Same Host, New URL

Hi,

Before getting into my problem, I just want to state that I’ve read the official documentation on this subject, I’ve searched the forums and Google, and still have not found an exact solution.

This is the scenario. I currently have a site called https://www.example1.com hosted by Site5. The only thing I’d like to do is change the URL to https://www.example2.com as we are in the process of re-branding the business. We do not want to go the route of redirecting the new URL to the old one. Instead, we’d like the primary URL to be the new one and have all old stuff directed to it.

Is there a way to just change the URL without having to export/import, re-install files, etc? One of my primary concerns is the impact on SEO as we have done full optimizations and do not wish to lose them. I’d like re-directs to work properly.

If we do have to export/import, re-install files, etc. – how do we get the old URLs to redirect to the new ones in order not to lose ranking?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.