Moving to a dot com domain

Have a look at your browser’s address bar – your sight is just fine. You actually are on orenyomtov.com as opposed to this morning, when this website lived under the .info TLD.

It has been quite a long time since I made the decision to move to the new domain. But there were two drawbacks which delayed the domain transfer. The first one is lack of time, and the second one is… Well, my laziness.

Anyways, I thought I would share some of the steps I took in order to move the website to the new domain. I was lucky enough that I didn’t have to change hosts. Doing that may have required some additional steps.

1. I bought the new domain and linked it to my hosting.
2. I downloaded the latest WordPress installation and uploaded it into the new domain by FTP (Looking for an FTP client?).
3. I copied the wp-content folder. And in my case, the “downloads” folder which is the folder I chose to store the uploads in (Default is wp-content/uploads).
4. I also copied the wp-config.php file and the .htaccess file.
5. I used the Search and Replace WordPress plugin to replace “orenyomtov.info” with “orenyomtov.com” in the database.
6. I notified Google of the domain change in Google Webmaster Tools.
7. I exported a new sitemap using the Google XML Sitemap Generator plugin and submitted it to Google Webmaster Tools.
8. I opened a new Google Analytics account and deployed the new tracking code in the theme I copied in step 3.
9. I edited the old .htaccess file to contain only:
   RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule (.*) http://orenyomtov.com/$1 [R=301,L]
10. I updated my FeedBurner account and all other similar services.
11. I updated my website to the new URL in all of my favorite social platforms (@orenyomtov) and forums.
12. Twit twit.
13. And then I began writing this post.

The move didn’t take as long as I expected it to take. Even though it does seem a little complicated after writing it all down.

I hope that your move will be as smooth as mine. Good luck, Oren.