How difficult/complex and risky is it to change the domain name?
I have bought two domain names for my community website. I started building the community with domain #1, and everything is almost done. (Preparing for soft launch!) But I occasionally think that the domain #2 'might' be the better option! (Haven't made up my mind yet.)
But if at all, I think to switch the domain from #1 to #2, how difficult/complex and risky is it to change the domain name of the community site that's nearly 90% completed!??! I'm just curious to know.
Thank you in advance! <3
— An overthinker
You could just finish building out and launching with #1, and add a domain redirect for #2 to point to #1 and only give people the name of domain #2, cause when they type that into their browser it will send them to #1.
I've got a few different domain's that I own (rent yearly), that are set to redirect in my Cloudflare account to my Community, and it's working just fine for me.
David Fore Wow! This is so helpful. Tbh, I did once think of the redirect thing, but not in this strategic manner, as a complete solution. Your comment just sparked that idea!
And as a side note, I believe that's how Twitter was moved to X.
Thank you so much for your helpful suggestion, David. Much appreciated! 💚✨
The GS Your Welcome. 😁
Disclaimer: This is from memory and I'm old so I may be leaving some stuff out. Hopefully this is helpful info.
I did this and don't recall any issues related to FC. I built my new FC site using a temp domain and then did a swap (old non FC site to new temp domain, new FC site to domain name of old existing site). My sites are hosted with xCloud so I did it using xCloud's rename process. That process failed initially which did force me to postpone the original cutover but once the issue with nginx was resolved, the actual WordPress change was fine. I do remember that I had to add some licenses back to some plugins. Unfortunately I don't recall which ones but I think it was only two or three. That new site has been running fine for about a month and a half with no issues.
Thomas Oates Thank you so much for sharing your experience, Thomas! I understand you may have to go through a bit of work, of course, but I'm glad to know it eventually worked out well.
It's really helpful — and I appreciate your help, as always! 💚✨