How to Move Your WordPress Multisite to a New Hosting Account
When you’re starting a new blog, the first thing you’ll want to do is move your WordPress content to a new hosting account. The convenience of having all your content in one place, combined with the power of WordPress, makes this a no-brainer.
While there are many reasons why you might want to move your WordPress content to a new hosting account, here are a few of the most common ones:
Better Performance
Let’s face it. As your blog grows in size and popularity, your current hosting account will no doubt become overcrowded. When that happens, your site’s performance will begin to suffer as browsers have to wait for pages to load and the server to respond to your inquiries. This is called the Lekki Effect after the well-known performance bottleneck that plagues shared hosting.
When you migrate to a VPS, or a dedicated server, you’ll instantly see a significant performance boost. You can rest assured that your content will load faster and be accessible at all times. It’s also a good idea to move your content to a different IP address to further optimize your site’s performance.
Scalability
One of the greatest things about WordPress is the flexibility it offers with its various plugins. This allows you to enhance the functionality of your site with features that weren’t originally conceived for mass use. This is great when you’re starting out; however, as your blog grows you’ll need to decide whether you want to keep enhancing it with more and more plugins, or if you want to scale back and only use the essentials.
When you migrate to a VPS, or a dedicated server, you’ll have the ability to easily scale your resources as your blog grows. This makes it much easier to maintain a high level of performance as your site scales to accommodate more and more readers and traffic.
Security
Another great thing about WordPress is its wide range of security plugins, many of which can be incorporated into your site’s configuration to secure it from hack attacks, or malware.
If you’re still using the default installation for WordPress on your hosting account, you’re leaving yourself open to attack. Hackers can easily access your site’s source code and modify it to inject ads or malicious code. The good news is that there are many reputable security companies that offer commercial and free WordPress security plugins to protect your site from hack attacks. In the event of such an attack, you can be sure that your content is protected and not at risk of being damaged or deleted.
Migration
If you’re migrating from a shared hosting account to a VPS or a dedicated server, you’ll need to move all your content one by one. This can be a daunting task, and for this reason, many WordPress users choose to outsource the process to a third party service, such as Mozy or One And Done.
Moving WordPress content manually is also a risky process, especially if you have a busy web site. The chances are you’ll make some kind of error, which can result in data loss or significant downtime. If you’re tech-savvy and know what you’re doing, this is no problem, but for most users, this is a task best left to the professionals.
Features
Another great thing about WordPress is its feature-richness. The creators of this platform didn’t just stop at creating a blogging tool; they also wanted to give users the opportunity to fully customize the appearance of their site. This is where the power of WordPress really becomes apparent.
With the right plugins, it’s possible to fully customize the appearance of your site with all the bells and whistles of a high-end business blog. The sky is the limit when it comes to the features available to further personalize your site.
WordPress also offers users the ability to create video and podcast content without needing any special software or knowledge. Simply visit the Widgets > Add New > Library and add the media blocks you need to create your own TV shows or podcasts. If video and audio were actually as easy to produce as it seems, everyone would be doing it, but here’s the rub: getting the equipment required, hiring professional help, and spending the time to train yourself on using the software required can get expensive, especially if you’re doing it on your own.
E-commerce
If you’re a business owner or manager, you’ll most likely be interested in e-commerce (online commerce) as an income source. It’s a great way to make money online, and thanks to WordPress’ popularity, there are many e-commerce plugins available for installation. Just make sure you verify that the seller you’re working with is A Better Business Bureau (BBB) trusted partner so you’re not leaving your credit card information open to the possibility of fraud.
Backup
Every business owner or manager understands the importance of regular backups. When you migrate to a VPS or a dedicated server, you’ll want to make sure that you have a reliable way to back up your data in the event of a serious disaster. This is why we can’t leave out the section on backups, even though it’s not directly related to moving WordPress content to a new hosting account.
There are several great backup solutions for WordPress users, and many of them offer services that migrate as well. This can be a time-consuming process, so for this reason, we recommend using a service that offers both services.
Multi-User
WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world, and for good reason. It’s incredibly easy to use, allows for virtually anyone to go viral with a good blog post, and lets users fully customize the appearance of their site to match their branding.
If you run a business blog that’s geared toward customers, you’ll want to make sure that you either have a personal login for each user, or you set up special permissions so that certain individuals can log into the site to access its content. The latter is preferred, as it lessens the risk of any unauthorized party accessing your site’s content.
Summary
WordPress is a fantastic option for users who want to quickly and easily set up a blog that can easily be customized to their liking. If you’re interested in blogging, or simply want to set up a quick and easy way to make a blog, we recommend giving WordPress a try.