Any site is in fact a set of files (texts, images, videos, software scripts, database, etc.). But why do you need hosting for the site? So that Internet users can see it at all. It is not enough to have files of the site on your PC, they need to be put on the network. Putting files on sites on computers with special software. They are called servers. Servers are on the network 24 hours a day, to ensure continuous operation of the site and protect it from malicious attacks. To place the files on the site, you need to rent space on the server or a server, if the site has a lot of content and is aimed at a wide flow of visitors. Thus, hosting is, in simple words, renting capacity and space. And today in this article, we’re going to find out how to move your WordPress blog to a new host.
Common Reasons for Requiring A Change of Hosting
- Not satisfied with the quality of hosting. The site is slow, takes a long time to load. Frequent errors when loading the site. It should be noted that not always due to the quality of hosting – in some cases, the problem on the side of the site (used heavy images, not optimized site CMS, not used caching elements of pages).
- Not satisfied with the price. The most common and most controversial reason for changing hosting providers. On the one hand, you can always find a cheaper offer. On the other – there is no cheap and high quality. The price always includes costs – equipment, salary, license. If the price is obviously lower than the market, you have to sacrifice something. Or tech support will be long to respond (because of the excess burden on each employee), or the “market leader for 10 years” will be a student reseller, which can disappear at any time together with your projects.
- Not satisfied with the quality of technical support. Many hosting providers, claiming the clock support mode 24 hours a day, 365 days a year are deliberately deceiving the client because the technical support is provided only during standard working hours. Requests are indeed accepted around the clock, but in this case, do not count on a prompt response.
First, A Little General Advice on Preparing for The Transfer:
- Take into account the specifics of your site and the peculiarities of the chosen hosting. It is possible that in the new place you will not get those features that are necessary for the work of the project. For example, there may not be the right version of PHP.
- Choose the best option for placement. If the site in the previous hosting worked on the VPS, it is better not to transfer it to standard shared hosting.
- Make sure that the hosting services on the new service are paid, or there is a free trial period.
- Before the transfer, create a fresh backup of the site files and database to insure in case of failure.
- Many hosting providers offer a free service for the transfer of the site, freeing you from all the associated worries. Take advantage of it if you are not sure that you can perform all the steps yourself.
How to Change the Hosting of The Site?
These actions are suitable for most sites. Each content management system has its own characteristics, so writing suitable instruction for all will not work. The procedure for the transfer is the same for all sites running on standard CMS. Decide which hosting provider you are going to use. Not to buy a pig in a poke, pay attention to the following parameters:
- Availability of a license;
- Convenient ways to contact technical support, schedule;
- The compatibility of the hosting plan with the CMS requirements of your website;
- Possible ways to pay for the service, the cost of hosting.
Create a backup copy of the site. In the case of static sites (those that don’t use databases to store information), it’s enough to create an archive with the files of the site. If the site uses a content management system (CMS), you need to create an archive of files and a database dump.
Adding and Moving the Site
On new hosting in the control panel add the domain of the site, which you will transfer. This is needed so that on the new hosting you will create a copy of the site. After that, you will need to specify the ns-server of the new hosting for the site domain, so that the version of the site located on the new hosting will be loaded.
- After the site has been added, unpack to the root folder of the archive with the files of the site.
- If the site uses a database in its work, create a database on the new hosting and copy the database of your site into it.
- In some cases, you may need to make changes to the configuration file of the site (specify a new database server, the name of the database).
How to Change the Hosting Provider – Change the NS Server
NS server domain (site name), indicates from which server to upload files to the site. Once you have transferred the files to a new hosting, loaded the database, and made the necessary changes in the configuration file, you must change the NS server.
To do this you need to log in to the panel of the company that serves your domains. Then you need to change the NS for the desired site to the ones specified at the new hosting provider. In the case of our hosting you should specify:
- ns1.ipipe.ru
- ns2.ipipe.ru
Bottom Line
Today, more and more new hosting providers appear regularly, but they often do not have enough resources to provide reliable support for a large number of projects on the web and, as a consequence, provide customers with poor hosting. Count on a good hosting service is possible by turning to providers that have been successfully operating for many years, have their own data centers, and work with experienced professionals. Third conclusion: the pledge of reliable support for your sites is hosting from a reliable provider. And I hope in this article you learned exactly how to move your WordPress blog to a new host.
