How to Move Your WordPress Website to a New Host
The Pros And Cons Of Choosing A Paid Or An Unpaid Move
There are several factors to consider when deciding whether to pay for a WordPress website move. A few of these include:
- Is the host you choose PCI-compliant?
- Do you need help with the installation or setup?
- How quickly can they get the site up and running?
- What is their reputation and customer support like?
- How are they going to handle changes to your site (like adding new pages or changing content)
- How many sites are they going to host for you (known as the plan’s throughput)
- What is the cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-magnitude (CPM)?
- Do you need a dedicated IP (internet protocol) address?
- What is your preferred payment option? (i.e., PayPal, credit card, etc.)
Pricing
Paid moves are usually more expensive than their unpaid counterparts. The main reasons for this are:
- The host must install the WordPress CMS for you (Content Management System).
- Most paid hosts will charge you for additional features (e.g., a free domain, etc.).
- Paid hosts will typically charge you more for the first year (of the contract) than they do for the rest of the term.
- Paid hosts will usually require you to purchase additional features (e.g., a free domain, etc.).
- Paid hosts may have minimum contract requirements (i.e., you must pay for the first year before they will host your website).
However, there are several reputable paid hosting companies that you can choose from. If you’d like to take a closer look, perform a web search on “paid hosting reviews” to find top-notch alternatives.
Features
A number of different features are available when you purchase a WordPress hosting plan. A few of these include:
- Free backups (i.e., they will back up your site daily and store the backups on their servers).
- Free domain privacy (i.e., they will lock down your domain so no one can see your website’s content while you’re still working on it).
- A free SEO tool that can help you with backlinks and key phrase analysis.
- A free dedicated IP (internet protocol) address that you can use to register your domain and to setup your site.
- A free SSL certificate that you can use to secure your site (more on this later).
- Free installation of the popular CMSes like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.
- A free weekly newsletter that you can use to stay in touch with others interested in your topic (e.g., freelancing, blogging, etc.).
- A free community forum for you to discuss topics with other site owners.
- An open-source web server with a lightweight interface that makes it simpler for novices to use (like you).
- A free cloud-based WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web editor that can be used to create and edit content.
- A free search engine that can be used to find content on the web (e.g., Google, Bing, etc.).
- And much more…
As you might imagine, some of these features are more useful than others. For instance, if you’re looking for a free domain privacy option, you might want to look elsewhere since this is something that you have to purchase separately anyway. But, if you’re looking to get up and running quickly with a paid host, they might have everything you need to make the transition painless.
Also, make sure you’re aware of the fact that some of these features are only available if you purchase additional plans or packages. For example, the above-mentioned free SSL certificate is only available if you purchase a paid SSL package. You will not get this feature for free if you have purchased a totally separate hosting plan.
One more thing to keep in mind is that some features are only available if you have a certain level of commitment. For example, if you decide that you want to purchase a dedicated IP address, you will have to commit to purchasing additional years in advance. This is why it is important to do your research before making a decision.
Security
There are several layers of security that you need to protect yourself against as a webmaster. These include:
- Malicious attacks from hackers (the bad guys).
- An overload of requests from spammers (the bad guys) who want to take over your webserver to propagate spam.
- Content theft where people (the bad guys) unlawfully download your site’s content and use it for their own purposes.
- Account hijacking where people (the bad guys) pretend to be you and try to trick other websites into giving them access to their accounts.
- Distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) where large quantities of requests are made to a specific website to make it unavailable to the public.
- Probing attacks (A type of Denial of Service attack) where hackers (the bad guys) try to find security holes in your site’s code in order to exploit them.
- Spam comments that clog up your site’s comment section with worthless content (usually from China)
- Generic spam that consists of worthless comments from China (more than 50% of all spam comes from China)
- Password sniffing where hackers (the bad guys) try to discover your site’s passwords by making guesses and checking your emails for success (especially important if you use the same password for multiple accounts).
- Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) where people (usually from China) try to trick you into doing something on their behalf without your knowledge. For example, if you sell shoes online and they want to take advantage of this, they can put together a malicious link or video that appears legitimate but which will actually take you to a different website where you’ll be encouraged to make a purchase. Once you make the purchase, the site owner will have access to your credit card information. Without proper protection, all of these threats can greatly increase the risk of identity theft.