{"id":10372,"date":"2024-03-18T10:43:20","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T10:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/?p=10372"},"modified":"2026-02-12T13:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:23:10","slug":"move-wordpress-website-to-a-new-domain-without-negatively-impacting-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/move-wordpress-website-to-a-new-domain-without-negatively-impacting-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Move WordPress Website To A New Domain Without Negatively Impacting SEO?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wordpress-statistics\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WordPress statistics<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world with <\/span><b>65.2%<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> market share. To give you some perspective, WordPress powers <\/span><b>43.3% <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of all websites. This means that more than <\/span><b>455 million <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">websites use WordPress. That number grows by <\/span><b>2 million <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">every year. <\/span><b>1.1 million<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> new domains have been registered with WordPress in the last six months.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your website\u2019s domain name can have a profound impact on your search engine rankings. That is why businesses must exercise caution when choosing a domain name for their website. You might experience some ups and downs in your search engine rankings when you try to Move WordPress Website to a new domain, but you can take some steps to minimize the impact on search rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This article will help you move WordPress website to a new domain name without negatively <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/vps-hosting-impact-seo\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">impacting SEO<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How To Move WordPress Website To A New Domain Without Negatively Impacting SEO?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here is a step-by-step process you can follow to move a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/reasons-wordpress-website-is-slow\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WordPress website <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to a new domain name without negatively impacting SEO and preserving valuable <a href=\"https:\/\/marketinglad.io\/how-to-find-backlinks-to-a-website-on-google\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">backlinks for your website<\/a> during the migration.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Backup Your Website<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first step is to take a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/antidos.com\/blog\/the-ultimate-guide-to-dedicated-server-data-backup-and-recovery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">backup <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of your website. This enables you to configure the redirects correctly from your old domain to your new domain. You can use a WordPress plugin like <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/duplicator\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Duplicator<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which makes it easier for you to take a backup of your website. It is free to use and can help you with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/web-hosting-migration-issues\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">migration<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and backup. When you activate the WordPress plugin, the duplicator menu will start appearing in your WordPress dashboard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Click on the <\/span><b>Create New <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">button to create a new copy of your WordPress website.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The plugin will run some tests, and once the tests are complete, you will see the results. If there are errors, it will give you instructions on how to fix these issues.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If everything is marked as good, you can click the <\/span><b>Build <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">button.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The plugin will now create a duplicate version of your website.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once the process is complete, you will see a download option appear.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Click on the <\/span><b>one-click download <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">button to start downloading the file to your computer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10373 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1a.jpg\" alt=\"Backup Your Website\" width=\"950\" height=\"520\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1a.jpg 950w, https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1a-768x420.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1a-260x142.jpg 260w, https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1a-50x27.jpg 50w, https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1a-137x75.jpg 137w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The archive contains the full package from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/black-friday-cyber-monday-deals\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WordPress themes to WordPress plugins <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to permalink settings, along with other files created by WordPress plugins. Run the installer script, which is a PHP file. This will launch the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wordpress-migration-plugins\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WordPress migration <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">process by unzipping the archive file.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create a Database For New Domain Name<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before you migrate your WordPress site to a new domain, you will have to first create a SQL database for your new domain. If you already have a database, you can skip this step.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To create a new database,<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Go to <\/span><b>cPanel<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Click on the <\/span><b>database <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">section<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Click the <\/span><b>MySQL<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> icon<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Give your new database a name and click on the <\/span><b>Create Database <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">button<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Go to the <\/span><b>MySQL user <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">section<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create a new user by choosing a <\/span><b>username <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>password, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and click the Create <\/span><b>New User<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> button<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Go to <\/span><b>Add User to Database<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> option<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, map the new <\/span><b>user <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you have created with the new <\/span><b>database <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and click the <\/span><b>Add <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">button.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upload The Archive Files To Your New Domain Name<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now it is time to upload the website backup files to your new domain. Here is how to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use an <\/span><b>FTP client <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to connect to your new domain name<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upload the <\/span><b>archive <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>installer <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">files to the root directory<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Open a web browser and type your website URL followed by installer.php. (<\/span><b>http:\/\/example.com\/installer.php<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tick the terms and conditions checkbox and click the <\/span><b>Next<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> button<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enter all the details of the database you just created for your new domain and click on the <\/span><b>Next <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">button\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enter the <\/span><b>site URL<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>path<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and click the <\/span><b>Next<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> button<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Press the <\/span><b>Admin Login <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">button to enter the WordPress admin of your new domain<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10374\" src=\"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/2a.jpg\" alt=\"Upload The Archive Files To Your New Domain Name\" width=\"1052\" height=\"419\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/2a.jpg 1052w, https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/2a-768x306.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/2a-260x104.jpg 260w, https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/2a-50x20.jpg 50w, https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/2a-150x60.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1052px) 100vw, 1052px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Set up 301 Redirects<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">301 redirects play a crucial role in SEO as it redirects both the search engines and website visitors to your new domain. If you have configured 301 redirects properly, your website visitors won\u2019t have to see the dreaded 404 page not found error and instead will be redirected automatically to the new domain. For 301 redirects to work, you will have to keep your old WordPress active too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here is a step-by-step process of setting up 301 redirects.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use an <\/span><b>FTP client <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to connect to your old website<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Go to the <\/span><b>.htaccess file <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and edit it<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Copy and paste the following lines of code at the top of the <\/span><b>.htaccess <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">file<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#Options +FollowSymLinks<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RewriteEngine on<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unchanged: RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http:\/\/www.newsite.com\/$1 [R=301,L]<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Replace newsite.com with your new domain.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Visit your old domain to see whether it is redirecting automatically or not. If it does, it means that redirection is set up properly, and if it does not, then it means that the server does not support redirection rules. Get in touch with your <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/ecommerce-web-hosting\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">web hosting <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">provider and ask them to enable <\/span><b>RewriteEngine<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/what-is-unstoppable-domains\/\">What is an Unstoppable Domains and Why You Should Use Them?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Submit Your New Domain For Indexing<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Congratulations! You have successfully moved WordPress to a new domain, but your job is not done yet. Now, you will have to inform Google and other search engines about this address change. Ensure that both your new and old domains are added to Google Search Console under two different properties.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Go to your Google Search Console account dashboard and select your old domain as an <\/span><b>active<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> property.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Go to <\/span><b>Settings <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the <\/span><b>Change of Address <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tool<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Choose your eew domain inside the <\/span><b>Update Google <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">section<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hit the <\/span><b>Validate and Update<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> button and save your changes<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Follow the instructions given in the wizard and submit your change of address request<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10375\" src=\"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3a.jpg\" alt=\"Submit Your New Domain For Indexing\" width=\"1089\" height=\"546\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3a.jpg 1089w, https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3a-768x385.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3a-260x130.jpg 260w, https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3a-50x25.jpg 50w, https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3a-150x75.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1089px) 100vw, 1089px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inform The Users About The New Domain<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You should not solely rely on a 301 redirect to tell the user about the migration. Instead, you should announce the migration publicly through a blog post or pop-up <a href=\"https:\/\/picsart.com\/templates\/banners\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">banner<\/a> on your website. You can also create social media posts and promote them across your social media channels. Similarly, you can also make your users aware of these changes through email newsletters and push notifications. This will let your website visitors know that you have migrated to a new domain.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Did this tutorial help you in moving your <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/reasons-wordpress-website-is-slow\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WordPress website<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to a new domain without hampering your SEO performance? Share your feedback with us in the comments section below.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to WordPress statistics, WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world with 65.2% market share. To give you some perspective, WordPress powers<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":10376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[203],"tags":[256],"class_list":["post-10372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guide","tag-move-wordpress-site-to-new-domain"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10372"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14952,"href":"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10372\/revisions\/14952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hostnoc-revamp.branex.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}