How to Migrate Your Website Template to a New Hosting Provider

Migration of the website template onto a new host sounds daunting to many people; however, guided properly, this should not stress you. Whatever your reasons-whether it is for better performance, lower prices, or perhaps better customer service-this step-by-step guide will take you through each step with ease.

By the end of this article, you’ll know exactly how to transfer your website template, content, and functionality to a new hosting provider without losing data or experiencing downtime. Let’s dive in!

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Why Migrate Your Website to a New Hosting Provider?

Before we dive into the “how,” let us talk about the “why.” There could be a number of reasons you want to move your website to another hosting company like Cloudways. These include but are not limited to:

Better Performance: Your host is slow, causing a poor user experience, and because of that, lower rankings in search results.
Cost Effective: You might have come across another hosting plan much cheaper yet with equal or better resources.
Improved Support: The customer support at your current provider is substandard.
Scalability: Your website has outgrown its original concept; it thus needs hosting that can upscale with your mushrooming needs.

Whatever the reason, the process for migrating your website template to a new host can often be quite seamless if one did things in order.
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Step 1: Identify a New Provider

First things first, choose another hosting service that will fit the bill. There are many essential features one considers when making an upgrade in your host selection for hosting needs or websites:

– Uptime guarantees upwards of 99.9%.
– Speedy server performance.
– Scalability.
– Excellent customer support.

Once you’ve chosen your new host, sign up for a plan that suits your website’s requirements.

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Step 2: Back Up Your Website

Before making any changes, it’s crucial to back up your entire website. This includes your website admin templates, content, databases, and any plugins or extensions.

How to Back Up Your Website:

1. Use a Backup Plugin: Using WordPress, there are plugins to make it a whole lot easier, such as UpdraftPlus or Duplicator.
2. Manual Backup: Navigate to your website’s hosting control panel (your cPanel account, for instance), and under FTP, download all of the files of your website. In phpMyAdmin, export the database.
3. Backup Verification: All files and databases should be in their entirety to proceed.

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Step 3: Setting Up Your New Hosting Account

With your backup complete, it’s now time to configure and setup your new hosting account.

Key Steps:

1. Create Account: Create and establish your new hosting plan.
2Setup DNS Records: Update your DNS settings to point your domain to the new host. This can take anywhere from 2-24 hours to propagate.
3. Install a Control Panel: If your new host doesn’t offer a control panel, consider the use of aaPanel. This hosting control panel is free and easy to use with one the most clean user interface on the market.

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Step 4: Upload Your Website Template and Files

With your new hosting account ready, it’s time to upload your website admin templates and files.

How to Upload Your Files:

1. Access Your New Hosting Account: Upload your website files using FTP or through your hosting control panel.
2. Upload Your Template: If using a Content Management System like WordPress, your theme files go in the appropriate folder; for example, `wp-content/themes`.
3. Import Your Database: Through phpMyAdmin or the tool of your choice, import your database onto the new host.

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Step 5: Testing Your Website with the New Hosting Company

At this close stage to going live with the new host, tests should be performed to make sure everything works appropriately.

Testing Checklist:

1. Broken Links: Find and eliminate broken links using Screaming Frog or any other broken link checker tool.
2. Check Functionality: All forms, plugins, and other interactive elements should work.
3. Design Test: The web design and/or website template is to be tried to ensure that it will look good on many different devices, computers, browsers, and Internet services.
4. Speed Testing: Utilize online utilities like Google PageSpeed Insight to check out the page loading speed of your website.

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Step 6: Update DNS Settings and Go Live

Now, after testing everything properly, updating DNS settings may allow it to live with a new hosting provider. So here it is-the time it finally reaches.

1. Log in to your Domain Registrar: Log in to your domain registrar with whom you brought your domain.
2. Replace the Old Nameservers: Update them to the nameservers your new host gave you.
3. Waiting for Propagation: DNS changes take up to 24 hours to propagate globally.

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Step 7: Monitoring Your Website After Migration

After having migrated your website template to the new hosting provider, it becomes very important to keenly eye any potential issues on your website.

Post-migration Checklist

1. Error Check: Crawl error checks using the Google Search Console.
2. Keep Performance in View: Keep views on the pace and uptime of your website.
3. Update the Links: Updating internal links will still be necessary, in case the proper linking of URLs has not been catered for beforehand.
4. Keep Users in the Know: If you are going to experience some sort of downtime, then you may keep your regular visitors in the know regarding such incidences through an email or publishing on any social media channel.

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Common Problems and Their Solution

1. Downtime during Migration
– Solution: Migrate at less busy hours and test out your website first on some temporary domain prior to making them live.

2. Broken Links or Missing Files
– Solution : Double check whether your backup checks out as well as successfully transferring all your files and databases.

3. Email Downtime
Solution: Create email accounts in your new host upfront and well in advance of the site transfer. Do not alter the MX records as yet.

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Conclusion

Migrating your website template to a new hosting company doesn’t have to be an overwhelming experience. Just a little backup of the site, setting up the new host, uploading of files, and doing some thorough testing will go a long way in ensuring it will be seamless with minimal or no downtown.

Let preparation and patience be the keys for successful migration. Never hurry, and make sure everything is just perfect. In case of any mistake, never hesitate to reach out to the support team at your new hosting provider.

Now that your website is on a much faster and more reliable server, it’s time to channel your energy into developing your online presence and reaching your goals. Congratulations, you’ve done the migration!

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Pro Tip: If you’re looking for a user-friendly control panel for server management, consider Plesk alternatives streamline your hosting experience.