Are you looking to change to a new domain name for your website? Changing website domain names can significantly affect your SEO rankings and that needs to be done very carefully.
Although you will not be able to avoid SEO fluctuations when moving your site to a new domain, you can minimize the impact and quickly regain your search traffic and rankings.
In this tutorial, HOSTVN will show you how to move WordPress to a new domain without losing SEO.
Prepare before starting
Before you begin, HOSTVN want to emphasize a few things.
The process of moving to a new domain name will temporarily affect your site's rankings on search engines, which will also temporarily affect your search traffic. Please note that this is normal and it happens for all sites to switch to a new domain.
You can significantly reduce the SEO impact by following the guidelines in this article. HOSTVN will guide you how to move your WordPress site to a new domain, set up 301 redirects and notify search engines.
Instructions for changing domain names for WordPress
Step 1: Create a backup for your website
The first thing you need to do is make a backup copy of your website in case anything goes wrong. If you do not know how to back up data for WordPress, please see the data backup guide for WordPress.
Step 2: Copy your source code to the directory of the new domain name.
The next step you need to copy your source code to the directory of the new domain. To do this you can see the following instructions:
Step 3. Set up 301 permanent redirects
Setting up a permanent 301 redirect is important for both SEO and user experience. This step will allow you to automatically redirect users and search engines to your new domain.
In other words, anyone who visits one of your old domain posts, will automatically be redirected to your site on the new domain.
To set up 301 permanent redirects, you need to Visit the directory of the old site and edit the file .htaccess into the following content
| #Options + FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.newsite.com/$1 (R = 301, L) |
Note: Replace newsite.com by your new domain name in the code above.
Once you have applied these changes, visit your old domain name. It will automatically redirect you to the new domain.
If not, then that means the redirect is not set up correctly and your server may not support redirection rules. You need to contact your web hosting support to enable RewriteEngine.
Step 4. Notify Google of changes
Now that you have moved WordPress to a new domain and redirected setup, it's time to notify Google of the change of address. This will help Google find your new domain name quickly and start showing it in search results.
First, you need to add your new domain name Google Search Console. See the domain name guide for Google Webmaster Tools for HOSTVN to do this.
Next, you need to switch to the old domain name management section Webmaster tool and choose Settings -> Change of Address
On the next screen, Google Search Console will show you a step-by-step wizard to submit a request to change your address. In the Select new site section, select the new domain name you added Google Search Console and press VALIDATE & UPDATE
Next you just need to follow Google's instructions to complete the domain name change.
Conclude
HOSTVN hopes that this guide has helped you move your WordPress site to a new domain. You may also want to see the top 8 best SEO keyword research tools by 2020. Also if you have any comments you can leave a comment below to let us know.
