9 Easy Steps To WP-CLI Change Site URL

Moving from staging to live? Switching hosts? Launching a rebrand? Using WP-CLI makes the URL change quick and clean.

But it’s not enough to just use the WP-CLI change site URL commands to migrate your WordPress site. Your old URLs hide in places like the posts, widgets and plugin settings. If you miss any of those embedded old URLs, you’ll have mixed content issues. 

We’ve fixed countless botched migrations. The same mistakes happen over and over. This guide covers the complete workflow. From URL changes to replacing the old URLs, we’ve got your back.

TL;DR: Before you change your URL with WP-CLI, take a full backup using a WordPress backup plugin. Connect to your server and navigate to your WordPress root. Run the following commands in order:

wp option update siteurl ‘https://yournewdomain.com’
wp option update home ‘https://yournewdomain.com’

There could be a wide variety of reasons why you are looking to change your site URL using WP-CLi. Are you migrating to a new domain  that you recently bought or maybe you’re moving from staging to live. Either way, it’s important to handle the migration carefully to avoid losing traffic.  

Prerequisites for the WP-CLI change site URL

These steps aren’t suggestions. They’re requirements. Skip any of these and your URL change will either fail completely or create bigger problems than you started with. 

• Take a full backup: You can take a WP-CLI backup or use a WordPress backup plugin like BlogVault. Make sure to backup all your site files and your database tables. This lets you restore your site if things go wrong.
• SSH access: Confirm you have SSH access to your server. Most hosting providers include this in cPanel or their dashboard. You should have the right credentials too (username, password and IP address)
• Valid domain: If you haven’t already, purchase and configure your new domain completely. Buy the domain from your registrar, then update DNS settings to point it to your hosting server’s IP address. 
• Valid SSL certificate (If required): If you’re moving from HTTP to HTTPS, install a valid SSL certificate on the new domain.  Most hosts offer free Let’s Encrypt certificates through their control panels. Get HTTPS working on your new domain before changing WordPress URLs. 

Note: These instructions work on Mac and Linux systems. Windows users need a few adjustments – use Command Prompt or PowerShell instead of Terminal, and you might need an SSH client like PuTTY to connect to your server. The WP-CLI commands themselves stay exactly the same once you’re connected.

Using WP-CLI change site URL

The whole process boils down to three commands that will update the core WordPress options first, and replace the URL references. This reduces migration failures. 

1. Connect to Your Server via SSH: Use the SSH credentials in the following command:

ssh username@server-ip

Type your password when prompted.

2. Navigate to Your WordPress Directory: Move to your WordPress root folder:

cd public_html

Some hosts use different folder names like www or httpdocs. Use ls to list directories if you’re unsure.

3. Check Your Current Site URL: See what URLs WordPress is currently using:

wp option get siteurl
wp option get home

Write these down. You’ll need them if something goes wrong and you need to revert.

4. Change the Site URL: Update WordPress to use your new domain:

wp option update siteurl 'https://yournewdomain.com'
wp option update home 'https://yournewdomain.com'

Replace yournewdomain.com with your actual new domain. Include https:// if you’re using SSL.

5. Setup 301 Redirects: Add redirect rules to send old traffic to your new domain:

wp eval 'file_put_contents(ABSPATH.".htaccess", "RewriteEngine On\nRewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^oldsite\.com$ [NC]\nRewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://newsite.com/$1 [L,R=301]\n", FILE_APPEND);'

Change oldsite.com to your old domain and newsite.com to your new one. This works on Apache servers with .htaccess support.

6. Search and replace old URLs: Run the WP-CLi search replace command to update all mentions of the old URL on your database.

wp search-replace 'http://oldsite.com' 'https://newsite.com' --skip-columns=guid

The –skip-columns=guid flag prevents breaking WordPress’s internal post identification system. Always include this flag.

7. Flush Permalinks: Regenerate your site’s URL structure:

wp rewrite flush

This ensures all your pages and posts load correctly with the new domain.

8. Confirm the Change: Verify your new URLs are active:

wp option get siteurl
wp option get home

Both commands should return your new domain. If they don’t, something went wrong.

9. Clear Cache: Remove any cached versions of your old URLs:

wp cache flush

This clears WordPress’s built-in cache. You may also need to clear caching plugins separately.

Alternative Methods to WP-CLI Change Site URL

WP-CLI isn’t always an option. Some shared hosts don’t support it, or you might be working with a client who only has basic cPanel access. Here are some other options:

Option 1: Using Plugins

Better Search Replace is the safest plugin option for URL changes. Install it from your WordPress admin, go to Tools > Better Search Replace, and enter your old and new URLs. Run it with “Dry Run” checked first to preview changes.

The plugin handles serialized data automatically, which is where manual find-and-replace methods usually break. It’s slower than WP-CLI but much safer than editing your database directly.

Option 2: Manual Database Update

Edit the wp_options table only if you’re comfortable with WordPress databases. Log into phpMyAdmin, find your WordPress database, and open the wp_options table. Look for rows where option_name equals “siteurl” and “home,” then update the option_value to your new URL.

⚠️Warning ⚠️

This method is risky. One typo can break your entire site. Always backup your database first. If you’re not confident working in phpMyAdmin, use a plugin instead.

Option 3: wp-config.php Override

Add these lines to your wp-config.php file to force WordPress to use new URLs:

define('WP_HOME', 'https://newdomain.com');
define('WP_SITEURL', 'https://newdomain.com');

Place these lines above the “That’s all, stop editing” comment. 

🔔 Expert Advice 🔔

This method overrides whatever URLs are stored in your database. It’s useful for emergency access when your admin is broken, but remember to update your actual database URLs later and remove these lines.

Final Thoughts

Changing your site URL is serious business. We’ve seen too many migrations turn into multi-day recovery projects because someone rushed through the process or skipped the backup step. That’s why we recommend that you take a full backup first. 

However, you should know that the WP-CLI method we’ve covered here works reliably when you follow the steps in order. We’ve used this process on hundreds of migrations. Work carefully through each step.

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