How to Transfer your Website to a New Host

When your website host really lets you down it can be very frustrating.  And if you read some reviews out there, you can see a lot of people have been very disappointed by a variety of hosts and their false promises.

So you may be considering a swap to a new host.  But of course, this might make you a little nervous, since you do not want to face the prospect of your website being down, or something going wrong.

Here is a little step by step guide for changing your website host as quickly and easily as possible:

Step 1 – Do a Complete back-up of your Website

If you have a cpanel, this may be as easy as logging in and clicking on back-up.  If you uploaded your files through FTP, then download them again through FTP.

Step 2 – Register an Account with your NEW Domain Host

Hopefully you’ve done your research, read some reviews, and worked out exactly the kind of hosting you require – A Personal Account, A Business Account, VPS Hosting, etc…

So this step is to sign up with your new hosting account, pay your fees, and stand by to transfer.

Step 3 – Upload your backed-up files to your new Website Host

Before you initiate the transfer, you should upload your backed-up files to your new host cpanel.  This is the best way to make the transition as seemless as possible.

Step 4 – Transfer your Domain Name

Log in to your old Domain Host, which is the place where you registered your domain name, and change the Domain Name Server (DNS) or Name Server information to your new hosts DNS information.

Or you can just arrange for your domain name to be transfered to your new host.  Some hosting companies allow 1 free web address or 1 free transfer when you set up a new account.

Your site will experience a downtime while your DNS record is being changed and propagated throughout the world’s WHOIS servers. It will take about 24-72 hours for the process to be completed.

Keep existing services on your old domain name such as email forwarding, website redirection and website hosting until the transfer is complete to ensure continuity of your website, so that the transfer will not be noticeable.

You can check the progress of your domain name transfer by using a Domain Name Search site like Whois.net. You should see the details change from your previous Host to your New Host when the transfer is done.

Step 5 -  Check and Test that everything is working

Once your domain name and website files have been transferred, you should test that all services are working on the your new Host (for example – email services, etc). If everything is working correctly, feel free to contact your previous hosting company and cancel your remaining services.

Transferring your website to a new Host doesn’t have to be scary, especially once you know the steps to take.  Also it might be a good idea to write about your previous experience with your host on some website hosting review websites, so that other people don’t sign up to the bad host you just left and suffer the same problems.

And once you’ve been with your new host a couple of months, feel free to write about your experience with them as well.  Hopefully it’s a good one.