Earlier this year, I decided to changed this site’s domain name from crowndivide.com to what it is right now. I successfully did this without losing traffic and all the link juice on the former site was transferred to the new domain. There was no significant drop in traffic since I made sure the 301 redirect worked perfectly and I did notify Google about the change in address.
Instead of explaining how I did it (since I do receive messages on this), I decided to put the steps into a blogpost. Before proceeding, I’m assuming that:
1. You’re still using the same web host
2. Your web host allows you to add addon domains
3. You’re familiar with setting up DNS records
4. You should be able to keep the old domain name for a very long time to come
If we’re clear on this, we should proceed.
Step #1: Setting up the DNS record for the new domain
The first thing you have to do is to point your DNS record to your web host. The new domain’s DNS records must be the same as that of the domain you’re presently using. Normally, all you have to do is change your nameservers but if you’re not using your web host’s nameservers, you’re expected to enter the correct A Record using your host IP and set up a CNAME record.
Like I said earlier, you should already be familiar with how DNS works.
Step #2: Adding a new add0n domain
i. Login to your cPanel or your hosting dashboard (whatever the case may be). Locate and go to Addon Domains.
ii. Add an addon domain using your new domain name. To make things easier, you may choose the password to be the same as your cPanel password. The subdomain/FTP username too should be something you should remember easily. Do take note of these.
iii. Addon domain created? We’re done here. Let’s move to the next step!
Step #3: Moving the website to the new domain
This step is easy, all you gotta do is copy a bunch of files from one folder to another.
– Go to your cPanel File Manager or login to FTP with the credentials you got from Step #2.
– Navigate to public_html folder or the folder you installed WordPress.
– Select all files except cgi-bin and other folders not related to your WP installation. This may include folders for your other addon domains. You’ve gotta be careful here.
– Copy the files and folders to your addon domain folder.
– It may take a while. Done? We can now move to the next step.
Step #3: Changing the domain name from PhpMyAdmin and WP dashboard
– Login to PhpMyAdmin
– Select your WP database
– Locate the wp_options table
– Edit this and change the siteurl to the new domain name.
– Now go to the-new-site-url/wp-admin/ and login to WP dashboard.
– Go to Settings > General and make sure WordPress Address is the same as Site Address.
Step #4: Setting up a permanent redirect
We now need to redirect your old URL to the new URL permanently. Go to the original WP folder (public_html or whatever folder you initial installed WordPress)
Edit .htaccess file and place this code at the very top:
#Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://geek.ng/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://geek.ng/$1 [R=301,L]
Save the file. This ensures all links from the old site are directed to the new domain. With this, you shouldn’tencounter any error 404.
Step #5: Notifying Google of the domain name change
– Log in to Google Webmaster Tools. I’m assuming you already have an account and you old site is verified.
– Add the new domain name and verify it using any of the given methods
– Go to the main dashboard and select the old site
– Click the gear button at the top-right corner and select Change of address
– On the next page, select the new domain from the list of verified sites and you’re done.
Piece of cake, eh? This should go pretty well if you closely follow the steps as explained above. If this worked for you or you’re facing issues trying to get it done, the comment box is always a great way to start a discussion.
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