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Changing Your Website Domain Name

You may have a website that needs a new domain because, for example, you changed your organization name or you are using a new Internet branding strategy. This page describes some of the technical issues, as well as some of the issues with maintaining the search engine rankings of your old domain name.

Changing From One Domain Name to Another Domain Name

If you want to change your website address from one domain name to a new domain name, the following page provides some suggestions for doing this so that you don't lose your search engine rankings of the old domain name:

   http://www.highrankings.com/issue142.htm#guest

Changing Your Web Address from www.ihr.com/yourclinic to Your Own Domain Name

Some IHR clients who started many years ago, may wish to change their website address from:

www.ihr.com/yourclinic/

  to:

www.yourclinic.com

Here are the steps that we need to complete in order to make this move as smooth as possible.

1. IHR discusses your Domain Name options with you and registers your new Domain Name. (See Notes about DNS changes, below, for additional information.)
    
2. IHR then does the following:
   • a) creates a new section on our web server, uploads your current web pages to this new section, and tests the pages. These will be duplicate web pages of your current site. During this period it is best if the old site is not updated.
   • b) informs you of the duplicate pages in the new server section, and If you wish, you can review these pages to ensure they are OK.
   • c) sets up new web statistics report for www.yourclinic.com. You won't be able to use this until the www.yourclinic.com site is working on the Internet.
   • d) performs the following technical server changes (see Notes about DNS changes, below, for additional information) on IHR's server:
     • adds an entry into the NS1.SECURE.NET and NS1.SECURE.NET Name Servers to point to IHR's IP address where your web pages reside
     • adds an entry into a server configuration file
        
3. Depending on who registered the Domain Name, either IHR or the client updates the DNS by changing the authoritative Name Servers for yourclinic.com to point to IHR's Name Servers:
   
      NS1.SECURE.NET 
      NS1.SECURE.NET
    
4. Then we wait a few days for the DNS changes to propagate throughout the Internet. During this transition period:
   • You will have old and new websites operating in parallel.  After a few days, the new web address will change to www.yourclinic.com.
   • it's best if no updates are made to your old or new site, otherwise we'll have to update both the old and new sites, for each change.
      
5. After we're sure that the DNS change has propagated throughout the Internet, IHR adds a "redirect command" to the server, to make sure all users that attempt to go to:
   
          www.ihr.com/yourclinic/
   
   will automatically get redirected to:
   
          www.yourclinic.com
    
6. IHR then does the following:
   • changes your promotional links on any IHR web pages (e.g., Infertility Resources) to point to your new web address.
   • tests the web statistics report and provides you with access information.
      
7. If you request, IHR will set up FTP access for you, to allow you to update and upload your own web pages. IHR will then provide you with a UserName and password. For FTP information, refer to Uploading Files to the Web Server (on InfertilityWebsites.com).
    
8. You may want to consider updating the search engines and directories with your new web address (i.e., www.yourclinic.com).  If you wish, IHR will discuss this with you.

Notes about DNS changes:

• Technical issue:  There are two ways to change the DNS for your Domain Name:
  • Change the authoritative Name Server to IHR's Name Servers (e.g., NS1.SECURE.NET). This is the ideal way to make the DNS change as it provides us with the most control.
  • Keep the Name Server as is, but point your Domain Name "A record" IP address (used for web pages) to IHR's web server. This works OK, however is not ideal since it does not give us the most control over your Domain Name.  
     
• It's ideal if IHR has access to control your DNS (Domain Name Services), otherwise whomever controls your DNS may not feel inclined to assist.
   
• The process is simplest if you are not currently using email with your Domain Name.  If you are, then IHR will work with you to carefully ensure a smooth transition for your email.
   
• It is possible, and not uncommon, to have one server host the email and a different server host the website.  This is done as follows:
  • "A record" which is used for web page requests, is pointed to one server
  • "MX record" which is used for for email requests, is pointed to a different server
     

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