9 Steps for Moving to a New WordPress Website Host

At some point, you may no longer be satisfied with your existing web hosting service. You may be not getting the best service that you are paying for nor the 100% support from the provider when you need support for lost data or any other issues. In these cases, you may think to move your existing WordPress site to any other new host. When this happens, do not need to worry about damaging your website during the transfer, you can very easily move your existing WordPress website to any new host without any delay and frustrations. All you need to do is following the appropriate procedure.

Here are the steps for you to use when moving to a new WordPress host.

#1: Selecting New Host for WordPress

When migrating your existing WordPress website to any new web host, it is better to take some time for choosing a new hosting provider. Whether you prefer shared hosting or dedicated hosting, research the host and look into the packages and services they offer. What inconveniences you have experienced in past with other hosts, ensure that the new one has all of the features the old one didn’t.

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#2: Keep a Backup of Your Website Files

After choosing the WordPress provider, the next important step is to keep the backup of the data and content on your site. Keep a backup of all the files before changing anything on your existing website. You can find certain plugins for keeping the back up of your files. Installing the plugins, you should be able to use its quick setup wizard or manually follow the steps for completing the process. If you have an FTP program, connect your existing web host in order to copy the data files to new folder on any computer.

#3: Migrating WordPress Site

The migrating step is easier enough. You will have to login on the “cPanel” account for your web hosting server and just open the application “phpMyAdmin”. From the list, choose your database with the WordPress installation and select the tab named “Expert tab” from the menu. For most migrations, the quick export settings might be enough. This can be started just by clicking the button, Go. When you have finished the FTP and database transfer, you can forward to the next steps.

#4: Creating a WordPress Database with a New Host Server

Before completing full migration, you need to create a new database for transferring your SQL data there. On the cPanel, connect to your newly selected web host. If this seems too difficult, contact the support team for your web host. Don’t forget to note the username and password of MySQL for your later use.

#5: Edit the file, “wp-config.php”

Open the downloaded folder from your computer. Open the file named “wp-config.php”, which is the connection controlling sector between your database and WordPress. Make another copy of the file anf keep itn another place of your computer in order to ensure that you can restore it when needed after any changes. Then, open the file’s original version and follow the following steps:

Step 1: Change Database Name: The format is, “define (‘DB_USER’, ‘db_user’)”. The part of “db_user” need to be set on the MySQL database name, so you should change the name which you have just created.

Step 2: Changing Database Username: The username format is, “define (‘DB_USER’, ‘db_user’)”. Change the portion, “db_user” from the old host’s username for matching the new created username.

Step 3: Changing Database User Password: The password format is, “define (‘DB_USER’, ‘db_user’)”. Make sure to change the password to new what you have made for MySQL server. Then, save the file “wp-config.php” and you may close it then.

#6: Database Importing

After creating the new database you need to proceed with the import procedure to the new database. Go to the cPanel of the new server, and then open the “phpMyAdmin” for choosing a database from the slidbad of left-hand.

Go to the navigation menu’s “chooseImport tab”. Click on choose file for Importing section, and then click on the previously exported SQL file.

Uncheck the check-box “Partial Import”. After ensuring it is set to the SQL, then go for start by clicking “Go” to import the process. For confirmation, you will get a confirmation message after finishing the import.

#7: Upload All WordPress Files on New Host

When all the tasks are done for new database, upload the essential files on website. You can do this by using an FTP program. Just connect to the new host and open the folder location where your own website will be. Then, upload all the files on the folder named “public_ HTML”. Now the files will be included in the updated wp-config.php version with the remote selected directory. This will take just several minutes. Note that you should delete these all files from computer for safety purposes.

#8: Link to the New URL, Define the New Domain

For security purposes, do not link directly to other inserted images or posts by pointing to any full URL, or the links might break when it is moved to a new domain. Change the values of the site’s URL and the home URL in new database during your search. Then replace it with of your new domain. This will ensure that your log will automatically be directed to new domain.

#9: Reconfigure DNS Settings

Before using your site, reconfigure the domain’s DNS settings if needed. You need to point all the running records to new IP address. It depends on your place of your domain. Don’t worry though, the domain provider will help you to provide all the information to make this process successful.

This DNS changes may take up to 48 hours, you will not be able to make any changes on your website within 48 hours. Afterward, your site will be ready to access. Now, you can remove files from your old host after keeping a backup.

Author Bio

Evie Coles contributed this article, and she regularly writes for several tech blogs. She tries her best to provide most informative tips and advice through her writing to the audience. While writing this article, he has visited several reference website such as Hostingreviewbox.com a trusted web hosting review website.