How to Change the URL of Your WordPress Installation

You may have heard that Google is changing how it displays local business results in search. The goal is to reduce search engine bias, so it will show business listings based on the actual location of the business, rather than the area where you are searching (usually determined by the IP addresses of your device and the location of the search engine). For example, if you are in San Francisco and you search for a local business name, you may see listings for businesses in the Bay Area or in the city of San Francisco, rather than all the businesses that are actually located in the city you entered (assuming they have an online presence and use the Google search engine to promote themselves).

If you are a local business that wants your business to be displayed more on the internet for potential customers in your local area, you may want to consider changing the URL of your WordPress installation so that it reflects your new location.

You can do this by changing the ‘public URL’ of your WordPress installation via the dashboard. The public URL is the address of your website, usually referred to as the ‘domain name’, which you can find by going to “www.yourdomainname.com” and entering your website’s “username” and “password” when prompted (if you have set up an account).

You will notice that after you change this information via the dashboard, your website does not automatically update when you visit the homepage. You will have to visit the “Settings” page and change the site’s “Base URL” there. This option will tell Google that the new “Base URL” of your site is located at “www.yourdomainname.com/your-new-location”. Once you have changed this information you should be able to see your site at the new URL when you visit the homepage.

Changing The Domain Name Of Your WordPress Installation

The first step to changing the URL of your WordPress installation is to log in to your dashboard and click on “Settings”. Once you have logged in you will see the “General Settings” page. On this page you can change the name of your domain.

The name you enter here will be associated with your WordPress site and it will show up in your browser’s address bar when you visit the site (e.g., “yourname.wordpress.com”). When someone clicks on a link to your site, the name will be passed along with the link and the person who clicked on it will be taken to your WordPress site. So, as you can imagine, if you want your business to be found online when people are searching for businesses in your area, you may want to consider changing your domain’s name.

Changing The URL of Your WordPress Installation via the Dashboard

Once you have changed the name of your domain, you can go to the “URL Settings” page. Here you will choose the new URL for your WordPress site. For example, if you want to change the URL from “yourname.wordpress.com” to “yourbusinesslocation.com”, you will click on the “Use This Same URL” button. A dialog will then pop up asking you to enter the new URL. You can then click on the “Insert Into Textbox” button and paste in your new URL (e.g., “yourbusinesslocation.com”) or press “Enter” to continue.

As mentioned above, if you enter the wrong URL here, you will not be able to access your WordPress site. So double check your work before continuing. When you are sure that everything is correct you can click on the “Save Changes” button to make your change.

Visit The Site To Make Sure That Everything Has Changed

Now that you have changed the URL of your WordPress site, you should be able to access it at the new address. To make sure that everything has changed and that there are no errors, you can log in to your dashboard and click on “Appearance”. There you will see a “Site Identity” section in the left nav. If you scroll down this area you will see the “Base URL” and “Domain Name” fields that you changed earlier. Make sure that these two items are identical to the values that you entered. If everything is okay, you can click on the “Save Changes” button to save your settings.

Cleaning Up Your WordPress Blog

After you have changed the URL of your WordPress site, you will want to clean up the blog that you created in the previous step. To do this, log in to your dashboard and click on “Settings”. On this page click on “Advanced Settings”. Here you can find, edit, and delete all of the blog posts that you have created. Make sure that you always test out new blog posts before publishing them to avoid any errors. If you are struggling with any aspect of blogging, this is the place to learn

Changing the URL of your WordPress installation is something that you should do at least once a month to ensure that your new location is always reflected online. Doing this often can help improve your business’ location rating on the internet and, therefore, may help improve your sales.