How to Move Your Wordpress Blog to a New Domain?

Domain Name

If you have decided to move your Wordpress blog to a web domain that is new, you will need to keep in mind a few aspects about this process. If you as a blogger have been self-hosting the publishing system of Wordpress blog on a server for web hosting with a domain name that is registered, then the blog link URL will need to be organized again to make it look tidy.

Besides this you may even want to have a new focus reflected or a theme reflected, on the concerned blog. At the time of making the change you will need to ensure that no links are broken and proper migration is ensured. A transition could be made to have the URL changed, or link the Word Press blog location due to the changes being made in the domain. There could even a change where the blog is transferred to another directory.

Use an Online Guide

One of the trickiest things about moving the WordPress blog to a different directory or location is that instead of the relative path being used, it uses the absolute path. The old URLs may also be used by users within contents of blog posts while generating backlinks for reference. In the database a few changes will be needed in these values when the WordPress blog is being moved.

An online guide can be best made use of to get an idea of which of the fields in the database having values or references related to the URL blogs require modifications. When the WordPress blog is moved the next thing to do is to inform WordPress about the location of the new blog. The WordPress Options page can be best used to make relevant changes in the value.

Modification Using MySQL Database

However if it is difficult accessing URL of the old blog or domain name then necessary modifications will have to be made in the value using MySQL database.  SQL statements used in the guide are on the basis of MySQL replace () function for database modification. You will have to login to MySQL database for running queries on SQL which houses tables of WordPress.

To run the MySQL client as root you could also login into the DB server.  URLs of pages and posts related to WordPress will have to be fixed. These are the posts and pages which translated from the post slug and were stored as guide field in the wp posts table database.

Browse Through the WordPress Blog

Instead of being stored as relative URLs they are stored as absolute URLs and hence the changes are needed. An important thing to do to is to find out if everything is alright by browsing through the WordPress blog. 

Logging in into WordPress administration may be needed, since due to a different domain now the authentication cookie is not valid anymore. Moving the Wordpress blog to a new domain can be an easy process only if the basics are understood well and a step by step procedure is followed for website registration as well.

How to Change Your Domain Name without Losing Your Website's Ranking?

Domain Name Registration

If in case the domain name of you site is changed it can have an adverse impact on the online traffic as well as SEO. For the purpose of search engine optimization, actually this is unadvisable. It is important to know that that the domain is linked with a range of metrics including authority, hyperlinks, characteristics and trust.

There certainly are a few risks involved if you are considering changing or transferring the domain to a new one. This change is alright if a few important aspects are taken care of. As far as traffic on the search engine is concerned the losses can definitely be minimized.

Understanding Technologies

Whenever the change is made, you will need to have a better understanding on various technologies of the web since they are responsible in affecting the status of SEO. The change is best done by an expert or a tech savvy individual who knows what exactly is being done.

At the time of registering an old domain or registering the new one at the domain registrar, obtain a new name for the domain. The common TLDs used are .net, .gr, .com etc which are utilized as GEO location signal. Rankings could be affected when a new TDL is used. If an aged or old domain is being purchased, be careful since there could be a risk of it being banned by some of the search engines.

Research on Previous Records

It is best if some research is done to determine its history and previous records. A site called archieve.org could be best utilized to get an idea on how the site looked like in the past. If spamming is the reason for the domain being banned then a request for reconsideration can be filed.

Another aspect to keep in mind is ‘coming soon’ page uploading. Even if a single page is uploaded on new domains the crawlers on the search engines have the new site indexed. If there is a parked domain then this is identified by the search engine which you will need to keep in mind. Some content can be placed on the new pages where a mention is made that, this is going to be the new website location. This will surely help the search engines in identifying the new domain.

Aspects to Consider

There are other aspects to keep in mind like having just small parts of the site transferred which is of course optional. The next thing is get the files, images and web pages uploaded to the new site, record the changes if made in the paths, structure or folders which enables better mapping of URLs of old pages. The old pages will have to be redirected to the new web pages.

The best use of the tool for a change of address will have to be made in Google Webmaster Console.  A specification will be needed that the old domain has been transferred to a new one. Ensure that all the backlinks are promptly updated. If you are patient and keep up to date then you can ensure a good transition or domain name transfer from the old domain to a new one.