Move Your Website To A New Host — WordPress Migration Guide

If your hosting provider doesn’t offer a free migration, you can accomplish the migration yourself without much difficulty. HOSTS offer free 24 hour website migration for all WordPress websites. Just let us know, sit back, and we’ll handle it for you!

WordPress Migration Steps

To move your WordPress-powered website you will need to do the following:

– Transfer the WordPress engine files. This is optional if your host has a WordPress installer

– Transfer site files (i.e. uploads, themes, and plugins)

– Migrate the database containing your blog posts, pages, comments, and WordPress settings

– Update the WordPress configuration

Using A WordPress Plugin

The easiest way to accomplish the migration, short of having your hosting provider do it for you, is to use a plugin like All-in-One WP Migration. You install it on your existing site. It then exports all your files and even your database to a portable package.

Install a clean, new version of WordPress on your new server and add the All-in-One WP Migration plugin to that installation. Then, within the plugin’s configuration page, choose Import Site. You then drag the site package you previously exported right into the plugin, whereupon it will restore your old site right over the new installation.

Moving everything by hand

If you’re the DIY-type, you can do everything by hand.

Both the WordPress engine and all the other files that make up your website can be transferred via FTP from your old server and then to your new server. You will need an FTP application like my favorite, the cross-platform and free FileZilla. Both of your hosting providers will provide instructions for accessing your site via FTP, including how to configure an FTP program like FileZilla. If you can’t find that information in your host’s tech support documentation or in your welcome letters, simply open an online chat or call your provider. Usually, technicians will gladly walk you through setting up your FTP program.

Once it’s set up, just download your entire site from your old host — everything in the directory or folder that is above or contains the wp-admin folder — including all the files and subfolders to your computer. It may take a while.

When the download is finished, disconnect from your old server, connect to your new server, and upload all those files. This, too, may take some time.

Migrating your database — all the actual content of your blog or website — is trickier and can’t be done through FTP. Fortunately, it’s nowhere near as tricky as it used to be. Follow these directions from the official WordPress Codex to export your database from MySQL and download it to your computer. Then, follow the directions within that document to update the paths between the servers and update the WordPress configuration and variables for the new server’s environment.

Change Your Nameservers to Point to Your New Hosting Provider

The final step in moving your website is to file a change of address. You don’t file this one with the Post Office. Instead, you need to update your domain name servers to point to those of the new host’s.

When you sign up for a new hosting account you’ll usually receive a welcome letter email, and within that email is often the new nameservers you should use. If you didn’t receive that information, a quick phone call or online chat to your hosting provider’s tech support department will gladly give you the proper nameservers. They often look something like the below:

ns1.servername.com
ns2.servername.com

Go to your domain name registrar and update your domain’s nameservers from your domain control panel. This process is different for every registrar — GoDaddy’s process is very different from that of Dotster’s and from the process at Google Domains and so on.

Typically, you log into your domain registrar’s account, click on the domain name in your list of owned domain names, and look for an option to mentioning “Name Servers,” “Nameservers,” or “Host Address.” Replace whatever nameservers are listed with the ones you obtained from your new host. You will always have at least two nameservers to enter, but you may be given third and fourth options, too. Save the changes, and then, within 12 to 72 hours, all requests for your domain name will begin forwarding to your new hosting provider. Until then, your old host account may be served to some visitors, which is why it’s important to ensure both your old and new servers run concurrently for three days.