Move WordPress Website to New Domain

The Problem

You're changing your domain name — a rebrand, a better domain becoming available, or consolidating multiple sites — and need every internal link, image reference and setting in WordPress updated to the new domain without breaking anything or losing your SEO.

About this problem

Changing a WordPress domain touches far more than just the site's main URL setting — every internal link stored directly in post content, every image src, serialized data in some plugins, and the sitemap all reference the old domain explicitly, and a naive find-and-replace in the database can break serialized data if done carelessly.

This is also a significant SEO event: without proper 301 redirects from the old domain, you lose accumulated search ranking and any direct traffic/bookmarks pointing at the old address.

What's Included

• Updating WordPress's core URL settings to the new domain
• Safely search-and-replacing internal links throughout the database, respecting serialized data
• Setting up 301 redirects from the old domain to preserve SEO and existing traffic
• Updating the sitemap and resubmitting it to Search Console under the new domain

What's NOT Included

• Purchasing the new domain or cancelling the old one — that's between you and your registrar
• Maintaining the old domain's hosting indefinitely (a redirect needs the old domain to still resolve somewhere, at minimum)
• Rebuilding branding elements (logo, colours) for the new domain name — that's a design task

How It Works

1. Take a full backup before making any domain-wide changes.
2. Update the WordPress siteurl and home values to the new domain.
3. Run a serialization-safe search-and-replace across the database to update internal links and references.
4. Set up 301 redirects at the DNS/server level from the old domain to the new one.
5. Regenerate and resubmit the sitemap under the new domain to Google Search Console.
6. Spot-check pages, images and internal links across the site to confirm everything now points to the new domain correctly.

In practice: you buy the service, send over whatever access or details the job needs, I investigate and do the work, and you confirm it's resolved before we call it done.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I lose my Google ranking if I change my WordPress domain?

Some fluctuation is normal, but proper 301 redirects from the old domain to the new one preserve the vast majority of your existing SEO value — skipping that step is what causes real ranking loss.

Can I just do a find-and-replace in the database myself to change the domain?

A plain find-and-replace can corrupt serialized data that some plugins store (arrays/objects saved as structured text), which is why a serialization-safe method matters rather than a blunt text replace.

Do I need to keep my old domain after moving to a new one?

Yes, at least for a good while — the old domain needs to keep resolving so the 301 redirects can actually send visitors and search engines on to the new one.

How long does it take for Google to fully switch over to my new domain?

It varies, but with proper redirects and a resubmitted sitemap, most sites see the transition largely complete within a few weeks to a couple of months.

Will my email still work after changing domains?

Only if it's set up separately on the new domain — moving a website's domain doesn't automatically move or reconfigure email, which would need its own setup (see the email services).