old database. Rest of the steps would be the same.
Admin
Michael J.
Thanks for the reply!…I will make sure to follow your detailed instructions.
Bunty Pundir
Hey,
I created the package with Duplicator plugin and also, uploaded installer and archive package to new domain but unable to launch installer.php using example.com/installer.php and the browser showing server not found!
Help please:-(
Mihira
Success!
I was afraid to take up transfer of my domain from .in to .com since 6 months or more. This guide is so easy to follow, I was up and running in the new domain within an hour. Thank you wpbeginner for this helpful post.
One question though… My old domain didnt have such a great SEO characteristics to pass on. I no more want to use that old domain. Can I set a 301 direct in .htaccess of old site and leave it WITHOUT RENEWING THE DOMAIN WHEN IT EXPIRES OVER THE PERIOD?
Please let me know!
WPBeginner Support
Yes, you can do that. However, it is recommended that you keep the domain up with redirects for at least 90 days. You should also submit a change of address request to Google from Google webmaster tools.
Admin
Edward
Another question: if I delete all the old images in the old site folder, google webmaster will tell me there`s 100,000 dead paths and I will have to delete them one by one. Should I just leave the image folder untouched? I don`t want to see all those missing file notifications in my webmasters account.
Edward
I will be keeping the same .com domain but the images in the old pages will have a different name. ( e.g. from 0429_lg.jpg to ocean_home.lg.jpg so I am changing the name of 10 images ( now will have twice that number ) on each listing with different name. Does that affect SEO? I guess having the new seo friendly name in images might even be better.
Shreya
Hi there !
Recently I tried migrating my wp website to new domain ( shared server) but the Duplicator plugin didnt work . Then I opted for manual migration, everything is working well but I can’t aceess my wp-login.php page for my new website in new domain.
Can you please help me on this matter ? I shall provide more details of both my websites too .
Thanks .
Zane
Thank you! Followed instructions and worked perfectly.
Duane Reeve
I’m busy migrating a clients domain and a relatively old post on MOZ.com states one should redirect each URL independently. While MOZ is an industry leader in SEO, I’m questioning this since their post is from 2009. Is this overkill or the best way to proceed?
WPBeginner Support
If you have a static site with less than 10 pages, then this makes sense. But if you are moving a site with hundereds of posts, then it will be quite difficult to setup each redirect manually.
Admin
Duane Reeve
Thank You – Clients Wordpress site had 36 pages/posts, which I redirecting manually using the Redirect Plugin. I then updated the sitemap and re-submitted this to both Google & Bing.
I didn’t redirect image or tag URLs.
After 48-hours, of doing the page/post redirects, I submitted the URL Address Change to both Google and Bing Webmaster Tools. I decided to give both Search Engine time to detect the Page/Post Redirects and will do a Domain Redirect (using .htaccess file) at the end of the week.
Based on my Google Analytics & Google Webmaster Tools for the new Domain I’m pretty happy with the results so far.
Dario Fumagalli
What Moz says is 100% safe, whereas what WPBeginner says has one big issue: the old website sitemap.
Adding a sitewide 301, **also** redirects calls to the old sitemaps, whereas Google needs it to stay in there to prove both the old sitemap and the new one are same or similar.
Therefore, if you do it the Moz way you are ultra-safe, if you do it the WPBeginner way you need to add exceptions to exclude all the old sitemap index (if any) and sitemap(s) until Google understand both refer to the same ownership.
Mark D
Hi, I don’t have an FTP provider. When I loaded one, it lit up my anti-virus software. I am trying to create a website for a friend based on my site. Is there an easy, non-FTP solution, to clone to my friend’s domain. Once that’s there, I can then update with her content.
Thanks,
Lynn Dye
Is it a good idea to delete my old site (except for the .htaccess file), on my old host so I don’t have 2 exact sites on two hosts?
Nelson
Can your created a tutorial moving a wordpress site to a new doman wihout a plugin, like for example moving subcategory to the main site or subdoman to the mina site wihtout a plugin.
Satish
Hi, very useful article but i have a doubt . What if i download my backup manually by making zip, also download the database from Mysql from cpanel.
And then manually upload to the new host filemanager. Do i need to change the URL in database from old-domain.com to new-domain.com before uploading the database to mysql?
Hope you understand, what i’m saying!
Daniel Ruyter
Question on the redirects – I’m currently running two sites (two TLD’s, two hosts) and would like to consolidate into a single site, retiring the “old” site host. Can I redirect the “old” TLD to the new at the DNS and then add rewrite rules to my “new” site’s .htaccess for the migrated posts?
Thank you!
-Daniel
Lynn Dye
This has worked well – question on the redirect. I changed my domain AND hosting. So I’d like to close out my old hosting account.
How long should I have the redirect for my old domain? I’m planning on keeping the old domain for some time.
Would a forward on the old domain accomplish the same thing as the 301 redirect?
Daniel Ruyter
I’d keep the old domain name redirected as long as you’re able.
Lynn Dye
If I used BackupBuddy to move my site to a new domain and then followed the directions to do the 301 redirect, shouldn’t I get the same result
What about typing in the old and new url that Duplicator has you do – how is that step done with BackupBuddy?
Thanks for an interesting post.
WPBeginner Support
Yes, you can use BackupBuddy too.
Admin
Katie Steckly
So if I transfer my site with these exact instructions, with Google analytics automatically keep working? Or do I need to re-install the tracking code on my new site, and take it off the old one?
Travis Pflanz
Google Analytics will still work as long as you use the same UA code as before. That said, it may be worthwhile to setup a new view in your Google Analytics dashboard after you make the change