Changing the domain name of a WordPress site without losing SEO benefits?

[avatar33]

Hey amigos,

I want to change the domain name of one of my WP sites without losing all the backlinks pointing to it internally. How do I do that?

I want all links pointing to www.olddomain.com/cool-article.html to automatically point to www.newdomain.com/cool-article.html

Is there an easy way to do this?

Thanks

 

[BlogHue]

Setup the new site before you bring the first site down.

Then add the following to your .htaccess in the old site.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Basically, you 301 redirect it. Which instructs the search engine spiders that the website has "permanently" moved to the new domain.

Hope it helps.

 

[Flash4Ever]

 

[mikeshinobi]

When I did this, I used a wordpress plugin ("easy 301 redirects" or something like that) and 301'd each page to its corresponding page on the new site. Was a huge PITA but it got the job done.

You can also just go in your hosting CP (I'm assuming this isn't unique to hostgator) and just 301 the entire old domain to the entire new domain, but I think that 301ing each page individually is probably more effective as far as maintaining the SEO benefits you have for each page. I could be wrong.

 

[(O_o)]

^ Yoast SEO Plugin for WP will let you edit htaccess and do 301's and etc.

 

[Staccs]

When I did this, I used a wordpress plugin ("easy 301 redirects" or something like that) and 301'd each page to its corresponding page on the new site. Was a huge PITA but it got the job done.

You can also just go in your hosting CP (I'm assuming this isn't unique to hostgator) and just 301 the entire old domain to the entire new domain, but I think that 301ing each page individually is probably more effective as far as maintaining the SEO benefits you have for each page. I could be wrong.

If you 301 the entire domain, the pages will automatically redirect to the same path on the new domain.

i.e. 301 dogsnuggies.com to staccsiscool.com

dogsnuggies.com/red-snuggie will redirect to staccsiscool.com/red-snuggie

 

[avatar33]

If you 301 the entire domain, the pages will automatically redirect to the same path on the new domain.

i.e. 301 dogsnuggies.com to staccsiscool.com

dogsnuggies.com/red-snuggie will redirect to staccsiscool.com/red-snuggie

Are you sure about that?

I just did a 301 in HostGator's cPanel (Domain Redirects) from old domain to new domain and so far it's just the homepage that redirects properly. The internal pages don't.

 

[Staccs]

Are you sure about that?

I just did a 301 in HostGator's cPanel (Domain Redirects) from old domain to new domain and so far it's just the homepage that redirects properly. The internal pages don't.