How to Move a WordPress Site to a New Domain: Complete Guide

Have you ever thought about the process of moving a WordPress site to a new domain without everything breaking? This is a considerable concern for site owners who have spent months or even years building traffic and SEO value.

The thought of possibly losing rankings, annoying your visitors with broken links, and watching your analytics fall can make the idea of migrating domains less than appealing.

However, as scary as it might seem, moving your WordPress site does not have to be scary at all. With the right plan, you can move it with ease and keep all of the SEO value you’ve worked hard to establish.

You can also create a brand new identity for the brand you are using. No matter if you are rebranding the company, going global, or upgrading to a power domain name, if done well, you can actually boost your online footprint.

In this complete guide with step-by-step instructions, you will learn exactly how to move a WordPress site to a new domain with safety as your top priority and guarantee, including backups, redirects, some SEO tweaks, and Google updates.

Why Move a WordPress Site to a New Domain?

Before we get to the technical steps, it’s worth asking, why bother at all moving a WordPress site to a new domain? The simple truth is, there are good reasons to warrant the effort.

1. Rebranding Your Business: As it grows, a business may change its identity. Your former domain may not represent your brand anymore. Moving over to a fresh domain name may present an updated domain for your brand to describe your site in a professional manner.
2. SEO Potential: There may have been occasions where the domain you started was not fully optimized from an SEO standpoint. For example, if your domain name is lengthy, not easy to remember, or does not have any keywords, switching to a cleaner domain that has keywords can better accommodate your site for SEO potential.
3. Expanding to New Markets: If your business is growing and expanding internationally, moving from a local extension domain (.co.uk, .in) to a global extension (.com) will signal credibility to a wider audience.
4. New Premium Domain: If you were able to snag a shorter, catchier, or more authoritative domain name, then it would be like winning the lottery on the internet. Moving to a new premium domain will offer trust, branding, and potential for click-through.
5. Legal or Technical Reasons: In some instances, businesses are asked to move due to legal trademark issues, or undesirable address extension, or protocol issues with the hosting provider.

How to Move a WordPress Site to a New Domain

While migrating your site might seem complex, if you take these steps one at a time, you will minimize risks and preserve your SEO. This is the full tutorial on how to move a WordPress site to another domain.

Step 1: Backup your WordPress Site

Before proceeding with any changes, creating a full backup of your WordPress site is a good idea, as it will allow you to restore your site immediately if anything goes wrong.

Method 1: Backup with a Plugin (Beginner Friendly)

A great option, especially for beginners, is to install a backup plugin such as UpdraftPlus or Duplicator from your WordPress dashboard.

Steps to do:

1. Navigate to Plugins > Add Plugin, search for your chosen plugin.
2. Click Install Now > Activate.
3. Open the plugin settings and choose Backup Now.
4. Save the backup files locally or to cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.).

Method 2: Manual Backup Method (Advanced Users)

1. Log in to your hosting control panel (cPanel).
2. Go to File Manager → download your public_html (or root) folder.
3. Open phpMyAdmin, select your site’s database, and click Export to save a copy.
4. Store these files safely on your computer.

Pro Tip: It’s the safest option to also have at least two backup copies on your site, one local and one on your cloud service.

Step 2: Setting Up Your New Domain and Hosting

Before transferring your website, you’ll need to acquire an operational new domain.

Registering and Linking the Domain

• Purchase your new domain from a registrar like Namecheap or GoDaddy.
• Log in to your registrar’s account and update DNS settings to point to your hosting provider’s nameservers.
• Wait for DNS propagation (usually a few hours, but it may take up to 24 hours).

Hosting & WordPress Setting

• If you’re using the same host, just add your new domain to your hosting account as an Addon Domain.
• If you’re switching hosts, install a fresh copy of WordPress on your new domain through cPanel > WordPress Installer or a one-click installer.
• Don’t forget to install an SSL certificate (HTTPS). Most hosts now provide free SSL via Let’s Encrypt.

Pro Tip: Make your new domain work with HTTPS the first time you set the site up! This will help you avoid problems later for SEO and security.

Stage 3: Transfer Files and Database

This is the core of the migration: you are transferring your website’s “engine” (files + database) from the old domain to the new domain.

Steps to use All-in-One WP Migration and Backup Plugin

1. Install and activate the All-in-One WP Migration and Backup plugin on your old site and new domains.
2. Export your old website.
3. Import it into your new domain.

Step 4: Update wp-config and Settings for Your New Site

After migrating files and databases to the new hosting company, it is time to update WordPress, so it is aware of the new domain you are going to use it with.

1. Open your wp-config.php file in the root directory.
2. Check that the database name, username, and password are the same as your new hosting account.
3. Log in to your WordPress dashboard on the new domain.
4. Go to Settings > General and update:
   • WordPress Address (URL) → https://yournewdomain.com
   • Site Address (URL) → https://yournewdomain.com
5. Save, and again, log back in if necessary.

Since you are changing domains, a pro-tip is to

Pro Tip: Use a plugin like Better Search Replace to change all instances of your old domain in the database (posts, images, links, etc.).

Step 5. Set up 301 Redirect to Preserve Your SEO

Setting up a 301 redirect is non-negotiable. You will want to keep your SEO rankings, and this is the easiest way to do it.

301 Redirect with .htaccess (for Apache Servers)

1. Log in to your old domain’s root folder and access the .htaccess file in your old domain’s root folder.
2. Add the following code (change to your new domain):

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^oldsite\.com [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.oldsite\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://newsite.com/$1 [L,R=301,NC]

Redirecting with a Plugin

If you’re not comfortable editing files, use the All in One SEO (AIOSEO)  plugin.

• Install and activate the All in One SEO (AIOSEO)  plugin.
• Then go to the All in One SEO > Redirects page and press the “Activate Redirects” button.

Pro Tip: If possible, try to redirect each page individually – do not just redirect all old URLs to your homepage, because this does not provide the best experience for the user and it will hurt your SEO.

Step 6: Test, Troubleshoot & Notify Google

After migration, you’ll want to test everything to make sure everything works perfectly.

1. Testing the Website: Visit your new domain, and visit all of the pages. Test images, links, forms, etc.
2. Crawl for Errors: Look for broken links that do not redirect to new pages, or use Screaming Frog SEO Spider or Ahrefs Site Audit, which should pick up on any broken links or redirects that are missing.
3. Update Google Search Console: To alert Google about the change, you will have to add your new domain as a property in Search Console. You will also want to resubmit your new XML sitemap. Once all is done, you can notify Google by using the change of address tool in Search Console.
4. Update Google Analytics: Navigate to the property settings and update the property URL to your new domain.
5. Monitor rankings: You will likely notice some changes in rankings over the next few weeks until your Google returns to normal.

Pro Tip: Keep your old domain renewed and actively redirected to your new domain for at least 6-12 months. This will help Google and users transition seamlessly and ensure that you’re maximizing any link equity from your old domain.

Final Thoughts

Transferring a WordPress website to a new domain may feel a bit overwhelming at the start. But as you have seen, it is really just a question of following the right steps in the correct order. All of the steps, from reliable backups to implementing 301 redirects and notifying Google, all play a part in maintaining the health of your website and the security of your SEO rankings.

The biggest takeaway? Don’t rush it. Don’t hurry through the process; verify your redirects and check your site before announcing the change. That little extra effort can save you a lot of headaches down the road.

When strategically planned, learning how to move a WordPress site to a new domain can be a catalyst for growth. It is an opportunity to rebrand and improve SEO, which will also enhance the user experience by making it look more polished and professional.

Now get to it: make a plan and think it through, follow the steps outlined above, and enjoy your website’s exciting new beginning.

Frequently Asked Questions