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Transferring to a New Web Host
This sounds like a headache, doesn’t it? Well, it is not necessarily one provided you
have some knowledge of the process. Transferring to a new web host is not that hard.
However, you will need to know something about the whole process. There are 5 main steps
and we will try to walk you through them in this article.
Step 1. Finding another very good host and creating an account
Before you do anything about the current host, make sure you have a contract with a new
web host. Do some research and look after some references to find a good host. Make sure
the new web host offers all the options and features you need. Also, make sure they
support all the latest technologies. Once you sign up for an account with them, it is time
to get on to the next step.
Step 2. Move a backup of your website to the new web host
This can be a very easy step or a real time killer, depending on what website you are
looking to move. If you have a static one, transferring to a new web host will be
extremely simple – copy the entire file structure from the old web host to the new
one. If you have a large website that uses a database system, you will need to copy the
entre database to the new web host.
It is not a simple process and errors can appear. For example, if your site is an
ecommerce one, you will need to set up database replication between the two locations to
keep the databases synchronized. We will not get into this as it will get too technical,
but you can find a lot of information on other websites.
Step 3. Change the DNS settings and point to the new web host
When transferring to a new web host, you must make sure your DNS is pointing to it. The
Domain Name System (DNS) is the system that translates your reader-friendly address (like
www.google.com) into an IP address, used on the WWW (ie. 86.100.1.1). At this point, your
DNS is pointing to the old web host. When transferring to a new web host, you will need to
set the DNS to point to the new host. Again, going into details here would lead to
technicalities.
Step 4. DNS change propagation
You will need to wait for the DNS changes to propagate. This could take a few hours to a
day, depending on the Time-To-Live (TTL) setting. Be patient, it will show up soon!
Step 5. Shut down the old website
Once you see that Google is crawling your website at the new web host and that people are
finding it with ease, it is time to shutdown the old one. You should check the logs on
your old website to make sure that it does not receive any more traffic. If it does not,
shut it down, everything is how it should be!
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