How To Move Your Website to a New Hosting Provider (in 8 easy steps)

Have you be meaning to switch hosts because of down time, slow loading pages or bad technical support? Don’t delay moving because of fear or uncertainty. It ‘s actually pretty easy to move your website. If you aren’t happy with your current web host and you’re ready to move to a new hosting company, then follow these guidelines. Migrating your website can help you with many of the problems you may be facing with your current host.

How to Migrate a Site

1. You will want to sign up for a new hosting plan while keeping your current hosting account. If you cancel your hosting plan before the move you, could lose your files and databases.

2. Find where your files for your website are located on your current host. If you are using a database, make a copy of the database and your files. If you have any trouble with this, contact your current host and have them help you to make sure you have everything you need for the move. cPanel to cPanel moves are a snap.

3. Next, you will be copying or backing up your current website’s files and database(s) to a folder on your local computer. Download all of your current files from your current host to your computer using the backup feature in your control panel.

Protip:

Be sure you also copy your .htaccess file which is sometimes hidden.

4. Next, it’s time to also copy your database. Select the correct database for your site and export a compressed backup of your website’s MySQL database. Once you have a copy of your database and all of your files, you can now import these into your new hosting account.

5. Your new hosts will have sent a welcome letter with your cPanel logins. Sign into cPanel, locate the backup tools area, use the file-upload box for full-site backup and upload the files and databases.

6. Make sure you grant the new database all privileges for usernames, passwords, and permissions associated with each MySQL database. This information will need to be entered into your MySQL databases interface in cPanel.

7. Once you have imported your files and databases, you will want to test your website. If you are satisfied that all of your files are displaying correctly and that all of your databases are operating properly, it’s time to launch your site and make it live.

8. The last step is to change your DNS settings to your new host name. Your new DNS can be found in your welcome email you received when you signed up for new web hosting.

It will look like this:

ns.my-new-host.com ns2.my-new-host.com Name server propagation, pointing your domain to the new host, can take 24-48 hrs. Try your website to see if it is active about every 8-12 hours. If your site isn’t displaying within 48hrs after your change, then contact the technical support team at your new host to assist you. After you see that your site is live on your new host,  run your testing once again. If you are satisfied that you have all the files and the databases are correct, then you can cancel your old hosting account. Every website has its nuisances and complexities. If you are migrating to JaguarPC and you run into any problems during the process our technical support team is available 24/7/365 to help. Contact our team at: http://clients.jaguarpc.com/index.php. They will be happy to assist you with all your website migration questions.