Mapping an existing blog to a new domain name

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  boucherville5021 · Member · Nov 4, 2013 at 10:27 pm

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  Hi,
  I have been operating boucherville5021.com since close to 3 years now. My domain name is purchased through WordPress. I would like to give my blog a new vocation and assign a new domain name to it WITHOUT losing all of the existing content. My domain name renewal is up within the next month. In other words, I’d like to keep my existing blog, but instead of renewing domain name boucherville5021.com, I would like to purchase a new domain name through WordPress and assign it to my existing blog. Is this possible?

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  raincoaster · Member · Nov 4, 2013 at 10:32 pm

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  Sure. Just buy the domain name via your dashboard the way you bought the previous one, and let the previous one expire. Changing the domain name does not effect the content, exept that the posts and pages lose all their google ranking every time you change domains.

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  boucherville5021 · Member · Nov 4, 2013 at 10:35 pm

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  Hi raincoaster,
  It’s as simple as that? My current URL is boucherville5021.wordpress.com. If I change boucherville5021 to let’s say ABC, then my blog’s URL will automatically adjust to ABC.wordpress.com if I purchase domain name ABC.com through WordPress?

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  raincoaster · Member · Nov 4, 2013 at 10:42 pm

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  No.

  If you want a particular underlying URL for your blog, you have to register that beforehand. It’s a HUGE pain to change an existing blog’s whatever.wordpress.com URL to a different one; we get more complaints about it than just about any other issue. But it is possible. http://en.support.wordpress.com/changing-blog-address/

  I generally recommend just registering a new blog and importing your old contents to it if you MUST do this. But if you’re going to use a custom domain anyway, why does the underlying URL matter at all?

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  boucherville5021 · Member · Nov 4, 2013 at 10:47 pm

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  My issue is that I’ve had my blog for close to three years now. 440 articles, 66,000 visits. I don’t want to lose all that. I’d simply purchase a new domain name and have it redirected in that case to my existing blog, for which I’d change the theme, etc. (revamp). Thanks for your assistance, I appreciate it.