How to Transfer Your Website to a New Host with WordPress
It’s no secret that owning a website can be expensive. Having one for yourself can cost you hundreds of dollars a month. If you’re looking to take your site’s operation elsewhere, you’ll have to think about transferring it to a new hosting provider. While there are pros and cons to this process, it can be done with little to no effort.
In this article, we’ll discuss the basics of moving your site with WordPress so you can take advantage of this cost-effective content management system (CMS). We’ll also cover some of the more technical aspects of hosting a WordPress site, such as setting up advanced URL structures and fixing common WordPress errors.
Why Should You Move to WordPress?
WordPress is a popular website platform that can be used to create pretty much any kind of site you could dream up. It was created by the team at Automattic and is known for being extremely flexible and user-friendly. Furthermore, WordPress is completely free so you have no barriers to entry. There’s also not a lot of technical knowledge required to use it, so anyone can create a quick blog or website using the software.
WordPress also has a large active community that is constantly growing. This means there are plenty of resources available online if you ever run into trouble. Thanks to WordPress’ popularity, there are also hundreds of plugins and themes available for free that can be used to customize your site with little effort.
The Pros and Cons of Moving to WordPress
There are definitely some advantages to moving your site to WordPress. One of the major advantages is cost. Since WordPress is an open-source project and is completely free, moving to this platform is much more affordable than other content management systems (CMS).
Another obvious plus is scalability. WordPress can handle any amount of traffic you might throw its way. Most other CMS’s can only handle a certain number of visitors before they start to struggle. This is mainly because WordPress was designed to handle a high amount of pageviews and web traffic, so it can be fairly easy to set up.
On the other hand, there are some major disadvantages to moving to WordPress. The first major disadvantage is security. Although WordPress is a very secure and popular platform, you still have to take some basic precautions to keep your site safe. Make sure all your site’s files are password protected and that you always keep your WordPress database safe by using strong passwords and securing your site with HTTPS. Even with all these safety measures in place, WordPress still poses a security risk since it’s a open platform and people can potentially access and tamper with your site’s content.
The second major disadvantage is WordPress’ lack of support for mobile visitors. Since WordPress is primarily used online, most of its users are accessing their sites from desktop computers. If you’re running a website, especially one that gets a lot of traffic, you’ll want to make sure that your content is accessible to all visitors, including those on mobile devices. If you don’t want to spend a lot of time customizing your site so it looks great on all devices, you can try using a template to build your website on.
Setting Up Advanced URL Structures
One of the primary reasons why people migrate their sites to WordPress is to take advantage of the software’s built-in URL structure. WordPress makes it extremely easy to create a seo-friendly homepage URL that will work on all devices. If you decide to go this route, you’ll want to set up your domain to handle multi-language redirects, use redirect hooks to clean up your site’s messy URL’s and integrate Google Analytics.
Migrating Content and Images to a New Host
One of the main issues people find with moving their sites to WordPress is the amount of content and images they have to transfer to the new host. WordPress is incredibly flexible when it comes to importing content, but if you have a ton of media (photos, documents, etc.) you’ll have to do some manual labor to get everything imported. Once you do, you’ll have to set up the proper permissions so users can upload content to the new site.
WordPress also does not come with a built-in function to import content from one site to another. This is a crucial step when you’re migrating content and requires a bit of coding knowledge. Luckily, there are several third-party tools available that can be used to automate this process. One of the best content migration tools is called HubSpot’s Content Builder. You can use this tool to effortlessly import all your content from one location to another. This way, you don’t have to worry about setting up automated backups or finding someone to help you with the technical work.
Common WordPress Errors
One of the things that can trip up even the most seasoned WordPress users is common mistakes that the platform makes easy to commit. Because WordPress is so popular and flexible, it’s incredibly easy for inexperienced users to mess up their sites when updating content or adding new features. If you’re ever stuck wondering why your WordPress site isn’t behaving the way you want it to, you can use the software’s built-in troubleshooting feature to identify the issue.
WordPress Overall
As you can see, there are both advantages and disadvantages to moving your site to WordPress. On the whole, though, if your goal is to eventually have a blog or website, you’ll want to consider using this content management system. With its large built-in audience and increasing popularity, WordPress is the perfect choice for any type of site you might want to create.