10 Steps to Moving Your Blog to a New Domain Name

July 28, 2010 - Last Modified: April 1, 2014 by Ben Lang

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.

About Ben Lang

Follow @epiclaunch

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.

{ 57 Responses }

Mark says:

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
Harsh Agrawal says:

@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 :)
Sachin says:

Thanks for great post I completely agreed with you all steps are so simple to follow :) ;)
- Ben Lang says:
  
  Sure thing :)
- Hieu Martin says:
  
  I'm too happy with this post. But i think dont make change domain because you will lose all SEO with your old domain
  - Ben Lang says:
    
    Great, well you could always gain back your SEO.
AIDY says:

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!
- benjamin says:
  
  Yeah, bad experience. I wish I had changed hosts also, Godaddy is a pain!
Laura Davis says:

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.
- benjamin says:
  
  Oh believe me it is quite a hassle :)
Ana says:

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
- benjamin says:
  
  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.
Dean Saliba says:

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.
- benjamin says:
  
  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 :)
Tushar says:

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
- benjamin says:
  
  Agreed, well I didn't have one which was a problem but it worked out!
digiknowzone says:

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!
- benjamin says:
  
  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..
  - digiknowzone says:
    
    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!
element321 says:

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.
- benjamin says:
  
  Sure, lucky you! That's nice Godaddy barely helped, had to troubleshoot for days.. It was horrible, but people helped outside though, thank god.
  - element321 says:
    
    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...
    - benjamin says:
      
      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.
Cindy says:

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".
- benjamin says:
  
  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.
Jakes says:

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.
- benjamin says:
  
  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...
  - Jakes says:
    
    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.
    - benjamin says:
      
      Hi, Sounds right, I had a lot of customized plugins so definitely wasn't worth it.
Shaukat Ameen says:

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.
- benjamin says:
  
  Thanks, I hope so too! Sure thing, enjoy them if you ever need to do so.
Julius says:

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. :)
- benjamin says:
  
  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.
  - Julius says:
    
    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.
Nabeel says:

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
- benjamin says:
  
  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 :)
Dev - Technshare.com says:

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
- benjamin says:
  
  Thanks, sure thing. Hope to see you around at EpicLaunch ;)
- Hieu Martin says:
  
  hi Dev. this tips helpful you or not?
Andreas says:

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.
- benjamin says:
  
  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!
Hesham says:

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 :)
- benjamin says:
  
  Sure thing. Thanks Hesham, and I really appreciate that you helped me out with this :)
  - Hesham says:
    
    At any time buddy!
Colleen says:

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?
- Wayne Howard says:
  
  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.
- Ben Lang says:
  
  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...
- Hesham says:
  
  This could be hard sometimes with large database file, and also depends on your hosting settings!
  - Colleen says:
    
    We have about 300 posts, and use about 5 plugins, and were able to use the export/import feature without a glitch. :)
    - benjamin says:
      
      Lucky you, because for me it sure didn't work.
    - Hesham says:
      
      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!
      - Colleen says:
        
        Having said what I said, and after reading the comments, I think I got lucky Hesham!
Wayne Howard says:

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?
- Ben Lang says:
  
  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...

10 Steps to Moving Your Blog to a New Domain Name

Here is the process for WordPress blogs:

There are many ways to go through this process

About Ben Lang

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