Objective

During the lifetime of your website, you may need to change the domain name used to access it.
The most common use case is a change of company name.

The aim of this tutorial is to explain the main steps you need to follow when you want to change the domain name of your website.

This guide explains how to change the domain name of an existing website.

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Requirements

• A domain name
• An OVHcloud web hosting plan

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OVHcloud Control Panel Access

• Direct link: Web hosting
• Navigation path: Web Cloud > Hosting plans > Select your web hosting plan

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Instructions

To change the access domain name for your website, there are several steps to follow in a specific order.

Step 1: Declare the new domain on your hosting

Declare your new domain name using our documentation on adding a website to your web hosting. Also declare its www subdomain to display your website as www.NewDomain.tld as well as NewDomain.tld.

There are several conditions to meet for this part:

• Your new domain must point to the same root folder as the domain currently used to access your site.
• Check that your new domain points to the IP address of your web hosting plan. To retrieve the IP address, log in to your OVHcloud Control Panel, go to the Web Cloud section, click on Hosting plans, select your service, then retrieve the IPv4 in the General information tab.

SSL certificates

If the original domain used to access your website has an SSL certificate, please refer to our 2 guides:

• Managing an SSL certificate on a Web Hosting plan
• Activating HTTPS on your website with an SSL certificate

If all actions have been correctly performed, the declarations of your domain names should be strictly identical unless you are using a paid SSL certificate of type Sectigo DV, Sectigo EV, or custom.

If your website does not use databases and/or you do not rewrite URLs for your website, your website must already display correctly with your new domain. In this case, go directly to step 3 of this guide. If not, continue to step 2 below.

Step 2: Rewrite URLs of your website with the new domain

Most sites use databases to operate. The tree structure for these nodes is generally built around the domain originally used for your website. Additional actions are required for these sites.

We will distinguish two types of website:

• CMSs (Content Management System) such as WordPress, Joomla!, PrestaShop, Drupal
• Classic websites designed by you or your service provider

Case 1: Your website is a CMS

Most CMSs can directly replace the domain originally declared for your website with another one via their backend administration panel.

Since CMSs are developed by third-party organisations and are not managed by OVHcloud, you will find below links to the official documentation for the various CMSs offered for installation on our hosting plans:

• WordPress: https://wordpress.org/support/article/changing-the-site-url/
• Joomla!: The publisher of this software does not offer any documentation to date for changing the access domain for your website. Please contact the publisher directly on this subject. For more information, visit the official pages docs.joomla.org or forum.joomla.org.
• Drupal: The publisher of this software does not offer any documentation to date for changing the access domain for your website. Please contact the publisher directly on this subject. For more information, see the official page drupal.org.
• PrestaShop: The publisher of this software does not offer any documentation to date for changing the access domain for your website. Please contact the publisher directly on this subject. For more information, click here to go to their official page.

Please note that for these CMSs, you can also edit the domain names directly in the corresponding database. You will need to change the URL for accessing your website in the table used for your CMS.

For other CMSs that are not offered for automatic installation by OVHcloud, please also contact their respective customer support to carry out this rewrite in a secure manner.

Case 2: You have a custom built website

To rewrite your URLs with your new domain, log in to your website database then replace your old domain with the new one in the corresponding table.

Don't forget to check your .htaccess file to see if you need to update URL rewrites with your new domain.

If you used a service provider to create your website, contact them so that they can carry out the modification securely.

Step 3: Remove the old domain name

To avoid "duplicate content" once your new domain name is fully operational with your website, you will need to remove the declaration of your old domain name on your website using the guide on managing websites on your web hosting.

Once your old domain name is dissociated from your website on your web hosting and if it is registered with OVHcloud, you can redirect it using a permanent visible 301 redirect. This will allow your visitors to be automatically redirected to your website while seeing your new domain name / URL in the address bar of their browser.

Go further

Hosting multiple websites on your Web Hosting plan

Managing an SSL certificate on a Web Hosting plan

Activating HTTPS on your website with an SSL certificate

Redirecting a domain name

IP address list for Web Hosting clusters

For specialised services (SEO, development, etc.), contact OVHcloud partners.

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