Redirecting old WordPress site posts/pages to new WordPress site posts/pages

  • Unknown's avatar
    purekind · Member ·

    Hi,

    I’ve recently mapped all the posts/pages from my previous website, which was using WordPress, to a new website, which is also a WordPress site, but now all the posts I’ve posted on the likes of Facebook and Twitter that point to articles in my old website are going to be broken (as that site’s hosting is expiring soon and I’m not renewing it) unless I can somehow make them point to the same posts/pages in the new website: If it’s possible, how would I about doing this?

    To be clear, all the posts I made under my old web address, inceptional.com, have been exported then imported onto my new web address, inceptionalnews.wordpress.com, so all the exact same content is now on my new website, but I just want the old articles I posted on the likes of social media sites, which currently link to posts/pages on my old website, to point to the new one now.

    Can anyone help me with this?

    Thanks,

    Kirk

    Note: The previous site was using WordPress with a paid hosting plan run through GoDaddy. The new site is using a free WordPress site.

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

  • staff-zinnia · Staff ·

    Hi Krik –

    This is a great question. My reply here is based on the assumption that you’ll want to continue using your custom domain, inceptional.com.

    Mapping the domain to WordPress.com should allow these social links to continue working. I can’t promise though.

    I can help you get the mapping set up if that’s how you want to proceed.

    Another option would be to find out if GoDaddy will allow you to redirect inceptional.com to your free .wordpress.com site. With this option though, the free site address would be primary and what is displayed in the browser bar for visitors.

  • Unknown's avatar
    purekind · Member ·

    So, right now I’ve basically “forwarded” my inceptional.com domain to point to the inceptionalnews.wordpress.com free wordpress site and the links to the various inceptional.com posts/pages as seen on all my old Facebook and Twitter posts and that kind of thing all seem to be redirecting the new new inceptionalnews.wordpress.com site and working exactly as I hoped they would.

    Currently, since I’ve set up the forwarding, any old Facebook/Twitter posts that have a link pointing to a post/page on the inceptional.com site, an actual example would be https://inceptional.com/2018/02/05/my-favourite-superbowl-trailers/, now instantly takes you to its equivalent on the new site, which is https://inceptionalnews.wordpress.com/2018/02/05/my-favourite-superbowl-trailers/ in this case. That’s perfect and exactly what I’m after.

    Is there any reason, if the forwarding is working as described above, that I would/should look at something like redirecting instead?

    I have no issue at all with it showing inceptionalnews.wordpress.com (followed by whatever) in the internet browser bar once people have clicked and go to the posts/pages on my new wordpress site. I just want to make sure that if they specifically type http://www.inceptional.com into Google or wherever that they end up at inceptionalnews.wordpress.com and not a dead end of holding page, and that the likes of all the old Facebook and Twitter posts with links to inceptional.com in them now don’t point to dead ends because they were created on an old paid hosting plan (and a different wordpress site), that’s not going to exist in a few days.

    If all of that makes sense?

  • Unknown's avatar
    purekind · Member ·

    And note: The reason I am doing all this at all is because I can no longer afford to pay for any hosting–I’m genuinely that skint–which means I also can’t afford to pay for any service to transfer stuff or redirect it or host it in some other place or whatever either. Right now I can only do whatever is an entirely free option.

    And, since the forwarding was set up, it appears to be doing exactly what I want right now, which is great. But I just want to make sure and double check this isn’t some kind of fluke that’s only working now because my current hosting plan hasn’t quite deactivated yet or whatever, and that this is how exactly it should be and will be going forward–just to put my mind at ease. :-)

    I mean, if all those old Facebook and Twitter posts suddenly start going dead and coming up 404, or whatever it is, and there’s not way to “redirect” them all, ideally in one or two simple steps, and for free, then at that point I have a rather big issue on my hands as basically all my content that I posted on the likes of Facebook and Twitter over the last couple of years is broken. :-(

    But, like I say, it does appear to be working as I’d hoped since I forwarded the main domain to the new wordpress site, and that’s all I’m hoping for. :-)

  • staff-zinnia · Staff ·

    If things are working you’re in good shape :) No need to worry about hosting, just keep the domain registered and active.

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