Proper way to change domain name

  • I am going to change the URL setting of a website from mywebsite.org to mywebsite.com
    I’ve read a lot of posts where people have done this and it turns into a disaster.

    I can’t afford to have a disaster… too stressful.

    Please tell me if simply changing .org to .com on both lines of the settings is going to cause any issues.

    WordPress Address (URL): https://mywebsite.org
Site Address (URL): https://mywebsite.org
    • This topic was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by Jan Dembowski. Reason: Moved to Fixing WordPress, this is not an Everything else WordPress topic
Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

  • Follow these instructions: https://www.ads-software.com/support/article/changing-the-site-url/

    Thread Starter exdesign

    (@exdesign)

    Is it possible to JUST try to set it by only changing the settings…

    WordPress Address (URL): https://mywebsite.com
    Site Address (URL): https://mywebsite.com

    OR will that mess it up?

    Thread Starter exdesign

    (@exdesign)

    It is a very large site with numerous connected files to the blog posts – audio and images.

    Yes, that is what the two fields are for. If, contrary to expectations, something goes wrong, check what is written under the article: https://www.ads-software.com/support/article/changing-the-site-url/

    Remember beforehand:
    * Make sure that the new domain already points to your hosting.
    * Make a backup of your project.

    Your hoster could help you with both.

    Thread Starter exdesign

    (@exdesign)

    Both domains are at the same host and point to the same folder. I usually do this when in development. I use a subdomain of one of my domains to develop. Then when I am ready to go live, I change the settings to the domain I purchased, which is set to the same folder. Ok, hopefully it works out. I’m waiting a bit for DNS to be done propagating. Thanks!

    I’ve read a lot of posts where people have done this and it turns into a disaster.

    After years of dealing with such issues, I can definitely say that most of these “disasters” are self-inflicted. I’ve dealt with numerous cases here and elsewhere where:

    • People use unregistered domains (yes, this happens — and not just typo!)
    • People make mistakes typing their registered domain names
    • People do not point their domain (registered elsewhere) to their hosting account (or the right website folder in their hosting account)
    • Some do not have SSL certificate setup but read somewhere that HTTPS is good for SEO and they just jump in and change their addresses to use HTTPS

    And even when all the prep work has been done correctly, a common occurrence is people just changing the two address fields, but not doing a search-and-replace on their database to swap all occurrences of the old domain with the new one. The end result is broken images and files.

    This is the best article https://www.ads-software.com/support/article/changing-the-site-url/ but I would highly suggest check this tutorial.

    I hope this was helpful.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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