How to Transfer My WordPress Blog to a New Domain?

Lanna — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:47:13 +0000

I’ve just successfully transferred my old WordPress blog which is in the subdomain of /blog/ to a new domain (the current domain). This was done within the same host.

First I used FTP to back up my old WordPress blog files to my laptop.

Second I upgraded my old WordPress 2.6.1 to be the newest version WordPress 2.6.5.

Third I logged in to my host’s cPanel/phpMyAdmin to export my old WordPress blog’s database to my laptop. See WordPress Backup with phpMyAdmin here.

Next I created a new folder named wp for the new domain. I then created a robots.txt in wp folder with the following contents:
User-agent: * Disallow: /
This is to prevent any search engines to crawl my site before it is ready.

Next I created a new database in my host cPanel for this new domain. See WordPress Tutorial: Setting Up A MySQL Database With cPanel here.

Next I typed the url of my website in my browse to run the install and input the information I’v got from the last step to finish the installation.

Then I edited wp-config.php file which should be in your root directory and changed the high-lighted parts with the information I’ve got earlier.

define('DB_NAME', 'databasename'); // Change the high-lighted part to be your database name define('DB_USER', 'mysqlusername'); // Change the high-lighted part to be your MySQL username define('DB_PASSWORD', 'mysqlpassword'); // Change the high-lighted part to be your password define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value.

Next I used FTP to upload all my old WordPress blog’s files to public_html/wp folder.

Then I imported my old database to replace the new one I’ve created eariler. (if your database name, mysql username, and mysql password are the same as the old one, then you don’t need to do anything otherwise you have to change them before you can import it.)

Then I logged in to my WordPress admin area and used Search and Replace plugin to search all my old WordPress urls in database to be replaced with my new urls.

Then I double checked my website to see whether everything was working properly. After that I deleted the robots.txt file.

Finally I added the following line in my old blog’s .htaccess file right after RewriteEngine On, see below
RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourdomainname.com/$1 [R=301,L]

You must change yourdomainname to be your actual domain name. Adding this line in my old blog’s .htaccess will ensure that all my old blog’s traffic will be redirected to my new blog with every single post I’ve created.

Any questions? or suggestions? Please share them with us.

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How to Transfer Your WordPress Blog to a New Host?

Lanna — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:42:03 +0000

I’ve just successfully transferred this WordPress blog (version WordPress 2.6.1) to a new host – hostmonster.com. The reason I wanted to switch to hostmonster.com is that not only it provides reasonable price but also offers unlimited hosting space, unlimited site bandwidth, and hosting unlimited domains. With $5.95/month, you can get as many as 100 SQL (Structured Query Language) databases. This is really a good deal in comparison to my previous host which only offered 1 SQL database with $9.95/month.

However transferring your WordPress blog/website to a new host is not an easy job; especially if you are new to this realm. If one day for any reason you decide to transfer your current WordPress blog/website to a new host, these are the steps I make them as smooth as they could be for you:

First find a host that meets all your needs.

Second use FTP to backup your WordPress files to your computer or laptop.

Third backup (export) your WordPRess database to your computer or laptop using phpMyAdmin in your current host’s cPanel. Check WordPress Backup with phpMyAdmin out for more details.

Next use FTP to upload your WordPress files that you’ve backed up earlier to your new host’s root directory or any directory you prefer.

Next create a new database using either MySQL ® Databases or MySQL ® Database Wizard in your new host’s cPanel. See WordPress Tutorial: Setting Up A MySQL Database With cPanel for more details.

Next change the information about your database or the absolute path before uploading (importing) it to your new host. Make sure you choose binary from Character set of the file otherwise some punctuation like apostrophe will not show properly. See the screenshot below:

Then download your wp_config.php file, which should be in your root directory, to your computer or laptop; edit the following lines and then upload it back to the same directory:

define('DB_NAME', 'databasename'); // Change database name to be your actual database name define('DB_USER', 'mysqlusername'); // Change mysql username to be your MySQL username define('DB_PASSWORD', 'mysqlpassword'); // Change mysql password to be your actual password define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); // 99% chance you won't need to change this value.

Finally point your domain to your new host’s name servers. In my case, they look like these: ns1.hostmonster.com and ns2.hostmonster.com. If you are not sure then you can ask your current host to have that done for you. Please be aware that DNS (Domain Name System) takes 24 to 48 hours to be completed due to DNS’ propagation.

Once you find out that everything is working properly, inform your current host to cancel your account. That is it. Any questions please ask in the comment section.