Domain hosting – confused over terminology
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Hello,
I am so confused over the domain hosting/transfer situation.
I have registered a custom domain name (.com) with Namecheap.
I would like to use that domain name on my WordPress site which is currently just a .wordpress.
I can see on Namecheap that it gives instructions to do this with Blogspot, but not with WordPress.
Basically, I just want to type in my .com address and for my wordpress site I have made to show. But I don’t know what this manoeuvre is called. Can anyone advise me please?
Thank you.The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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This is called Domain Mapping. Here are the instructions for what you need to do:
https://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/map-existing-domain/
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thanks so much.
do i need to upgrade for that?
are there any negatives for domain mapping, as in, would i lose out in any way?thank you
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You don’t need to upgrade. You can purchase domain mapping all by itself, but upgrading comes with other advantages. The domain name mapping is included in the cost for a Premium account ($99 currently for US accounts), no ads are displayed on your site, and, best of all I think, the ability to use custom CSS to change elements of your theme design!
Here are the details:
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Yes, you need to upgrade. You need the $17 per year domain mapping upgrade. You do not need to buy the $99 bundle.
You temporarily lose search engine rank, but after four months at most, you are back to where you would have been before and much better off, since it’s easier for the public to find a whatever.com site than a whatever.wordpress.com site.
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thanks so much – so just to confirm.. in the meantime all i need to do is the Domain Mapping…and that means when you type in my custom URL, the wordpress site that i’ve made will show up?
But the URL will always be a “.com” and the “wordpress.com” will forever be hidden away?
So when they are on my page, it will always be “.com”..? it won’t suddenly flip to “wordpress.com” because they have been pointed to my wordpress site? -
Yes. If the domain you own is “helloimmi.com,” your visitors will type in helloimmi.com and arrive at helloimmi.wordpress.com. But they won’t see helloimmi.wordpress.com in the URL window. Even on all your interior pages, they’ll still see helloimmi.com.
Example: http://techcrunch.com/. This site is actually here in WordPress.com and the real URL is something like techcrunch.wordpress.com. But you don’t see that in the URL window at all.
It’s important that you read all the details of that domain mapping link I mentioned and make sure you don’t allow your domain mapping to lapse – stay vigilant about renewing the mapping each year.
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Thanks so much for your help.
What would happen if I forget to renew the domain mapping part?
Wouldn’t I still own the “.com” from my original registrar -
Yes, as long as you renew with your registrar, that will still be yours. It would mean that all the links that search engines like Google have on record for your domain would suddenly be broken and when people typed in helloimmi.com, they would get a 404 error – site not found. That’s not nice. ;)
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So is this a non-reversible process…? As in, would I be stuck with using a WordPress format if i do the domain mapping? or could I take my domain to somewhere else like squared space and carry on? without the error…?
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No, it’s not non-reversible. You could change where your domain points to another hosting solution or transfer your WordPress.com site to a self-hosted WordPress.org site. There wouldn’t be any error. Just keep in mind, that when you move to a different platform (Squarespace, Wix, WordPress.org) it could have an effect for a while on your SEO. But people move domains every day!
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Actually the whatever.wordpress.com URL is still visible on your media uploads. If you forget to renew the domain mapping but still renew the domain, the URL will go to nowhere. You have to renew both IF you stay at WP.com.
If you get external hosting you can move the domain to point to that site and don’t have to worry about renewing mapping. There will be no error.
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