The Process of Moving a WordPress Site to a New Domain

As an expert provider of the service of domain transfer, HTS Hosting has very conveniently migrated innumerable sites to new domains, including many WordPress sites. That is why if you are looking for information regarding moving your WordPress site to a new domain, then we are well equipped to provide all the information that is needed for this purpose. With regard to such a move of your WordPress website to a new domain, the comprehensive information that has been provided here will ensure that you attain your aim without having any significant impact on your site’s SEO rankings.

Domain Names and Domain Transfers

What is a domain name? It is a string of text mapping to a numeric IP address. This important part of the Internet infrastructure serves the purpose of enabling access to a website from a client software. The address of a website that is typed by a site visitor in his browser URL bar in order to access the website, is this very domain name. A network domain is usually identified by a domain name. An IP (Internet Protocol) resource is also represented by it. Domain names are meant for identifying Internet resources and use text-based labels, which prove to be easier to memories than the corresponding numerical addresses that are used in the Internet protocols.

It is the rules and the procedures of the DNS (Domain Name System) that guide the formation of domain names. Any name that gets registered in the DNS is essentially a domain name. Domain name registrars administer the registration of these domain names through their publicly offered services. The organization of domain names happens in subordinate levels, known as subdomains, of the DNS root domain. TLDs (Top-level Domains) are the 1^st level set of domain names. gTLDs (Generic Top-level Domains) and ccTLDs (Country Code Top-level Domains) are included in top-level domains. The second-level and third-level domain names are below the top-level domains in the DNS hierarchy. It needs to be mentioned that labels in the DNS are not case-sensitive. Hence, these can be written in the capitalization method of one’s choice. Usually domain names are written in lowercase. In the context of domain names, a fully qualified domain name has all the labels completely specified in the hierarchy of the DNS.

Domain names, which are used for the purpose of establishing a unique identity, are often referred to as domains. When a domain is transferred, the designated registrar of the domain name gets changed. Post the completion of the process of domain transfer, all the relevant information with regard to the domain and the registrant is maintained by the new registrar. One needs to be aware of the fact that a domain name has to be registered with a registrar for a period of 60 days or more, prior to it being transferred.

Now that we have provided information on domain names and domain transfers, let us run you through the process of ensuring an easy move of a WordPress site to a new domain and that too without impacting the SEO in any significant way. But before that let us touch upon WordPress sites.

WordPress Sites

WordPress, which is a web publishing software can be used for the creation of websites as well as blogs. In the simplest terms, WordPress is the operating system of a WordPress site. It is versatile, user-friendly, free and open source and enables the functioning of your WordPress site as well as enables the editing of the site’s content and the creation of new posts and pages. It ensures that the WordPress site is accurately displayed on all devices.

In order to build a full-fledged website with WordPress, all you need is a domain name, which is the address of your site and a web hosting service provided by a web hosting company, such as HTS Hosting.

HTS Hosting not only provides hosting services but also services related to domain registration and domain transfer. HTS Hosting excels in providing affordable and efficient hosting plans for Linux Shared Hosting and Windows SharedHosting as well as for dedicated hosting, reseller hosting, cloud hosting, Managed VPS (Virtual Private Server) and Self-managed VPS. HTS Hosting offers value for money hosting plans for WordPress hosting that is pre-configured for hosting efficiently a WordPress site and caters most effectively to the security and performance needs of such a site.

Process to Move WordPress to a New Domain

The process of moving a WordPress site to a new domain entails five steps, which are mentioned below-

1.    Your WordPress site’s Duplicator package’s creation

2.    Creation of a database for the new domain name

3.    WordPress’ unpacking on new domain

4.    Permanently setting up 301 redirects

5.    Notifying Google regarding the change

Let us proceed with providing information on the appropriate way of moving a WordPress site to a new domain name, along with setting up 301 redirects and subsequently notifying search engines. It needs to be clarified here that the information that is being mentioned here is regarding switching a domain name and not regarding moving the WordPress site to a new web hosting company.

For the sake of making things simple to understand, we will consider earliersite.com as where your WordPress site has been set up and latestsite.com as the one to which migration has to take place. It is also being assumed that you already have an account related to web hosting and that the web hosting control panel that you use is familiar to you. The knowledge of using FTP is also required. Now let us elaborate on the individual steps of this process.

Step 1 – Creating WordPress Site’s Duplicator Package

The first step of the process of moving a WordPress site to a new domain involves the creation of a full backup of the WordPress site. For this purpose, you can easily use any of the WordPress backup plugins that are available. The one that will be discussed here is used for both, backups and migrations. This free plugin is Duplicator.

The Duplicator plugin needs to be installed and activated. This has to be done on your old domain name. Upon activation, a Duplicator menu item will be added by the plugin in your WordPress admin. Next, you need to click on the Duplicator menu. Post that, a new package has to be created by clicking on the create button. Click on the Next button to continue. At this stage, the website duplicator wizard will be run by the Duplicator. Initially some tests will be run by it to ensure that everything is in order. Click on the Build button when you find that all items are marked Good. Your WordPress site’s duplicator package’s creation will now be started by the plugin. The time taken by this process will depend on the size of the website. Download options for Installer and the Archive package will be visible once this process finishes. Click on the One-Click Download link in order to download both the files to your computer.

A thorough copy of your website is in the archive file. This aids in moving a WordPress site to another domain name. The installer script unpacks the archive file for automating and running the migration.

Step 2 – Creating a Database for New Domain Name

A database is needed for unpacking WordPress on the new domain name, prior to carrying out the move. This step needs to be skipped if a database has been already created. Visit the cPanel dashboard of your hosting account in order to create a database. Next you need to access the Databases section and subsequently click on the icon, MySQL Databases. A field meant for creating a new database will be visible on the next screen. You need to name your database and click on Create Database. A new database gets created by cPanel at this stage. Next, you need to access the MySQL Users section and provide a username as well as password for your new user. Click Create a User. New user has been created and isn’t yet permitted to work on the database, which needs to be changed.

Access the Add User to Database section. Select from the dropdown menu, the created database user. Next select the database. Click Add. Your database is ready for the purpose of moving your WordPress site to the new domain name. Do not forget to take a note of the database name, username as well as the password, as this information will come in handy in the next step.

Step 3 – Unpacking WordPress

In order to unpack WordPress on the new domain name, the earlier downloaded Duplicator files need to be uploaded to your new domain name. You should use an FTP client to connect to your domain name. When you get connected, you should ensure that your website’s root directory is totally empty. Post that, the archive and installer files can be uploaded to the root directory. When both the files have been uploaded, WordPress can be unpacked.

Now you need to open a new browser tab and visit http://example.com/installer.php

The term ‘example.com’ has to be replaced with your new domain name. This launches the Duplicator migration wizard. The installer looks for the archive file. Check the checkbox for terms and conditions. Click Next. You will be asked by the installer to enter your WordPress database information. Localhost will be your host. Enter the database’s details that had been created for your new domain name. Post that, click Next. Your WordPress database backup will be unpacked by the Duplicator, from the archive into your new database. You will be asked to update site URL or Path. You need not make any changes. That is because the URL of your new domain name as well as its path gets detected automatically. If that doesn’t happen then the URL could be changed to your new domain name. Click Next. The migration will be completed now by the Duplicator. Click Admin Login to access your website’s WordPress admin area on the new domain name.

Step 4 – Permanent 301 Redirects’ Set Up

When a permanent 301 redirect is set up, it proves to be important in terms of both, the user experience and SEO. This step enables the automatic redirection of users and search engines to the new domain name. Use FTP to connect to your old site for setting up a permanent 301 redirect. Then edit the .htaccess file. It is located in that directory which contains your wp-includes or wp-admin folder. Post opening the .htaccess file paste the below-mentioned code at the top.

#Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteEngine on

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

It needs to be mentioned that ‘latestsite.com’ needs to be replaced with your new domain name in the above-mentioned code. Once the changes have been made, you need to visit your old domain name. You should be automatically redirected to the new domain. If that doesn’t happen then the redirection has not been set up properly and there is a likelihood that your server doesn’t support the rules for redirection. In such a situation, you need to seek the support of your web host for getting RewriteEngine turned on.

Step 5 – Notifying Google

Last but not least in the process, is the step of notifying Google about the change of address as you have moved your WordPress site to a new domain name as well as set up redirects. This step enables Google in finding the new domain name quickly for it to be shown in search results.

Add your new domain name to the Google Search Console. Once the new site has been added, switch to Google Search Console’s old version. Post that, switch to your old domain name. Next, click on the gear shaped icon in order to launch Change of Address tool. The Google Search Console will provide a step by step wizard on the next screen for submitting your request for change of address. You will be asked to select your new site from the dropdown menu. Click Check for testing 301 redirects. Next, you need to confirm verification. As the last step, click Submit to send your request for address change.

A public announcement should be made about this move. Hence, do not forget to notify the users about the move to the new domain name, despite the 301 redirects serving their purpose. Now you are well equipped with all the required information regarding moving your WordPress site to a new domain name.