How to Transfer a WordPress Site from One Host to Another

If you’re reading this, I assume you’re either already in the process of moving your WordPress-powered website or have just finished the process of transferring ownership of a WordPress site from one hosting provider to another.

Either way, you’re on the right page. We’re going to walk you through the steps to make the process as smooth as possible.

Find The Right Migration Tool

First things first: you need to find a tool that can help you migrate your site smoothly and securely. The right tool will make the process of transferring your WordPress site easy and stress-free. Take a look at some of the top WordPress migration tools available today.

Why migrate to another hosting provider? There are a variety of reasons, but the most popular ones include increased performance, enhanced security, and better service. If you’re looking for a one-stop shop for your blog hosting needs, then you should consider one of the shared hosting providers. They provide you with everything you need, including a free domain, a free parking space, and even web design services should you need them.

Back Up Your WordPress Site

Doing backups is an important part of maintaining a successful WordPress site. Without regular backups, you open yourself up to risk of data loss. It’s always a good idea to ensure that you have a reliable, trusted backup service. The best ones offer both online and local backups, so your data is safe whether you’re at home or away.

To be on the safe side, we recommend that you make regular backups and store them in a safe and secure place. In case of a major disaster, you’ll be glad that you had backups.

Check For Pre-Matching

Before the transfer is complete, you need to make sure that the new hosting provider understands how to properly set up your WordPress site. This includes things like your domain name, email addresses, and whether or not backups should be enabled. If you have more than one site, then you’ll need to make sure that they all have the same settings. Changing these after the transfer is complete could expose you to security risks and headaches down the line.

Change Your Host Nameser

When you transfer a WordPress site, you’ll need to make sure that the new host recognizes your site. This means changing your host nameser. There are a few different ways to do this. One way is through an automated process that will change your A record (the phone-type number that your domain’s records point to) for your domain name to the new host’s address. Another way is to login to your domain’s records and change them manually. Still another way is to change your domain’s name to the new host’s address and then set up a DNS redirect from your current domain name to the new domain.

Disable Find My WordPress

One of the most annoying things about having a WordPress site is accidentally stumbling across hidden links or videos on other sites. To prevent yourself from being tracked by analytics software or having your content stolen by hackers, you should disable your site’s ability to be found by Google. This is called Find My WordPress. You can do this by registering your site with a domain hide service. You can also disable comment moderation and other similar features that could expose your site to potential security risks.

Optimize Your WordPress Site For Performance

Another important step in maintaining a successful WordPress site is optimizing it for performance. When you have a WordPress site, chances are it’s running natively on a Linux-based operating system, such as Ubuntu or Red Hat. Depending on how much traffic you get, your site could start to struggle a little bit. To fix this, you can install a WordPress optimization plugin, such as the WooCommerce Performance Plugin, available from the WordPress plugins directory. This will do things like automatically compress your images, optimize your caching, and more. It could make a world of difference in terms of how your site performs.

Redirect To The New Domain

If you’ve changed your host nameser, all of the URLs on your site will be messed up. To fix this, you should use a redirect plugin. Once again, the WooCommerce Performance Plugin is a great option. Redirecting your site’s traffic to the new domain is one of the simplest ways to make sure that everyone gets transferred over successfully. Plus, you don’t want anyone stumbling upon your content while it’s still on the old domain name. Using redirects ensures that all of your site’s links point to the correct place.

Change The DNS For Your Old Host

If you’ve changed your host’s name and now have a DNS record for it, you need to make sure that all of your site’s links are updated to point to the new domain. Changing this manually can be a lot of work. To make it easier, you can use a free service called Domain Name System (DNS) mapping. With this tool, you can map all of your site’s A records (the phone numbers that your domain points to) to the new domain. Once this is done, your site’s links should be working as expected. If not, please contact your hosting provider to have this changed.

Check For Any Cross-Links

If you link to another site or resource within your own WordPress site’s content, you create a cross-link. When you have a lot of cross-links on a site, it can become difficult to navigate. Checking for these links and removing them where necessary can help to improve the usability of your site. You should do this in conjunction with a cross-link analysis tool, which you can find for free on the web.

Secure All Of The Data

Last but not least, we come to the part of the blog post where we remind you to be careful what data you put out there for the world to see. One of the primary ways that hackers gain access to your personal information is through phishing scams – where they pretend to be a trusted entity and ask you to hand over your sensitive data. To prevent this, you should be careful about clicking on attachments in emails you receive and change your passwords often.

If you followed the above instructions, transferring a WordPress site from one hosting provider to another should be a straightforward process. You should now have a functioning site where all of your content is accessible and searchable. Maintaining a successful WordPress site is mostly about taking care of bugs and general polish rather than complex technicalities. With that in mind, sit back and enjoy your new domain name!