Changing your domain name can feel intimidating and isn’t without risks. If done carelessly, it can lead to broken links, lost traffic, and a drop in search rankings. At the same time, it can also be a chance to rebrand, upgrade to a more memorable website address, and improve your SEO.
The difference simply lies in careful planning and execution. In this tutorial, you’ll learn everything you need to know to change your website’s domain name with as little hassle as possible.
Why change your domain name?
Your site’s domain name is a very important part of branding, which is why you usually want to keep it as is. Then again, there are also many valid reasons to switch.
For example, you might have changed your company or blog name and want your domain to match it. Or maybe your business has changed, and your current domain no longer accurately represents what you do.
Another possibility is that you found a better, shorter, more memorable, or more professional domain.
You might also only want to change the domain extension, such as when relocating your business and going for a country-specific TLD like .de, .fr, or .co.uk. Domain changes also happen for legal reasons, such as trademark conflicts.
Finally, you might aim to improve your SEO with a more relevant domain or distance yourself from an old name that carries a damaged reputation.
No matter the reason, a domain change can be a smart move if you plan it carefully and with a clear purpose in mind.
Challenges to be aware of
Switching to a new domain name is not without risks. Discussing them isn’t meant to scare you off, but to stress the importance of preparing well. Most of the risks can be minimized or avoided entirely, and if your reasons for changing your site’s domain name are good, the effort is usually worth it.
Loss of branding
Making the switch without communicating it can negatively impact your audience’s brand association that you worked so hard to build. Returning visitors might not recognize your site right away and think it has shut down or moved.
In addition, any other marketing material your domain name was part of, such as logos, slogans, social media presences, or printed materials, may need updates.
SEO implications
Your site will likely experience a drop in rankings and website traffic after the domain change. This is a normal part of the process and is usually temporary. Search engines need time to recrawl and re-index your site under the new domain.
You do, however, need to do the necessary work to maintain your rankings. For the most part, that means putting redirects in place to make sure traffic from search engines, backlinks, and other sources is sent to the correct (new) address.
Costs involved
Changing your domain name isn’t just a technical task, but can come with financial costs:
- More expensive fees for the new domain.
- Paying for two domains during the transition period.
- Design costs, such as for logo changes and reprinting branded materials.
- Technical costs like development time or a new SSL certificate.
- Additional marketing costs to promote the new domain.
While not all of these costs apply in every case, it’s important to budget for them in advance.
Website downtime and technical issues
There can be technical hiccups as well, such as:
- Lengthy DNS changes may cause your site to become temporarily inaccessible.
- Redirect mistakes can lead to broken pages or errors.
- SSL certificates may not transfer automatically and may stop working.
- Email services connected to your domain can be disrupted.
- Third-party integrations and APIs may need reconfiguration.
These issues are usually temporary, but even a short period of downtime can affect visitor trust and search engine rankings.
Time investment
Even with a clear plan, transitioning to a new domain involves many small steps, most of which need to be done by hand. It can be time-consuming, but it’s critical for success.
Expect the process to take several hours at minimum, and potentially days depending on the complexity and size of your site. It’s better not to rush than deal with time-consuming problems later.
Changing your domain: A step-by-step guide
Here’s how to switch domains with minimal disruption.
1. Choose and purchase your new domain
The process of choosing a domain is worth its own article, so we won’t go over it in detail here. You can register domains from any registrar. When using WordPress.com, you get domain privacy and super fast DNS included. Just saying.
Use our domain search tool to find your desired name:
Make your choice, then continue to the checkout and complete your purchase. That’s it.
Tip: Do you want your domain and hosting under one roof? Switch to WordPress.com’s world-class secure hosting using our hassle-free site migrations and get a free domain for the first year (on annual plans). You can also move your existing domain and manage everything in one place.
2. Plan your redirects
A redirect is like a virtual signpost showing that a web page has moved. It automatically sends visitors and search engines from an old address to the new one.
If you change your domain name without redirects, old links to your site in search results, other websites, and social media will lead to broken pages and 404 error messages. That’s why they are essential to preserve traffic, SEO value, and usability, and need to be planned in advance.
There are different kinds of redirects. The one most relevant here is the 301 redirect, which signals that a page has permanently moved.
Make a list of your most important pages — blog posts, product pages, landing pages, and any content that gets consistent traffic — and plan their counterparts on the new domain.
For detailed information, check out our online course lesson on redirects.
3. Notify your audience
Once you are ready to execute the domain change, let your audience know about it ahead of time. Send out an announcement via email, blog post, or banner on your site.
Clearly explain that only the address will change, not the content or company behind your website. Use this opportunity to reinforce your branding and highlight improvements that come with the change.
4. Change DNS records
DNS stands for “Domain Name System.” It’s a network of servers containing the information regarding which domain points to which server. It’s essentially the internet’s phone book (if you are old enough to remember those).
To change domains, you need to update your new domain name’s DNS settings so it is connected to your server and site. This process isn’t instantaneous — the changes have to register or “propagate” globally, which takes up to 48 hours, but usually happens much sooner.
Here’s where to direct your new domain depending on your use case:
- If all you are doing is switching the domain name, aim it at your existing website. Your site will simply have two domains for a while, allowing you to switch once ready with no downtime.
- Should you be changing hosts too, point the new domain to your new server instead, and keep the old site live as is for now. This allows you to migrate your content and prepare the new site without affecting your current web presence. You can update the DNS to point the old domain to your new hosting provider once ready.
You can manage your domain’s DNS settings through your domain registrar or a management panel like cPanel, and it roughly looks like this:
- Get your hosting provider’s nameserver address(es). It will be something like “ns1.example.com” and “ns2.example.com.”
- Log in to your domain registrar account and find your new domain’s DNS or nameserver settings.
- Update the A records with your hosting provider’s nameservers.
- Save the changes.
Make sure to back up the DNS records from your old domain in case you need them later!
In WordPress.com, you manage your site domains under Upgrades → Domains (or Hosting → Domains if you are using WP Admin).
If you purchased your domain together with hosting, it’s automatically connected to your site. You also have the option to switch transferred domains to the WordPress.com nameservers with the click of a button.
You can learn all about it in our detailed instructions for changing nameservers, including alternative methods, and more information about DNS on WordPress.com.
5. Back up your existing website
Always back up your website in full before making major changes like switching your domain name. On a managed hosting provider like WordPress.com, backup is done for you, and you can restore your site with one click.
When self-hosting your website, use a backup plugin like Duplicator or back up your site manually. Make sure to save both your database and website files. For even more security, download your backup and store it in multiple places.
6. Switch the domain in your CMS
The upcoming steps will all directly impact your site’s usability and — possibly — availability. Therefore, if you are not switching your host along with your domain and only have one version of your site, it’s highly recommended that you use a staging site first before making changes to your live website.
When the DNS changes have propagated, it’s time to update your site to use the new domain. In WordPress, you usually do this under Settings → General. Fill in the new domain under WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL), then save at the bottom.
Both settings should include the https:// or http:// part and not have a slash (“/”) at the end.
Depending on your hosting provider, these settings may also be located elsewhere. For example, on WordPress.com, you change your website’s primary domain in the aforementioned Upgrades → Domains.
An important consideration for this step is your SSL certificate. You need to ensure it is active and valid for the new domain. On WordPress.com, SSL/HTTPS is included with every plan.
7. Update links in your database
After changing your domain, all WordPress page and menu links will switch automatically as well. However, you likely still have manually created links pointing to the old domain in posts, pages, and elsewhere.
The easiest way to update those is to replace them in your website’s database. WordPress has several plugin solutions for this, like Update URLs.
Alternatively, you can also use a tool such as the database search and replace script by Interconnect, SQL commands inside phpMyAdmin, or WP-CLI. Double-check your input and run a preview or dry run to see if your tool supports it and avoid making mistakes!
8. Implement redirects
Now the only thing left is to set up redirects from your old to your new domain. You have two main options for that, depending on your scenario:
- Set up redirects on the old server: When you move hosting providers along with switching your domain name, you can keep your old website around, but redirect it completely. In this case, you do NOT change the DNS record of your old domain to the new host.
- Redirect on the new server: If you plan on directing your old domain to your new host, redirects have to be in place on the new server. That’s because, once you change the DNS records of your old domain, anyone who uses it will arrive at the new server and need to be redirected to the right location from there.
A plugin like Redirection is great for self-hosted sites where you will keep the old website around, at least for a while. It has a dedicated option to move your entire site.
There are also SEO plugins that help you set up redirects, like All in One SEO.
A comfortable solution for implementing redirects on the new server is your .htaccess file. Place the following code at the top of the file and make sure to replace the example domains with your old and new domains:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^olddomain.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.olddomain.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]Tip: On WordPress.com, redirecting your website is super easy. It happens automatically when you change the primary site address.
9. Check site links thoroughly
Once redirects are in place, be sure to test them! Access your most important pages via your old domain and see if you land in the right place. You can also use a bulk redirect checker to test multiple links at once.
While you are at it, look for any broken links on your site and correct or redirect them as well. You can find them with a plugin like Broken Link Checker. The aforementioned Redirection plugin also tracks 404 errors, so you can easily point them to the right location.
Another option is advanced tools like Sitebulb or Screaming Frog.
Once you’re done with that, if you’ve been working with a staging site so far, now is the time to move your changes over to your live or production website.
10. Signal the domain change in Google Search Console
To preserve your SEO rankings and speed up the reindexing process, Google needs to be notified that your website has moved to a new domain. To do that, both your old and new domain names need to be set up and verified in Google Search Console.
Open the old domain property and use the Change of Address tool under Settings.
Select your new domain from the drop-down menu and click Validate & Update.
In addition, prepare and submit a new sitemap for your new domain under Indexing → Sitemaps.
Do the same for other webmaster tools you might have connected to your site.
11. Update Google Analytics
The last step is confirming your change in domain in Google Analytics so you can continue tracking your traffic correctly. Log in to your Google Analytics account and go to the Admin panel, and then to Data streams under Data collection and modification.
Edit the stream details to use your new domain’s URL.
Ensure the existing tracking code is installed on the new domain and working properly. If you plan to track traffic for both domains, make sure to enable cross-domain measurement.
Next steps
The domain switch is done, but a few follow-up steps help ensure everything continues to run smoothly:
- Stay on top of analytics and Search Console: Watch for crawl errors, indexing issues, warnings, and unexpected changes in traffic patterns to catch problems early.
- Update robots.txt: Check your robots.txt file for any hard-coded links to the old domain, such as the sitemap URL.
- Revise social profiles: Update the website URL on all your social media accounts to reflect the new domain.
- Adjust email addresses: Change any email addresses that used your old domain. On WordPress.com, you can use email forwarding for that.
- Migrate backlinks: While redirects should do a good job of preserving the SEO value of your backlinks, it’s a good idea to reach out to websites that have linked to your site and politely ask them to update the links to your new domain.
- Disconnect and cancel the old domain: Monitor traffic and indexing to ensure the new domain has fully replaced the old one in search results before canceling the old domain. Google recommends maintaining 301 redirects for at least 12 months to preserve SEO value.
Change your domain name with confidence
A domain name isn’t just an address — it’s part of the brand and identity of your site and business. Changing it can feel like a risk, but it can also be an opportunity to grow, move forward, or start fresh.
What matters most is that you take your time. Switching to a new domain is a process with many steps that requires careful planning and attention to detail.
Of course, having a good partner on your side makes it easier. Choose WordPress.com and comfortably manage domains and redirects right from your site backend.
