Moving to a new web hosting company is something you hope will never happen, but sometimes for various reasons you have no choice but to take your web site or hosted business application elsewhere.
The good news is the switch to a new web host does not have to be a painful experience with the proper planning and due diligence on your part. Here are some basic steps to make sure your hosting migration is a success.
#1. Identify the Issues and Assess Your Hosting Needs
Before you can even begin moving to a new web hosting provider you need to take a look at why you are looking to move, what current issues you are running into and what you need hosting wise that you are not currently receiving. Were you unhappy with the phone and email support you received? Make sure the new web host has a strength in tech support. Have you seen significant growth in web site traffic and need higher performance from your site? Make sure your new web host offers the option of moving to a dedicated server.
Another important thing is to think long term. If your company or business grows, will this new web host fit your needs? Are there additional features and requirements that may not be needed currently, but could be a factor in the future? Make sure the new company you choose has the ability to grow with you.
Before you start looking around at new web hosting companies make a list of everything you need or will need from a web hosting partner and use it in the selection process.
#2. Find a New Web Hosting Company (A Better One)
Now for the fun part; Actually finding a new home for your website. Doing the essential research to find the right company is incredibly important. Read web hosting forums, looking at trusted web hosting industry sites like The Whir and search around on Google and Yahoo to learn about different web hosting providers and their offerings. Ask friends and business acquaintances what companies they use or that they have heard good things about. Learn about other people’s experiences switching web hosts and what they would have done differently.
When you find a potential provider that meets your needs, give them a call, an email, or use their live chat feature. This is a great first test of their support service. If you are happy with the response time it will be a good indication of what to expect if you become a customer.
#3 Set Up a New Account and Upload Files
You’ve found the perfect web hosting company and signed up for an account, so what do you do now? Well the first thing you need to do is backup your website. To be honest you should have done this already and shame on you, but if not you need to download the most recent copy of the site to your desktop and upload to your new web host using an ftp client.
In order to minimize site downtime it is important to ask your web hosting company for a temporary URL or purchase a dedicated IP address so that you can upload the files to your site without initially having to use your domain name. This allows you to have your site accessible to users while you are moving everything over. If you can keep up the website at your old web host for at the very least 2 weeks before you cancel the account, this will minimize any issues you may have once you transfer your domain name.
If you have a static html site moving to the new web host is very easy. You simply download your website using the identical directory structure and upload it exactly as it is. If you utilize CGI or PERL scripts be sure to ask your web host what directory to place the files in (It may be different).
For dynamically generated sites using content management systems and websites using advanced scripting languages it is a bit more complicated. In the case of a database driven site you first upload all of the static files to the site. Next configure a new database at your new hosting account, do a database dump of the old database and load it into the one you configured at the new web host. Depending on the database you are using, you will have to research the different commands to carry this out.
Once all of the files and databases are uploaded and configured at your new web host you are ready to transfer your domain name and change your DNS settings to point to your new web host.
#4 Transfer Your Domain Name
This is where the actual change takes place and you point your domain to the files and data on your new web hosting account. When you sign up for a new account you are usually given 2 nameservers to be used as “primary nameserversâ€. Log into the site of your domain registrar (whether its your old hosting company, or an independent domain registrar) and change your current nameservers to the ones given by your new hosting company.
Once this change is made all that’s left to do is wait for the changes to propagate through the net. Typically this will only take a few hours or at the most a full day. Once your site is live at the new host wait about a week to be safe and then cancel your account with your old hosting provider. Then feel free to celebrate the decision on moving to a new (and hopefully better) web hosting provider.
I hope this article was helpful in clearing up some of the uncertainties you may have had regarding switching web hosts.
Here are a few other great articles that may be useful for your transition.
Moving to a New Web Host by Matt Cutts
Ten Steps to Changing Your Web Host by Ana Rincon
It Could Be Time to Switch Web Hosts by Zac Mutrux
Moving Day: Switching Web Hosts by Matt Mickiewicz
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