Swapping Domains for Better Branding

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Switching from one domain name to another is not all that easy, but worth the effort.

Switching domains was relatively pain free, with a couple of exceptions. Apparently, I just could not find the correct incantation for 301 redirecting via .htaccess at the old domain; however, after bashing my head on it for over an hour, it was easily fixed via my webhost’s control panel anyway. Then I had up update a hostname within WordPress to reconnect to the existing database which was only made apparent by the website NOT coming up online after the switch. Changing Google Webmaster Console/Analytics was trivial, and apparently I did not have to rebuild store inventory since connecting was just a matter of re-syncing via API (a nice surprise). I’m in the process of updating email addresses, and logins, but that is nothing major to worry about.

A few things about this process:

1. Yeah, it’s a weekend project since I am taking my time about it, but the majority of it switched over just fine. There was some manual changing of the domain within actual pages and blog-posts, but that is easily cleaned up one at a time.
2. The switch is NEVER as simple as “we do the heavy lifting for you, and everything is fine,” no matter what your webhost claims.
3. WordPress exposes you to EVERYTHING that gets hidden away from you on Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, Shopify, etc. That has its own pros and cons, but after finally figuring out what was causing the backend to choke on itself and fixing it, the website is much more responsive on the backend and does not drown in PHP-FPM processes. Seems a lot of server RAM hovers around 700MB at night, but 125MB during the day, but never gets tied up at 75MB or less and stuck until it all comes to a screeching halt.

All of this might sound much more impressive than it actually is, but it isn’t. I still can’t code, but I can at least follow basic instructions and cut and paste as necessary. Conjuring up 301 re-direction incantations in a dot-file is some next level logician-ship that may as well be me trying to translate Sumerian cuneiform tablets to English in order to speak Russian, in French…

It took a few years, but I finally exist as my name online, and will use adrianfeliciano.com as my primary branding and personal hub. Everything else will be tied to it.