Moving a website from one host to another can be scary business, especially if your business is solely run online. Thoughts may run through your head about downtime and whether you’ll lose customers because of the migration. Sometimes people stick with a poor hosting company because of their fear of moving to a new hosting site. Website Migrations don’t need to be scary, however.
The process of moving a website from one hosting company to another can be done with no downtime or, at worst, very little downtime. You don’t have to deal with the darkness of a domain due to transferring DNS servers. Sometimes this can cause up to three days of downtime, but this doesn’t have to happen. Here are a few ways to avoid downtime during a website migration period.
Avoid Downtime With These Tips
1. Wait to Cancel
One of the most frequent mistakes made is cancelling your current hosting plan before you finish the move. You may feel emotional about leaving the hosting company and you might even be angry about how they treated you. Don’t let this become an issue, however. If you call to cancel your account too soon, it may cause huge issues.
When you first make the call to their support team, they will often cancel your account as soon as you hang up with them. They could trash all the information you’ve uploaded before you have a chance to back it up and you won’t get the opportunity to retrieve any of these files.
Make sure you move all your files and complete the entire transfer before you cancel your old plan.
2. Backup ALL Existing File
Before you do anything else, make sure you back up EVERYTHING. If you don’t, there’s a very good chance you will wish you did. Even files you’re not sure you will ever use or need again should be backed up. Login to cPanel and back up all your files before you move on with your website migration.
3. Open the New Account and Transfer
Once everything is backed up, it’s time to open your new hosting account and make the transfer. This is the actual migration process and needs to be done with care. Once you sign up for your new account, you will, in most cases, receive an email with all the necessary information you need to complete the transfer. Depending on the platform and type of site you’re running, you will need more specific instructions on how to complete the transfer, which most hosting companies will provide.
If you’re unsure on how to handle a website migration, you can hire a specialist to help you with the process. The professional team at reliablepenguin.com is one of the best choices in the business. They provide the technical experts you need to make sure the process goes smooth and quick.
4. Switch to the New Name Servers
Once everything is moved over to the new host, you need to login to your domain registrar and switch the name servers. In some cases, it can take up to a day for the name servers to switch over, but sometimes it happens within just a few minutes. If you experience any downtime, throughout the website migration process, it will happen at this point.
5. Cancel Old Hosting Account
After everything has been moved to the new host and you’ve tested it, you can cancel your old account. Make sure you don’t forget this step or you might receive a bill for two hosting accounts when you only need to use one.
Trusting the Experts
Two specific companies handle website migrations and they will make sure it’s done properly. Reliable Penguin was already mentioned and another choice for website migration is Server Sitters. These companies provide experts in the hosting industry to support you with the move. If you want to make sure your site is moved properly, it’s always best to trust this type of task to an expert.
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