First of all, I’d highly recommend that you only move your blog to a new domain name if its absolutely necessary.
This means that when you first set up your blog, spend a decent amount of time making sure that you choose the right domain name for your blog.
If not you might have to go through a difficult process that I just went through.
Here is the process for WordPress blogs:
- Purchase the new domain name.
- Install WordPress on the new domain name.
- Backup the already existing blog’s database.
- Update to the latest version of WordPress within your hosting and wp-admin.
- Copy all WordPress files (excluding the wp-config file) from the already existing blog to the new site in your hosting application or FTP.
- Copy the database from your already existing blog to the new site, in your hosting application.
- Within the new WordPress site, in wp-admin, under settings change the two URL’s to the new domain name.
- If some links are still pointing to the old site, run the MYSQL code explained here in PHPMyADmin.
- Go over the new blog and make sure its the same as the old one, and everything is functioning.
- If you want, redirect the old domain name to the new one using a 301 redirect which could be easily done in your hosting account.
There are many ways to go through this process
This is only one!
I myself went through this process only a few days ago. I did it because I was at a point where changing my domain name was the only way to expand. My blog had transformed from a personal blog to a popular, multi-authored, young entrepreneur blog and yet the domain name was still my name, Ben-Lang.com. I made the decision to change my domain name to EpicLaunch, although many people advised me to rethink my decision. Changing your built-up brand name is quite a risky move.
I can tell you that changing the domain name wasn’t a pleasent experience, it was frustrating and very time consuming. That’s another reason I recommend that you do this only if you must. If you ever decide to, feel free to add a comment for advice and help. Believe me you’ll most likely need it.
Article by Ben Lang
Founder of EpicLaunch.com which was previously known as Ben-Lang.com. Started an eBay business, at age 14 and was interviewed on Channel 12.
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{ 54 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow! You are brave Ben. My hats off to you brother…:)
So how has the move been? Did you retain your traffic and links?
A 301 redirect will definitely help.
I see that your blog is a PR 5 now, so you are definitely doing something right…:)
Mark
Mark recently posted..How To Warm Your List And Monetize It At The Same Time
@Ben Process is quite right and its almost like migrating one WordPress blog from one hosting to another but the last point which you said:
If you want, redirect the old domain name to the new one using a 301 redirect which could be easily done in your hosting account.
It’s one of the most important part if you don’t wish to lose your search engine ranking and traffic….
Acc. to my opinion: One should always try to make sure that while changing domain name, it should always be 301 perma redirection
Harsh Agrawal recently posted..How to Install Thesis WordPress Theme From WordPress Dashboard Beginners Guide
Thanks for great post I completely agreed with you all steps are so simple to follow
Sachin recently posted..Search Engine Optimization SEO
Sure thing
I’m too happy with this post. But i think dont make change domain because you will lose all SEO with your old domain
Hieu Martin recently posted..Increase your blog or website traffic just in 3 days
Great, well you could always gain back your SEO.
Ben Lang recently posted..Essential Business Networking Tool Kit
Twitter: aidyspoetry
July 29, 2010 at 11:28 pm
I totally understand. I had to move my three web sites to a new server and it was a massive pain in the you-know-what! Part of my problem was a lack of understanding–well, the majority of my problem was a lack of understanding. But, I got them moved and I love my new host who even help me to fix my crawl error issues! Thanks for listing those key points, as they are priceless!
AIDY recently posted..Migration nightmare
Yeah, bad experience. I wish I had changed hosts also, Godaddy is a pain!
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
Wow that really does sound like a hassle. But it looks like everything transferred over well! I hope I never have to face this challenge.
Laura Davis recently posted..The Path to a Golden Credit Score (Infographic)
Oh believe me it is quite a hassle
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
Twitter: WebTrafficCafe
July 29, 2010 at 12:33 pm
I JUST went through the same thing, so I feel your pain.
I had no idea how difficult it would be; ended up loosing many subscribers in the process, links, PR, etc.
No I am going to check out your link on mySQL, see if I can fix my old links – thanks for your advice!
Best,
Ana Hoffman
Ana recently posted..Juicy Blog Traffic- Want Some DoFollow!
Really? I’m so sorry, yeah its potentially very harmful. MYSQL helped so much, read about it, you could do cool things with it.
Best.
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
Twitter: indblog
July 29, 2010 at 12:10 pm
I’ve retweeted this because I think this is very interesting to a lot of people who might be wanting to move.
Maybe you could do a follow up post about how to move your blog from a windows host to a linux host? I had to do this once and found it very challenging.
Dean Saliba recently posted..The 7 Links Challenge
Thanks, glad you thought it was interesting.
Hmm about the follow up post, the thing is I did this with my experience, I have no idea how to do that kind of transfer, maybe though if I do one day, Ill write that post
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
i seriously believe that switching from one domain to another should only be done with the help of expert…..blogs are made for one time and making them right you should ensure that everything goes fine
Tushar recently posted..What Keeps Simple Bloggers Motivated?
Agreed, well I didn’t have one which was a problem but it worked out!
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
Congratulations on the move Ben Lang! Instead of moving, I redirected my blog from digiknowzone.blogspot.com to a digiknowzone.com. I’ve read in some posts that say that it’s better to make a new different blog instead of rerouting a blog to a domain. Some say otherwise, page rank-wise, traffic wise and blog-opportunity wise, what do you think is better? Thanks and good luck on your new domain!
digiknowzone recently posted..Time – tik tok tik tok
Thanks! Regarding your question, I think making a new one is better, yet I’m not an SEO expert so I can’t really back this up. I would ask an SEO expert what they say..
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
Thanks for your reply. Hmmm, so far, more people are saying that it’s better to create a new one instead of redirecting it. I’ll need to research more on that. Thanks again!
digiknowzone recently posted..Time – tik tok tik tok
Twitter: element321
July 29, 2010 at 8:33 am
Thanks for sharing. I recently moved domains. Its a pain in the butt. I scratched my head on this one for a while. Finally I got my host to move it for me. We still had a few problems, but they got them sorted out. I would never been able to do it myself or troubleshooting the issues.
element321 recently posted..We Blog Better is Another Great Blogging Resource
Sure, lucky you! That’s nice Godaddy barely helped, had to troubleshoot for days.. It was horrible, but people helped outside though, thank god.
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
Twitter: element321
July 29, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Benjamin, GoDaddy isn’t the best for Hosting, I would never recommend anyone use GoDaddy, they do have a great service for Domain name Registry and recommend that you only use them for that in the future. In the future, look at using Hostgator they offer free website transfer and will work out and configure everything how it use to be. Most of there staff is knowledgeable about Wordpress as well. If you dont want to use them, try Blue Host, I hear good things form them as well…
element321 recently posted..30 Images of Old and Rusty Cars
Agreed, I have many other domains there and my Dad uses it, only reason I have it (freeloading..) I wish I had hostgator though, people only rave about it.
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
Twitter: z3olyte
July 29, 2010 at 8:18 am
well-explained and you make it sound so simple. I was thinking whether to include the word ‘design’ on my domain name or just go with my username since I am more known as z3olyte. I had one look at my database settings and all these warnings in red text just say to me, “dont touch anything”.
Cindy recently posted..Social Media Discs
Thanks, you’re right its not that simple. These are the basic steps, if you need help just contact me or search online, they have good tutorials for each individual step.
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
Hi Benjamin,
Great. You simplified the entire process by explaining it step by step. Last I month I had to change the domain name from blogjakes.tk to blogjakes.com. The tk was free. That’s why I had chosen it first. But later when I changed to the dot com domain, I only used the wordpress importer tool. But I had certain issues with some links pointing to the older site. I had to correct them manually.
Jakes recently posted..Integrate twitter into wordpress comments
Hi,
I’m glad you enjoyed it. I also used the exporter at first, failed miserably since it didn’t import plugins or themes and half my posts. I’d say this was the right way for me…
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
Hi Benjamin,
You are right about the plugins. But regrading theme, I just downloaded the theme file and then uploaded to the new server. If you are having large number of plugins, don’t go for the exporter. Its better to look for some alternative methods in such cases.
Jakes recently posted..Integrate twitter into wordpress comments
Hi,
Sounds right, I had a lot of customized plugins so definitely wasn’t worth it.
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
First of all, Congratulations on successfully moving your blog.
Secondly, I hope you achieve the desired results.
Last but not least, thanks for the step-by-step tips. I hadn’t known about not copying the config file.
Thanks, I hope so too! Sure thing, enjoy them if you ever need to do so.
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
This is an interesting article. Of all my blogs, only one has a domain name that I’m fully contented with. Dialysis Postings is about my life in dialysis so the domain name pretty much says it all. Private Corner I’m not so sure about though I wanted it to be the sort of my private sanctuary since it’s my personal blog. My blog about food – Itlog de Arina, well you could imagine myself changing that into something more recognizable in the future.
Interesting, well if you’re ever interested in changing domain names, use this post as resource and contact me! It’s a pain, I’d be happy to help.
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
Thanks Benjamin! I’ll sure use this as guide in the near future. I just hope I’ll be prepared enough for the headaches when and if the time comes.
Julius recently posted..What Fuels Your Blogging?
Congratulations Ben Lang!
I really like the new logo and name. They are both very awesome.
I just got to know about this today, by your post here.
I had subscribed to your rss on ben-lang.com, but it did not show this post. So I would have never know’d about this change had I not seen this post.
So I should unsubscribe from ben-lang rss and subscribe to epiclauch’s RSS? I think you should also mention this in the post.
Best wishes for your new blog!
Kindest,
Nabeel
Thanks, glad you like it.
Oh I had no idea that the RSS stops working, thats unfortunate, I’ll look into that, thanks for letting me know.
Appreciate your kind words Nabeel
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
Twitter: heydevesh
July 29, 2010 at 1:30 am
Great Post ben. These are great Tips.
Thanks for sharing.
I wish you good luck with your new blog
.
Thanks. Have a great day.
~Dev
Thanks, sure thing. Hope to see you around at EpicLaunch
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
hi Dev. this tips helpful you or not?
Hieu Martin recently posted..Increase your blog or website traffic just in 3 days
If you do not have any hosting application and just access to ftp and server shell, I suggest to copy all files and folders from the server to your PC.
The copy the entire database from the command line using the mysqldump function (google “restore database mysqldump”). This creates a mysql db dump file, also download it to your PC.
Then create the database on your new server and configure the wordpress config file with the new details.
After this, load the mysql dump file back to the new server and restore db.
That’s another great way, I had no idea how to the database that way, looks like that might be just as easy. Thanks for sharing!
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
Thank you for the nice tips! and I agree that there is more than one way to go through this!
I would like to congratulate you for the new move, I wish good luck with your new home Ben
Sure thing. Thanks Hesham, and I really appreciate that you helped me out with this
benjamin recently posted..Ben-Lang.com is now EpicLaunch.com!
At any time buddy!
Ok Benjamin, why not simply export the database (using WP’s export feature) then import the the database of posts, comments, etc., into the fresh install?
Colleen recently posted..Tri Cities Washington News Listings – July 28- 2010
I was thinking the same thing as I tried, and failed, to copy over the datebases, etc. Then I just imported everything and it worked perfectly.
Wayne Howard recently posted..End of Week 1: Blogging Newbie Links
If only it was that simple.
I tried, it didn’t copy all my posts, and you have to reinstall manually all plugins and themes which is a real pain…
This could be hard sometimes with large database file, and also depends on your hosting settings!
We have about 300 posts, and use about 5 plugins, and were able to use the export/import feature without a glitch.
Colleen recently posted..Tri Cities Washington New Real Estate Listings July 31- 2010
Lucky you, because for me it sure didn’t work.
This is great, but with more than 10.000 comments and a lot of other tables created by other plugins, that would be an issue!
Having said what I said, and after reading the comments, I think I got lucky Hesham!
Colleen recently posted..Tiki Beach Blowout Presented by Preston Premium Wines
This post came at the perfect time. I am going to be transferring my blogs to entirely different servers, but the URL will stay the same so hopefully it will be a little easier for me.
So you install the wordpress using the wp-admin first then transfer over the files and database?
Wayne Howard recently posted..End of Week 1: Blogging Newbie Links
Great. It may be different for transferring to a new server. Wordpress has a tutorial if you look it up. Feel free to contact me for help…
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