Can I change my domain name without having to make switches?

Question

Can I simply change my domain name without having to cancel it, register a new one, and re-build my website? If so, how?

Answer 1

A domain name is simply a name you give to your website (e.g. google.com is the name of Google's search engine). It is not the content itself.

Therefore, if you want a new domain name for your existing website, just register your desired domain name. Then, configure the nameservers to point it towards your web host where your current website is hosted.

Alternatively, you can forward the domain towards your website.

As for your previous domain name, you can keep it as a add on domain name that still points to your website. Or you can park it or sell it off to someone who wants it.

I'm assuming that your current domain name is a TLD (e.g.. yourname.com. yourname.net, yourname.info, etc. ).

Answer 2

Fo sho! did you use yahoo site builder? or what?

Answer 3

A domain name just points to an actual web address. It all depends on where the website is hosted on how easy it is to change the domain name. At a minimum you can set up a dummy web page that will transfer to the old site. I still have one from an ISP I had two years ago that will transfer to my Geocities site.

ɦəlʞɹɐq

Answer 4

you need to register new one....bluehost webhosting is the best one

http://www.bluehost.com/track/bluehostwe...

Answer 5

No, you can't just change your domain name.  You need to see if the new domain name you want is available and, if so, register it.  

However, you won't need to rebuild the site. Once you set up a host account for the new domain name, you can simply transfer the site there (how you do this will depend on the software you use to create and maintain your site).

If you're going to use the same webhost service, check with it to see if they can use the Apache URL Redirect directive to permanently "301" redirect each of your old files to their corresponding new locations. (simply put, check to see if your host server can do all the techie stuff).

Of course I don't have to add: BE CAREFUL!

Be sure you make a backup of all of your Web site files, databases, scripts and email messages. You will need to republish all of these files after the name change is completed.

Or, you can set up a domain name "alias" which allows additional domain names to all lead to the exact same locations on your original website." You can check with your ISP for detail on their procedures for doing this.

However, there are a few other things you need to consider, such as:

** how will people who liked the 'old' site know where to find you (you'll need some way of re-directing traffic to the new domain) ...

** will your e-mail address change (if you use [e-mail]) ...

** are there many links to your domain on other sites (you'll need to redirect traffic or contact all these sites and have them change your URL).  

** if you have built up your search engine standings, you'll need to make sure they aren't affected (redirects help)

WHEW!   Are you SURE you want to change names?

Good luck!