Moving a website could seem like a difficult undertaking. If your website is large and receives a lot of traffic, you could have second thoughts about the procedure because you worry about losing web traffic and data, which could result in losing sales and other financial activities. However, making the transfer is occasionally unavoidable. Because of this, it’s critical to be aware of the safety measures to take before making this significant decision.

Steps to Take before Migrating a website to a new Web host

Know about the web hosting provider

As previously stated, migration is a laborious procedure that requires numerous resources, risks, and financial investments; therefore, you should confirm before switching to the new hosting provider if it is best for your application or not. Examine it on review websites, check out their services, try to communicate with their customer service representatives, and if they provide a trial period, be sure to take advantage of it. WordPress hosting from Cloudways, a reliable cloud-based hosting provider, is a wonderful choice for small to medium-sized websites, developers, bloggers, and other online business owners. After ensuring the following, pick a new provider. * The provider backs your platform and application. * The vendor fits inside your price range. * The provider has a robust platform and solid infrastructure which provides reliable and fastest WordPress hosting

Application & Platform Information

Understanding your application inside and out is crucial. You can only comprehend its limitations after that. For instance, if you use WordPress to power your website, which version, which plugins, and whether they will be supported on the new platform? When a website is built using PHP, Laravel, or another similar technology, all new hosts may not support it.

Taking Data Backup

This is a crucial action to do. It is preferable to be safe and make a backup of your data in case something goes wrong. Take a current photograph. Do not rely on the regularly created, automatically generated backups. Verify that all the files have been downloaded before creating a manual backup. Backups of databases are also essential.

How is the Migration done?

You can utilise a migration plugin if you lack the technical know-how to move a website yourself. Migration costs between $200 and $300. Nevertheless, there are various plugins that are also less expensive than this. Additionally, you can use a free WordPress migration plugin, which will enable you to cut expenditures. Not only can employing a plugin save money, but it also makes the procedure simpler. As previously noted, the plugin you should employ should be compliant with the demands of your platform.

When to do the Migration (Best Time)

Select a period for the migration when there is the least amount of website traffic and activity. The majority of your traffic originates from the country at night, mostly. Analyse the website traffic patterns using analytics and other tracking software. Avoid when your site is running a promotion or offer. It should ideally happen when there is the least amount of site visitors. Therefore, there are very few chances of data loss, client loss, and loss of transactional data.

Setting up the environment

Let’s move on to the practical steps to actually begin the migration when you’ve found a new hosting provider. Create the environment your website needs. Setting up your server, installing any necessary software (such a web server or database server), and taking care of any other dependencies your website might have are all part of this process.

Take backup

Using FTP, SFTP, or any other file transfer technique your hosting company offers, move your website files from the old server to the new one. Additionally, migrate the database for your website, making sure all the data is moved correctly.

Testing

Test your website carefully on the new server after moving it to make sure everything functions as it should. Verify each page, form, link, and feature. It is crucial to test the website because there are always some errors and bugs that could lead to problems in the future. You can do better if the bugs are discovered and treated as soon as possible.

Updating the DNS Settings (If required)

Update your DNS settings to point to the new server if you are switching your domain name registrar or the IP address of your website. Be patient as this change may take some time to spread throughout the internet.

These are all of the specific steps that make up the migration process. You can have a smooth transfer to the new domain by following these procedures. Also learn about how to speed up a WordPress post.