Move wordpress site to new domain manually

A brave endeavor! Moving a WordPress site to a new domain manually requires some technical expertise, but I'll guide you through the process. Please note that this is a general outline, and you may need to adapt it to your specific situation.

Before you start:

  1. Backup your site: Create a complete backup of your WordPress site, including the database and files, using a plugin like UpdraftPlus or Duplicator.
  2. Update your DNS: Update your domain's DNS settings to point to the new domain. This may take some time to propagate.
  3. Verify your new domain: Ensure your new domain is registered and verified with your registrar.

Step 1: Update WordPress configuration

  1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard and go to Settings > General.
  2. Update the WordPress Address and Site Address fields to reflect the new domain. For example, if your old domain was oldsite.com and your new domain is newsite.com, update the fields to https://newsite.com and https://newsite.com, respectively.
  3. Click Save Changes.

Step 2: Update database

  1. Use a tool like phpMyAdmin or a database management plugin to access your WordPress database.

  2. Update the site_url and home_url fields in the wp_options table to reflect the new domain. You can use the following SQL queries:

    UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = 'https://newsite.com' WHERE option_name = 'site_url';
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = 'https://newsite.com' WHERE option_name = 'home_url';

  3. Update the url field in the wp_posts table to reflect the new domain. You can use the following SQL query:

    UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, 'oldsite.com', 'newsite.com');

    Step 3: Update file paths

  4. Update the wp-config.php file to reflect the new domain. You can do this by adding the following lines at the top of the file:

    define('WP_HOME', 'https://newsite.com');
define('WP_SITEURL', 'https://newsite.com');

  5. Update the wp-content/uploads directory to reflect the new domain. You can do this by renaming the directory to newsite.com and updating the wp-config.php file to reflect the new directory path.

Step 4: Update plugins and themes

  1. Update any plugins and themes that reference the old domain. You can do this by searching for occurrences of the old domain in the plugin and theme files and updating them to reflect the new domain.

Step 5: Update DNS and verify

  1. Update your DNS settings to point to the new domain.
  2. Verify that your new domain is working correctly by accessing your site and checking that all links and images are loading correctly.

Step 6: Update search engine listings

  1. Update your site's search engine listings (e.g., Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools) to reflect the new domain.

Step 7: Monitor and test

  1. Monitor your site's performance and functionality to ensure everything is working correctly.
  2. Test your site's links, images, and other elements to ensure they are loading correctly.

By following these steps, you should be able to manually move your WordPress site to a new domain. Remember to be patient and thorough, as this process can be time-consuming and requires attention to detail.