How to Move WordPress to a New Domain Without Losing SEO?
Do you wish to move your WordPress to a new domain? Here is the information you need to know before moving WordPress to a new domain without losing SEO.
Every WordPress development company must be aware of the hassles that the entire process brings. However, the change ensures massive benefits to the business website, and thus, it should be planned and executed very carefully.
While there will be some temporary fluctuations in the SEO and search rankings, but you can quickly minimize the larger impact when migrating to a new domain. Moreover, when the migration is done following the desired steps, your business can quickly regain its search engine ranking and improve WordPress site speed.
But, are you aware of the proper way or steps to follow when making the change to a new domain? If not, don't worry, we are here with the required information. We are here to present the right way to move WordPress to a new domain without loosing SEO.
Things to Know Before Making the Change
- The migration to a new domain will surely impact your SEO rankings; however, the impact will be temporary as the search engines need time to adjust to the change.
- The migration will also temporarily affect your search traffic. Keep in mind that this is normal and happens when the website migrates to a new domain.
- You should have a WordPress hosting account and understand the web hosting control panel for a smooth migration. You can hire WordPress developers to get the required help in understanding the basic concepts.
Now, with the idea of the things you should be aware of when moving WordPress to a new domain, let us look at the steps that need to be followed.
Steps to Follow to Move WordPress to a New Domain
The WordPress development company should follow these steps to ensure a smooth transition to a new domain:
1. Create a backup of your WordPress website
To begin with, the first thing that should be taken care of is creating a complete backup of the WordPress site. This duplicate package of your website will be used to create a duplicate website for convenient redirects from the old domain to the new one.
The WordPress development company uses the Duplicator plugin for maximum convenience to back up the old WordPress site. It is a free backup and migration plugin.
2. Make the required database for the new domain name
Before migrating to the new domain, your old WordPress website would need a new SQL database to unpack. Thus, you should be particular in creating the required SQL database to improve WordPress site speed post-migration.
You can skip this step if you have already created the database. To make a new database, visit the hosting account's cPanel, scroll to the database section and click on the 'MySQL Databases' icon.
3. Unpack the old WordPress on the new domain
Now upload the duplicate website files to the new domain. To make this process simple, connect to your new domain name using the FTP client. Once the connection is done, make sure that the root directory of your website is absolutely empty.
After this, you can easily upload all the required files from the duplicate website to the new domain without any hassles. If necessary, hire WordPress developers to get the required help while unpacking the old WordPress to the new domain.
4. Confirm the permanent 301 redirects
301 redirects are useful to direct the users visiting your old website domain to the new website domain. They play an important role to deliver amazing SEO and user experience. Adding them to your website will automatically redirect all your customers and search engine requests to the new domain.
Make sure a WordPress development company confirms the permanent 301 redirects as soon as possible to bounce back with stable search engine rankings and SEO results. You can set up the 301 redirects by the following 2 methods:
- Using all-in-one SEO
- Manual method
5. Notify Google about your new domain
Once all the above-mentioned steps are complete, you need to notify Google about your new domain. This will help Google find your new website easily and quickly to display the same in the search results.
Conclusion
Besides following all these steps, you should also publicly announce your migration to the new domain. While 301 redirects will automatically do their job, it is recommended that a WordPress development company make an announcement for its users and customers.
Always remember to have the new domain name, which your users will remember without any effort. If you have any other doubts, do let us know in the comment section.