Redirecting to new, non-wp domain

  • Unknown's avatar
    automotivemarketing · Member ·

    Hi. I want to move my blog off wordpress.com and onto my own web hosting. I can handle the back up and restore. Is it possible to get my current wordpress.com url to 301 redirect to my new web address?

    Thanks

  • Unknown's avatar
    drmike · Member ·

    You can do it with the domain mapping upgrade and a couple days worth of time to allow the domain name to spread through the net but the wp.com URLs do not redirect. It’s too easy for spammers to abuse the wp.com name if it was allowed.

  • Unknown's avatar
    sunburntkamel · Member ·

    it’s a touch tricky.
    * buy the domain first (from your host).
    * buy domain mapping from wordpress.com
    * set your name servers to NS1.WORDPRESS.COM and NS2.WORDPRESS.COM

    * let it sit for about a week. gives the international DNS servers time to propogate, and time for your readers to see the new address with the familiar wordpress.com blue bar and general look and feel.

    * install and configure your wordpress blog with your new host (you’ll have to do this with your host’s IP address, since your nameservers are still pointing at wordpress.com)
    * export your wordpress.com blog, and import it at the new blog.

    * change your name servers to point to your host (according to their instructions)

    these instructions come with no warranty expressed or implied. YMMV
    i am happy to try to answer questions, though.

  • Unknown's avatar
    drmike · Member ·

    Worked for me. :)

  • Unknown's avatar
    sunburntkamel · Member ·

    but the wp.com URLs do not redirect

    i dont think that’s true. the link to my blog here (custom header in CSS) should redirect to the page on archgfx.net – does that not work for other people?

  • Unknown's avatar
    raincoaster · Member ·

    Yes, it does.

  • Unknown's avatar
    drmike · Member ·

    i dont think that’s true.

    I mean you can’t have username.wordpress.com on a non-wp.com server. And you can’t do a redirect with just a wp.com name. You can though with the domain mapping.

  • Unknown's avatar
    automotivemarketing · Member ·

    thanks for the responses. i bought a pair of domains tonight, and your directions make perfect sense, sunburn.

    i’m actually going to be pulling a double bong, here. the dot com’s nameservers are pointing to wordpress, and the .net’s nameservers are pointing to my webhost.

    while i deploy your instructions onto the .com, i’m going to 301 redirect the .net to the .com. this blog is relatively new, but its picked up some links here and there so i want to start improving it by taking complete control of the template.

  • Unknown's avatar
    drmike · Member ·

    That should work.

    In case anyone is interested, the 301 is preferred over a 302 by Google in terms of SEO. Matt Cutts talks about it here.

  • Unknown's avatar
    automotivemarketing · Member ·

    ok looks like things are starting to work out now.

    http://www.tacticaltechnique.com is where my blog is now “located”, but wordpress.com is still hosting it.

    on the .net, i created an index.php file that contains this code…

    <?php
    header(“HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently”);
    header(“Location: http://www.tacticaltechnique.com/”);
    ?>

    that makes all requests for tacticaltechnique.net behave just like requests for the .com, and as drmike said, its seo friendly. this method avoids *some* duplicate content issues. i still need to 301 all requests for the non-www versions of these domains to the www version.

    we call that canocalization. here’s more reading.. http://www.thegooglecache.com/white-hat-seo/duplicate-content-round-up-diagnosis-and-correction-with-free-tools/

    i’ll post again once i set up the blog on my hosting.

    thanks again

  • Unknown's avatar
    drmike · Member ·

    It’s strange as I did the 301 when I moved from tdjc.be to drmikessteakdinner.com but yet I still see links going to tdjc.be. Same number as going to the new site and it’s been over a month since the move.

  • Unknown's avatar
    automotivemarketing · Member ·

    see links where? some web pages still link to the old url or link: command for old url?

  • Unknown's avatar
    automotivemarketing · Member ·

    Querying automotivemarketing.wordpress.com [71.19.202.100]…

    [begin response]

    HTTP/1.0 302 Found
    Location: http://tacticaltechnique.com/
    Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
    Content-Length: 0
    Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2007 03:07:29 GMT
    Server: LiteSpeed
    Connection: close

    [end response]

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