How to Transfer Your Site to a New Hosting Service

This week we’re going to help you transfer your site to a new hosting service. We’re going to cover everything from step one (finding a new host) to step five (installing your new theme). By the end of this article, you’ll have a clear idea of how easy it is to migrate your website to a new host.

Step One: Finding A New Host

The first step in any transition is to search for a new host. Even if you have a working solution, there’s always the chance that something could go wrong during transfer. You don’t want to risk anything. So, make sure you do your research before signing up with any host.

Besides, it’s always best to look for a host that’s close to you. This way, you can easily transfer your site’s content to the new server. Plus, if you’re ever stuck in the middle of a transfer, you can get help quickly.

Step Two: Testing The New Host

After you’ve signed up with a new host, you need to test it to make sure everything is ok. This is especially important if you’re using a shared hosting service. So, make sure you do at least one test transfer to the new host before making any real money with your website.

If everything is going smoothly, then great! You can move forward with the process.

Step Three: Migrating Your Data

Now that you have a new host setup, it’s time to start migrating your data and setting up your WordPress dashboard. As you may know, WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that’s extremely popular among bloggers and business owners. It’s a free and open-source software that allows you to easily set up a blog or a business website. If you’re not familiar, WordPress has a few different types of hosting services that you can choose from. These include:

• self-hosted
• managed WP hosting
• composer hosting
• optimized WordPress hosting

Each one has its perks, but for the sake of this article, we’re going to focus on the last two. They’re the most popular types of WordPress hosting out there. So, make sure you pick one that’s right for your needs.

Step Four: Installing Plugins

Once you imported your data and set up your WordPress dashboard, the next step is to install plugins. As we mentioned above, WordPress is a content management system, which means that it mainly focuses on creating and handling content. However, the truth is that it doesn’t have to be restricted to just blog posts and articles. It can also be used to create events, galleries, and pretty much anything else you can think of. This is where the variety of plugins comes in.

For the sake of this article, we’re going to focus on two specific plugins that are indispensable when it comes to transferring your blog to a new host.

1. Multi-Site Manager

This is the first and foremost plugin you need to install after moving your site to a new host. It’s a one-stop shop for administering your entire network of blogs. Once you install this plugin, you can easily manage all of your blogs from the same place. This way, you can avoid spending your time across various platforms and services. It also handles the technical parts of setting up and running your blog network. So, if you’re looking for an all-in-one blogging solution, then this is the plugin for you.

There are several different versions of this plugin, which is why we recommend going for the latest and greatest. This way, you’ll always be up-to-date with the latest features.

2. WPLock

This plugin is similar to the one above, but it’s specifically designed for websites and blogs that are part of an affiliate marketing program or that accept money for advertising. Basically, this plugin allows you to automatically convert website visitors into paying consumers who’ll eventually make a purchase after being lured in with an affiliate link or an advertising banner.

As the name suggests, WPLock locks down your website’s content to protect it from being stolen by hackers. This is especially important if you have a blog devoted to family recipes or if you’re running an online store. There’s always that chance that a guest user could stumble upon your site and decide to publish something without your consent. This plugin also gives you the ability to prevent certain words and phrases from being used on your site. For example, you could block the word “password” or you could ask users to enter a valid email address before they can access certain areas of your site.

Besides, there’s also a paid version of this plugin that includes integration with Google Drive and Dropbox. So, if you store a lot of your site’s content in these cloud-based storage services, then this is definitely the plugin for you.

Step Five: Importing Your Theme

Once you’ve moved your content into your new host, it’s time to import your theme. This way, you can start customizing your site’s appearance and begin building your audience.

You can use almost any migration tool you want to get your theme. But, we recommend using the WordPress importer. This tool makes the process of migrating your theme very easy. All you need to do is follow the simple steps.

Once you’ve installed the WordPress importer, you can simply click on it from your desktop’s dashboard. Then, you’ll see a small popup where you can enter the URL of your old host. Alternatively, you can also opt to drag and drop your old theme’s folder into the importer.

From there, you’ll see a couple of options. The first one is to choose whether or not to convert your theme to a template. A template is basically the bare bones of a WordPress theme. It has the standard header, footer, and sidebar areas, but it doesn’t have the unique styling that’s found in the rest of your theme’s files.

If you decide to go this route, then you’ll need to download the template into your desktop’s templates folder. This way, when you go to install a new WordPress theme, the template will be available for use. If you decide against using a template, then you can simply click on “copy” and save the rest of your theme’s files.

The second option is to import all the content from your old host or site into the new one. You can either do this manually one piece at a time (which is what we did for this client) or you can use the WP importer’s batch option. This way, you won’t have to worry about importing a large amount of content all at once. It will all be done for you.

The last step is to activate your new theme and customize it as much as you can. Do this by going to your site’s dashboard and looking for the Appearance option. From there, you can select the default theme or use the visual editor to customize the colors and layout of your site.

Don’t forget about SEO either. This means making your site’s content as relevant and useful as possible. That way, when a search engine scours the web for relevant content, your site will appear at the top of the list.

With easy transfers like these, there’s no reason to keep all your hosting to yourself. Take advantage of the fact that you can now reach a global audience and begin building a brand for yourself.