How to Move a WordPress Site to a New Hosting Account Within the Same Hosting Service

If you’re reading this it’s highly likely that you’ve been tasked with the job of moving a WordPress site to a new host. You may be wondering what steps you should take to ensure a smooth transition and minimal downtime. In this article we’ll discuss the essential information you need to know about moving WordPress sites.

Choosing The Right Data Center

The first step is to choose the right data center. You want to choose a data center that is both reliable and has enough bandwidth to handle the peak demands of your readers. If possible, you also want to choose a data center with enough storage to accommodate all of your website’s media.

Not all data centers are equal and you should take the time to do your research before committing. Use the following checklist to help guide your search:

• Is the data center in a top-notch location?
• Does the data center have excellent communication with our target ISPs?
• How about the backup services? Can you restore your site to the same state at any time?
• How about security? Can you implement SSL encryption?
• How about load times? Is the site fast enough for your liking?
• How about the price? Is it within your budget?
• How about the Uptime? Can you rely on the data center for your site’s hosting needs?
• How about the support? Can you get help when you need it?

If you’re considering a free host like WordPress.com then be sure to also look into the terms of service for this particular host. You’ll need to familiarize yourself with the terms because you may be committing to host your site on this platform for the long haul. Free hosts like WordPress.com usually come with very restrictive terms of service that forbid you from doing certain things like using certain plugins or taking advantage of certain services that the host is offering. Luckily you can usually find a better deal if you look into a paid host like Dreamhost or Bluehost because these hosts usually offer a free trial or use a shared hosting plan which you can upgrade to a premium plan at any time.

Creating A Backup Plan

In case you did not catch my drift, let me repeat myself: you want to prepare for the possibility of a site outage. No matter how careful you are, things will happen that will cause your site to go down. As much as you might like to believe that you and your team are infallible (we’re not), things do happen and sometimes they’re beyond our control.

In case your site goes down for an extended period of time (more than just a few hours), you’ll want to have a plan in place to restore your site to its previous state. The best way to do this is to regularly create backups of your site. This way if your site goes down you can simply restore it to the last known good state. The easiest way to do this is to use a third-party service like Backuper or Arq which most hosts will provide you with. Restoring from a backup is a lot faster than trying to re-create the site from scratch. Plus it gives you the peace of mind that comes with knowing that your site is restored and ready to go.

Shopping For A New Domain

Once you’ve found a good data center and have set up your backup plan, it’s time to move on to the next step of the process which is to buy a new domain. This is assuming that is what you’ll want to do since you’re moving your site. You may want to keep the domain name you’ve chosen if it’s popular enough but it’s not a bad idea to look into other options just in case there is a problem when it comes to transferring the domain or hosting the site with your chosen host.

When buying a new domain, it’s important to keep the following things in mind:

• Keywords. This will determine how many people are likely to find your site when they search for content related to your niche.
• Geolocation. Your chosen host will have to forward all of the traffic your site receives to the nearest data center. Keep in mind that there may be a delay before this happens.
• Availability. This is particularly important if you’re buying a domain that’s not registered yet. You don’t want to buy a domain that’s not available.
• Matching Domains. If you have a competitive market within your niche then it’s a good idea to look into buying a matching domain. For example, if you’re in the weight loss niche and are looking for a domain name, it might be a good idea to buy the word fit. While this may not seem like a problem, if everyone in your niche is registering the word fit then it may become hard to find a suitable domain for your site. Buying a matching domain eliminates this issue.

Choosing A Hosting Service

Once you’ve found a new domain it’s time to pick a host. This is the company that you’ll be renting space from to have your site hosted. There are a lot of different hosts to choose from and it’s important to do your research before making a decision. In this article we’ll discuss some of the essentials you need to know about picking a host.

Features

One of the first things you’ll want to look into is the features of the host. Does it offer the free backup plans I mentioned earlier? How about the security measures that you might need for your site? All of these things will factor into whether or not you should choose a certain host over another. The more features a host has, the greater the appeal. There are also a variety of services and features that you might not think about but could potentially be useful in the long run.

Support

Another important factor to consider when choosing a host is its support. Do they offer live chat services? How about phone support? These questions have an obvious impact on your day-to-day technical support needs as a site owner. If you’re looking for a host that offers the best possible support then be sure to choose one that provides these services.

Location

The location of the host is also important to consider. Is it in a top-notch location? The location of the host server is not always indicative of how good their support will be. You want to choose a host that’s located in a good position to have fast, reliable access to the major ISPs (Internet Service Providers). In the US for example, the major ISPs are typically located in close proximity to one another so if your host is located in San Francisco, you’ll have fast access to all of the major ISPs in that area. This is important because you’ll have service interruptions if your host is located in a lesser-known area where the major ISPs don’t operate. For that matter, even in other areas where the major ISPs do operate, you’ll still want to choose a host that’s close by in case there is any kind of service interruption.

Consider All The Options

As you may have guessed, this is where the above checklist comes in handy. You’ll want to consider everything from choosing a good data center to finding a host that meets your needs. Going through all of this can be rather time-consuming so it’s important to take your time and do it right. Do your research thoroughly and make a list of all of the pros and cons for each option. This way when you’re making your decision, you’ll have a clear picture of all of the choices you have and the factors that make each one more or less appealing.

Key Takeaways

There are a number of essential things you need to consider before deciding which web host to go with. We’ve discussed some of the basics such as finding a good data center and creating a backup plan. However, this is just the beginning. Once you’re ready to move your site, it’s important to look into all of the details such as creating a support account, choosing a host that offers the right features and is in a good location.