How to move the site to a new hosting

Transferring your website from one hosting service to another is an important stage in the life of your online project. It may be necessary for a variety of reasons, whether it is to improve the quality of the hosting provider, more favorable conditions, or even change the domain name.

Preparing to migrate your website

Here are the key points you should consider to properly migrate your website.

How to make backups

Before you do anything, you need to make backups of your entire site. You need to use a panel to manage your hosting or a specialized tool to make full copies.

How to choose hosting: key parameters and recommendations

Transferring your site takes a lot of time, so choose a new hosting provider.

Consider the following key parameters:

1. Server performance: make sure the new hosting provides adequate server performance for your site.
2. Technical support: check to see how responsive and quality technical support is. You want to make sure you have a team of experts ready to help in case of problems.
3. Price and services: pay attention to the fee as well as additional services.

Preparation: what you need to prepare, checklist

If your website is perfectly designed for the search engine, prepare a checklist and take into account the following aspects so that you can migrate the site without problems in the future:

1. Record the current positions of key queries: record the current positions of key queries in search engines. This will help you keep track of changes.
2. Backup SEO settings and metadata: you should backup your existing SEO settings, metadata and other settings that may affect the search visibility of your website.
3. Prepare a plan for URL changes: if the URLs of the page have changed, develop a redirect plan that takes into account the logic and structure of the new site.

How to move the site

Now let's move on to the process itself. This step can be divided into several subparagraphs.

Removing the domain from the old hosting

Before transferring, you need to remove the domain name. This is done through the control panel. Don't forget to disable all DNS related records that pertain to this domain name.

Adding a domain on the new hosting

Add the domain name you intend to use. Configure the DNS records so that they point to the actual host server. Do using the new provider's host control panel.

Transferring your site files

Copy all your website files from your current hosting to the new one. To do this, you can use FTP, SFTP or use the file management panel provided by your new provider.

Database migration

Create copies of the database on the non-current hosting. This is usually done using the control panel or using the phpMyAdmin utility. Then import this copy of the database to the new hosting. Check that the database connection parameters in the CMS configuration file are configured correctly. It will be even easier for you to migrate the site in the future.

Replacing links

If you change the domain name, then do not forget to change all the links in the content and settings of the site. To do this, you can use search and replace in the database or specialized plugins if you use a CMS such as WordPress.

Setting up 301 redirects

In order not to lose search indexing and eliminate the appearance of various errors on old URLs, set up 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones. This can be done using server settings or in the .htaccess file.

Migration of e-mail accounts

If you have email accounts on your old hosting, migrate them to the new one. This is important so that your employees and customers can continue to use their work e-mail addresses without interruption.

Update the CMS configuration files

Now make sure that all CMS configuration files reflect the new hosting and database settings. This may include updating database connection settings, domain settings, and other settings specific to your CMS.

DNS server change and domain transfer

In order to keep your hosting current, change your DNS servers so that your domain name is up to date. This means that your domain will point to the new hosting's servers. Keep in mind that this may take some time for the DNS records to update and your project to become active from the actual hosting.

Changing the domain's NS record and "pointing" it to new hosting

The next one of the important steps is to edit the DNS records of the domain. This will "send" the domain to the actual hosting. You will need to visit your control panel and edit the DNS records by entering the actual DNS servers of the actual hosting providers.

It may take some time as DNS records can spread all over the internet. So be patient and check periodically to make sure the changes have started to take effect. The site migration should go smoothly if you follow all the instructions.

After the migration.

Make sure all features are working correctly and there are no broken links or errors. Monitor traffic and site performance in the days following the migration to respond quickly to any issues.

Dealing with and resolving potential problems

If problems arise, don't panic. Use the backup you created in step one. This will give you the opportunity to go back and revisit the migration process.

Key points when migrating your website

This is quite one of the crucial steps that requires careful preparation and precision in execution. Make sure you follow the instructions and have backups in case of unexpected complications. After a successful migration, your project should be active on an up-to-date hosting and you should be able to continue developing your project without interruptions.

The guide helps you to migrate your website to another hosting without any problems. You need to follow all the steps that are mentioned and your site will remain reliable and accessible to your visitors. Every customer of your product should not face problems while interacting with your project. Don't forget to thoroughly test and monitor after the migration to ensure that your online project runs smoothly.

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