In this article, I’ll run you through the easy steps you need to take to change a domain name in WordPress easily in 2022.
WordPress users may choose to change their domain name for different reasons, maybe you want to rebrand your business or the domain name you’ve been using isn’t memorable enough and you’d like to change it to something much simpler.
Whatever your reason for changing your domain name is, you must note down what to expect when changing your domain name on WordPress:
Firstly, there will be a drop in traffic, usually, for a short period, this is because Google needs time to recrawl your website, the more people search for the keywords for your ranking keywords, the faster the recrawling process under your new domain name.
However, some people make mistakes and ruin their site’s SEO but if you follow the steps outlined in this article, changing your domain name on WordPress would be like a Piece of Cake and you’d do it fast.
But Before going through the steps of changing your domain name in WordPress, I recommend Backing up your Whole WordPress Website just to be on the safer side.
If you’re using Hostinger, you can back up your entire WordPress site and database from your dashboard easily and fast, that’s why I love them.
Now that we’ve backed up our WordPress Website, here are the six steps you need to take to change your domain name in WordPress.
Purchase a Domain Name
First, you need to purchase your domain name and there isn’t any other platform to purchase domain names other than Namecheap.
With Namecheap, you can get a .com domain name for around $6/yr and a .xyz domain name for just $1/yr or even less depending on the discounts available.
You can literally purchase a domain in less than 2 minutes on Namecheap, create an account and then go to the Domain Discount Page and enter the name of the domain name you want to purchase, add a payment method and you get your domain.
Cloning the Site
Yes I mean cloning the entire content of the old domain, using Hostinger Hosting, this is relatively easy.
Just purchase the hosting plan that allows you to add unlimited domains, and then connect the newly bought domain to your Hostinger account.
The Hostinger Support Team is available to help you at any point where the process might be difficult to comprehend.
Just open the File Manager from your Hostinger CPanel and then you’ll see two folders, one for the new domain and the other for the old domain.
Open the Old Domain’s folder and click on public_html, then copy all the folder content and paste it to the public_html folder of the newly bought domain.
Once that is done, let’s proceed to the next step.
Change the WordPress Site Address
It’s now time for you to change the WordPress Site’s address, and the easiest way to do this is from the WordPress Admin Dashboard.
Simply Log In to your WordPress Dashboard, then click on Settings from the left navigation menu, then replace the current URLs present with the URL of the new domain you just purchased, and then Save Changes.
Sometimes you may not be able to change the URL from your WordPress Admin Dashboard, you now need to change it on the WPConfig.php file.
To access this file, open your Hostinger cPanel, then open File Manager, open the New Domain’s folder and then click on public_html.
The WPConfig.php file should be a few scrolls away, if you can’t find it, you can use the search bar to do so.
Open the WPConfig.php file and then you’ll see two lines of PHP code that state the domain of your site, simply change that to the URL of the new domain.
If you have a lot of stuff in your wpconfig.php file, use CTRL + F and then search for the domain name of your old site, it’ll find it on 2 lines, one above the other, then do the needful.
Resetting your URL Structure
When changing your WordPress domain, it’s important to reset your URL Structure, if you keep using the same structure, your visitors stand the probability of getting a 404 error and that’s bad for business.
To reset your URL Structure, open the WordPress Admin Dashboard > Settings > Permalinks, select a different permalink structure and then save Changes, then again, revert to the original permalink structure and save Changes again.
Redirect your Old WordPress Domain Permanently
The final step is to create 301 redirects their purpose is to redirect all URLs associated with the old domain to the new domain, this wi carry over page ranking values as well as Domain Authority and you won’t lose your hard-earned SEO results.
We’ll still be keeping your old domain alive for only 2 reasons:
- To help direct visitors who are not aware of your domain change.
- To notify search engines of the swap.
Here’s how to set up 301 redirects using your .htaccess file, open your Hostinger cPanel and then click on File Manager.
Open the public_html folder of the old domain, find the .htaccess file, right-click and then click on Edit,
Then Insert the following code:
#Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://your-new-domain.com/$1
[R=301,L]Save the Changes and then you’ve fully changed your domain name in WordPress without losing your Domain Authority and Page Ranking Values.
Conclusion on How to Change Domain Name in WordPress
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