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.