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3 ways to change WordPress URL
Would you like to change your WordPress URL? We explain how to change your website’s URL and private address and the difference between these two URLs.
Important: You need to back up your files, database or even better, a backup of your entire site beforehand.
If you want to change your site from HTTP to HTTPS with an SSL certificate, you, unfortunately, make a mistake here. But we also have the correct answers for you – here you can find our article on converting your WordPress site to HTTPS.
What is the difference between SiteURL and Home-URL?
Your home URL is the URL of your site. Your site users type this into the browser address bar to access your WordPress site. The start URL is also called the blog URL.
SiteURL, on the other hand, is only of interest to you and your staff. There you will find your WordPress dashboard with all plugins, themes, additional features, settings and location of your files.
That’s why, it is often referred to as the WordPress URL. Generally, the two addresses are identical.
Why do we need to change my WordPress URL?
As we said, the WordPress URL is only interesting for you and your employees. Your home URL is more important for your external presentation.
Therefore, the URL should be planned as long as possible, as your users, website, or blog may no longer find it at a new address.
Nevertheless, there are reasons to change your URL. Among others, if you want to move your site or domain from one hosting provider to another or create subdomains.
Or if you are lucky enough to accept a financially enticing offer from someone who wants to use your URL themselves.
The latest version is indeed improbable. However, we will show you how to change the URL of your WordPress site.
Change WordPress URL – Here’s how it works!
As is often the case, WordPress offers you several ways to change the URL of your WordPress site and create a new address on the web. Now we’ll introduce you to 3 methods you can use to change your WordPress URL:
- In the WordPress dashboard
- In the wp-config.php file
- In the database
Here we explain in detail how to change your WordPress URL. Let’s get started.
1. in the WordPress dashboard
This variant is the easiest way to change the URL of your WordPress site—select “Settings” and “General” in the WordPress dashboard.
Here you will see your current URLs and can easily change them. Enter your new URLs in the two columns, save the changes and your new domain is entered.
If you have reserved an SSL certificate, enter the domain with “HTTPS”. 2.
2. in your wp-config.php file
You can also change your domain directly in your wp-config.php file. You don’t even need PHP programming skills to do this.
You will find the PHP file in the main directory of your WordPress installation. Open the file and enter the following commands:
define (‘WP_SITEURL’, ‘http://www.neue-Adresse.de’);
define (‘WP_HOME’, ‘http://www.neue-Adresse.de’);
Replace “new-address.com” with your new domain. If you are already using an SSL certificate, enter “HTTPS” instead of “HTTP”.
Now save the PHP file, and you will have access to your WordPress site via the new domain. 3.
3. in the database
As a third option, you can also change your URL directly in your WordPress site database. To do this, you will need to access your phpMyAdmin site.
You can also often access phpMyAdmin through your hosting provider. If you can’t find it, contact your hosting provider’s support. When you are logged in, see the table “wp_options”.
Open it and search for the website URL in “option_name”. Then select “edit” and enter your new URL in the column “option_value”.
Repeat this process after saving with the start URL. Your new domain is now stored in the database. Full.
Tip:
Changing the WordPress URL may cause the links or shortcuts associated with your website to stop working correctly.
So you need to clear your WordPress site’s cache in the settings and adjust links or URLs. This includes permalinks.
To change these, select “Settings” and “Permalinks” in the panel and save them again.
To adjust all other links, you need the plugin “Best Search Substitution“. It acts as a “replace” function in Word.
After installation, select the plugin in the dashboard via Tools, enter which string to replace, and specify with which text it should be replaced.
This way, you can rearrange all the links at once and save yourself manual work. Enter the new domain on your website as the new text.
Our conclusion on changing the WordPress URL:
You should not change your WordPress address or domain more often than necessary. If you still want to change your WordPress URL, WordPress offers you options via the control panel, the wp-config.php file and the database.
What you choose is up to you. We hope you enjoy your new domain.
How can we help you?
Do you have further questions about changing your WordPress URL, or do you need our WordPress support? Then 24HWP is the right place for you.
As a WordPress agency, we are experts in WordPress programming and offer our services and support to end-users and creative agencies and designers.
Contact us, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.