Changing domain names is something you really need to think about. First note that you can own as many domain names as you want to own. These days, domain names are relatively inexpensive. For example, you could easily own ten domain names for around a hundred dollars. Of course, this means that each year, you will need to pay an additional hundred dollars to keep those domain names in your possession.

If you are considering changing your domain name, use caution. This may make it difficult for others to find you. The ideal way to change a domain name is to keep the old domain name, and purchase the new one that you desire. Then, simply use forwarding features available through your Web Host to forward the old domain to the new one. This way, whenever someone types in your old domain name, they instantly arrive at the new domain.

When you change a domain name, changes must be made to thousands of DNS servers around the world. DNS stands for Domain Name System, and this is how domain names are mapped to IP addresses. When one computer communicates with another, they find the computer that they want to communicate with by the IP number associated with the domain name – not by the domain name alone. When your domain name changes, your IP address changes as well. Of course it is possible for one domain name to have multiple IP addresses, just as it is possible to have multiple domain names for one IP address.

Also note that an IP address does not stay the same for domain names that are sold to different people. For example, if you purchased the www.google.com domain, it would not have the same IP address that it does today, unless you purchased Google, the company. What this means is that when a domain name that has been used before becomes available again, the IP address that was associated with it is no longer associated with it. A new IP address is assigned.

You could opt to keep your current IP address, and change the domain name, but the result would be the same as if you purchased a new domain name, with a new IP address, in most cases. According to the DNS servers, the domain name and the IP address are no longer a matching pair. You see, when you purchase a previously used domain name, and the IP address changes for that domain name, the DNS servers around the world are not instantly updated with this new information.

Caching becomes a problem. Caching refers to a computer making a copy of a file for faster viewing the next time the file is requested. Just as webpages are cached on your computer for easier and faster load times, domain names paired with IP addresses are also cached on DNS servers, with the assumption that the matching pair won’t change very often, if at all. It typically takes anywhere from 24 hours to 48 hours for the caching to stop, and for the new pair to be recognized.

What this means to you is that if you are moving your website to a new domain name, it is best to keep the old domain  with the webpages intact for at least two or three days until the new domain name has had time to propagate. At that point, you could start advertising the new domain name, and even forward visitors from the old domain to the new domain name, with the confidence that your visitors will arrive where you expected them to.

Take your time and really think about the pros and cons before changing domain names. It’s always best to just keep your domain name to at least redirect your visitors to your new domain name.