How do I change the permalinks and redirect traffic to a new domain name?
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Hi,
I’m planning to switch my blog name from “Chocolate and Marrow” to “Bourbon and Marrow”. I have a lot of linkbacks to my site though things like Pinterest, Buzzfeed, Food52, etc and so I need to make sure that the old permalinks reroute to the new domain name. I’ve already purchased “www.bourbonandmarrow.com” through the WP store and am ready to switch everything. However, the only topic I could find in support for this (http://en.support.wordpress.com/site-redirect/) tells me how to handle if I’m leaving to self-host, which I am not. So, I really don’t know where to begin and am scared to implement the change as I don’t want to mess up all of my links and lose a whole bunch of traffic. Can you help me figure out where to begin? Thanks in advance!
Brooke
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi Brooke,
So long as you keep both chocolateandmarrow.com and bourbonandmarrow.com mapped on WordPress.com, the redirect is already active. If you changed permalink structure the redirect wouldn’t work.
However, but once you change the domain, a link like this one:
http://chocolateandmarrow.com/2014/11/18/xiao-long-bao-shanghai-soup-dumplings/
will redirect automatically to
http://bourbonandmarrow.com/2014/11/18/xiao-long-bao-shanghai-soup-dumplings/
In fact, you can test this out because right now that 2nd link will redirect to the first link — since chocolateandmarrow.com is your current primary domain. :)
Best,
-Alex G.
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Oh my gosh, that’s so much simpler than I thought it would be! So I don’t need to go through the trouble of manually setting up a 301 redirect? I’d read somewhere that I’d need to do that, but it seems like as long as I’m staying within the WP.com structure (and, I suppose, keeping both domain names paid for and active), it will automatically do it?
Thanks for the help, Alex!
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Sorry, I should have specified: The reason I’m concerned that it all carries over is not just so that people can find the posts they come looking for (which it sounds like they’ll be able to do), but also so that I won’t lose my current rankings on search engines like Google, etc.
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Hi Brooke,
So I don’t need to go through the trouble of manually setting up a 301 redirect? I’d read somewhere that I’d need to do that, but it seems like as long as I’m staying within the WP.com structure (and, I suppose, keeping both domain names paid for and active), it will automatically do it?
Correct! If you were moving from self-hosted to WordPress.com you’d need to setup a redirect manually. Here, we’re redirecting from everyone’s *.wordpress.com site to the custom domains already, so our infrastructure is already setup to handle this easily.
The reason I’m concerned that it all carries over is not just so that people can find the posts they come looking for (which it sounds like they’ll be able to do), but also so that I won’t lose my current rankings on search engines like Google, etc.
I wouldn’t expect bourbonandmarrow.com to be automatically launched to the status of your more-established domains, but in terms of how do you make the switch with minimal effect on your current SEO rankings, you’re doing it the right way. All the URLs that Google has highly ranked will still be redirect to the same content, so they shouldn’t lose any ground.
Obviously we can’t directly control how Google ranks anything, but changing that primary domain shouldn’t diminish that previous work.
Best,
-Alex G.
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Hi Alex,
Sorry to circle back on this so many weeks later, but I haven’t made the transfer mentioned above because I’ve been debating the idea of self-hosting in order to have more control over the design. I’ve decided I’m going to self-host, in all likelihood I’d do it on WordPress.org. So, new/revised question is:
– If I want to switch over to a self-hosted platform (like WordPress.org) AND I want to change my blog domain, which would I do first?
– Are there any additional steps I’d need to take in order to make sure my permalinks are active for both the old and new blog name?
– Finally, do you know whether WordPress (.com or .org) offers a service that I could pay for for someone to do all of this for me?Hoping to get this done in the next several days, so any advice you can provide would be much appreciated! (Terrified-of-screwing-this-up, non-tech blogger here.)
Happy holidays!
Brooke
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Hi Alex,
Sorry to circle back on this so many weeks later, but I haven’t made the transfer mentioned above because I’ve been debating the idea of self-hosting in order to have more control over the design. I’ve decided I’m going to self-host, in all likelihood I’d do it on WordPress.org. So, new/revised question is:
– If I want to switch over to a self-hosted platform (like WordPress.org) AND I want to change my blog domain, which would I do first?
– Are there any additional steps I’d need to take in order to make sure my permalinks are active for both the old and new blog name?
– Finally, do you know whether WordPress (.com or .org) offers a service that I could pay for for someone to do all of this for me?Hoping to get this done in the next several days, so any advice you can provide would be much appreciated! (Terrified-of-screwing-this-up, non-tech blogger here.)
Happy holidays!
Brooke
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Hi Brooke!
Let me handle this a tiny bit out-of-order. :)
– Finally, do you know whether WordPress (.com or .org) offers a service that I could pay for for someone to do all of this for me?
We do offer a Guided Transfer service that will move your WordPress.com site to a self-hosted site running on WordPress.org. It’s a one-time fee of $129 per blog transferred. (Multiple domains associated with one blog would still be one blog transferred.)
http://en.support.wordpress.com/guided-transfer/
– If I want to switch over to a self-hosted platform (like WordPress.org) AND I want to change my blog domain, which would I do first?
The first step you’d need to do is setup hosting and a domain. Some hosting providers will include a domain name registration with their service, so that’s a potential perk.
However, if you wanted to use one of the domains you registered here on WordPress.com, you’ll be able to do that as well by changing its name servers.
Once you have hosting and a domain, you’ll need to install WordPress.org, then Export+Import your content.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/#moving-to-wordpress-org
– Are there any additional steps I’d need to take in order to make sure my permalinks are active for both the old and new blog name?
Once you have your self-hosted site setup, you’ll need to purchase a site redirect upgrade to point any *.wordpress.com permalinks that do not have a custom domain to your new site.
If you’ll point your custom domains (e.g. chocolateandmarrow.com ) to your self-hosted site, the site redirect is effectively already in place by keeping that domain registered with us.
Let me know if that’s unclear at all! Moving blogs can be a ton of info. :)
-Alex G.
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Hi Alex,
Thanks for this! It is definitely helpful, but is also way over my head. I think it’s probably safest for me to pay for a guided transfer.
I think because I’m doing the domain name change + wanting to transfer to self-hosting, I just am getting lost in all of the steps and options. If I do a guided transfer hopefully I’ll just be able to tell them what I want to end up with and maybe they can just choose the least painful route of doing it. Thank you for your help!
Brooke
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If I do a guided transfer hopefully I’ll just be able to tell them what I want to end up with and maybe they can just choose the least painful route of doing it.
That’s definitely what we strive for! Guided Transfer is certainly the easiest way of moving from .com to .org — I think you’ll be pleased with it.
Let me know if you other questions though. :)
Best,
-Alex G.
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