Have you been thinking of changing hosts but are not sure how to migrate a WordPress site from one host to another? Migrating a website to a new host involves some serious work, no matter how many times you’ve done it and, migrating a WordPress site to a new host is essentially a series of steps that you can repeat each and every time.
For a seamless approach do contact our agency for eCommerce development in Kerala.
The process is practically the same for every website you migrate to.
3 Methods For Migrating A WordPress Site To A New Host
- Get your host to do it for you.
- Use a WordPress migration plugin.
- Go old school and use SFTP/FTP.
The best option that suits you, will depend on your current hosting provider and new hosting provider and the size of the WordPress site you want to migrate.
1. Get Your Host To Do WordPress Site Migration For You
The first method or option for migrating a WordPress site is by far the easiest and least stressful. But whether this is an option depends on which hosting provider you are migrating to.
Many managed WordPress hosting providers, such as Flywheel or SiteGround, will either do a free migration or will provide a plugin to install on your site to perform the migration.
Flywheel provides either a DIY plugin for you to complete the migration or they will do the migration for free.
All who want to opt for this method must fill out a brief form on their website with the current hosting details and ask them to conduct the migration.
This can take one to three days but will save you so much time.
2. Move To A New Host Using A WordPress Migration Plugin
If your fully managed host will not do the migration, they will usually provide a plugin that you can install on your site to perform the migration.
And using this migration plugin is easy as these typically work as an installation wizard that guides you seamlessly through the process of moving the WordPress files and database from one location to another.
They also help to automatically install WordPress on the new site in preparation for the files and database to be uploaded.
And if you are not using a fully managed host, there is another plugin option.
Enter the All-In-One WP Migration plugin.
In order to migrate a WordPress site using this plugin, the following steps are essential:
Step 1: Log in to the backend of the WordPress site that needs to be migrated.
Step 2: Navigate to plugins and click on Install New from the WordPress dashboard.
Step 3: Install the All-In-One WP Migration plugin by ServMask after searching for All-In-One WP Migration
Step 4: Activate the plugin.
Step 5: Steps 1 to 4 have to be repeated on the new WordPress site (the one you want to migrate to) so that you have the plugin installed on both the new and old site.
Step 6: Install the plugin Regenerate Thumbnails by Alex Mills (Viper007Bond) to the site you want to migrate to.
Step 7: On both the sites, update ALL plugins, themes & WordPress core files
Step 8: Using the “All-in-One WP Migration” plugin, create an export file
Step 9: (Optional) Add a rule to “Find” your new site database prefix and “Replace” with your old site database prefix
Step 10: Download the file to your computer after exporting it to the File
Step 11: Open the ‘‘All-in-One Migration’ plugin on the new site, and import the file from the previous step.
Step 12: Apply the uploaded export file to the new site when prompted after the file uploads.
Step 13: Go to Setting > Permalinks and save multiple times.
Step 14: Check all your plugins and make sure they’re activated.
Step 15: Check the media library for the images. And if they aren’t there, use the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin to re-activate them if necessary.
Step 16: Check all pages/posts/etc. And make sure everything looks as it should. Then you can refresh your newly migrated WordPress site to see how everything looks.
Step 17: Install the Better Search Replace plugin by Delicious Brains on the new site.
Step 18: Go to Tools > Better Search Replace in the WordPress dashboard.
Step 19: Add your old site URL to the “Search for” field.
Step 20: Add your new site URL to the “Replace with” field.
Step 21: Run a dry run and if you’re happy with the dry run, run the plugin for real.
Step 22: Go through theme files and make sure all instances of “oldwebsite.com” are replaced with “newwebsite.com.”
Step 23: Check your new site and if the changes haven’t taken effect, clear your browser cache. And if the changes still haven’t taken effect, clear your server cache.
All of these instructions have to be followed for the plugin that you choose in order to make sure that it is appropriate for the type of migration you want to do.
Leave the task with our UI/UX development company in Kochi and be tension free.
3. Old School WordPress Site Migration With SFTP/FTP
For many migrations, using a plugin should work well. But for more complex migrations, you have to manually migrate your WordPress site.
This can be carried out by either using the File Manager in the cPanel of your hosting provider or by using an FTP or SFTP connection.
And follow these steps:
Step 1: Use File Manager in the cPanel or the SFTP/FTP to navigate to the root folder of the site you are migrating to. If you aren’t sure where the root folder is, contact your hosting provider.
Step 2: Select public_html and download it to your computer if you’re using the File Manager located in the cPanel,
Step 3: Download your WordPress databases and Log into phpMyAdmin on the hosting where the site is currently located.
Step 4: Export the database.
Step 5: Select the database to export by clicking Export and then Quick for the type of export and SQL as the file type. Click Go.
Step 6: If you are going to use phpMyAdmin you can create a zip file once the database is downloaded to your computer.
Step 7: There should be nothing installed on the site you are migrating to.
Step 8: In the new hosting provider, create a new empty database. In the cPanel, navigate to MySQL Databases, click and name the new database appropriately and click Create Database.
Step 9: Create a new user in the MySQL Users section.
Step 10: Add the user to the database from the Add User to Database, select the new user and the database, and click Add.
Step 11: Edit the wp-config.php file from the WordPress files that you downloaded.
Step 12: Log into the new site’s phpMyAdmin and select the new empty database you just created. Import the SQL database exported from the current location, by selecting the new database in the left window, hitting the Import tab, choosing the file to import and clicking Go.
Step 13: Upload the WordPress files to the new installation.
Step 14: In case you are migrating from a staging site, subdomain, or different domain name, install a plugin such as Better Search Replace on the migrated site to switch all of the old site URLs to the new domain name URLs.
Were you in search of the best UI/UX design company in Kerala for expert help in the process? Our agency is only a call away.
Bottom line
Migrating WordPress needn’t be stressful if your host can’t do it for you. They know whether there are plugins that make the migration process stress-free.
The steps are always similar when it comes to WordPress migration. Allow ample time for the migration process.
Leave the job with our agency for Marketing automation in Kochi