What are The Best Tips to Avoid Problems When Transferring Your Website?

What are The Best Tips to Avoid Problems When Transferring Your Website?

Arranging the transfer of your website from one domain host to another has never been quicker or more efficient. However, even in the best scenario, you can expect there to be a “blackout” of between 12 to 72 hours, during which your customers will not have access to your official company website. This is obviously a most unfortunate – and certainly most unprofitable – situation for your company to be in. It’s an excellent idea to take several very important steps in order to minimize this unprofitable down time that occurs while your website is being migrated from your old host to its new home.

Don’t Cancel Your Old Web Hosting Plan Until Your Move Is Complete

Just as you should never quit your old job before the guarantee of a new one is in your lap, you should definitely never cancel your old web hosting plan until your move to a new host is complete. The website transfer process can be a tricky one, with plenty of complications that can suddenly appear from nowhere, so it’s vitally important to ensure that you have all of your website migration arrangements in place before you sign off your old web hosting plan.

Don’t Lose Vital Information During A Poorly Planned Website Transfer

While it’s good to inform your current domain host that you are cancelling your plan, the most common response will be for your host to immediately cut off their service. While you will save money by not paying for weeks or months of service that you won’t use, it also means that your site will go dark before you’re quite ready to make the move. And it may also mean that you will lose quite a bit of stored information from files and databases that you may not have properly saved in advance. The best time to inform your current host of your intention to migrate is directly before the migration occurs.

Make Sure That You Back Up All Of Your Necessary Files For Safe Keeping

It’s very important that you make sure to back up all of your necessary files for safe keeping. This is something you should never expect a third party to do on your behalf, especially not the domain host whose services you are about to dispense with. You should have every one of your important files backed up for safe keeping in order to download directly to your new location once it is safely in place. There are a number of services that you can make use of in order to assist you in this vital operation, such as cPanel and Plesk Panel.

Double Check Everything Before You Make The Final Move

Once all of your important files are safely backed up, it’s time to make the move to your new domain host. However, before migrating to the new location, it’s important to double check to make sure all of your precious information is present and correct. After you load all of your necessary files on to the new hosting configuration, make sure that they are functioning properly and in the correct order. The time to do this is now before you sign off on the final migration arrangements, since your new host is only responsible for allotting you space for your website, not doing all of your checkup work for you.

Preview Your New Website Using A Temporary URL In IP Numbers

The best way to ensure that all of your information is loaded correctly on to your new website is to preview the site using a temporary URL in IP numbers. There a few hosting companies who are equipped to provide new clients with a development staging platform. This special platform is designed to allow new customers to quickly and efficiently preview their new official company website before publishing it to the Internet. This gives you valuable time to remedy any problems that may exist so that the delay between customers accessing your old site and the new one will be minimized.

Switch Out Your Website DNS Records

Once all of your information has been safely stored and your new site fully previewed and double checked against errors, the next step in your website transfer process will be to switch out your website DNS records. This is an extremely important step in the process since it guarantees that your customers will be able to find your new website without receiving an Error 404 or time consuming redirect. Always make sure that you get the correct DNS information from your new domain host so that there will be no costly delays or missteps in this process.

Take The Time To Allow Your DNS Change To Spread Throughout The Internet

The final stage in the migration process is to take the time to allow your DNS switch to spread and take hold throughout all of the Internet. The time needed for the change may be between the span of a few hours to a few days, so be patient. This is one important process that simply cannot be rushed. Once you are certain that the switch has taken hold throughout the Internet, contact your former domain host and inform them that you wish to cancel your service. Only then – and never before – should you make this call, since there is no turning back.

Solving Your Migration Issues In A Prompt And Efficient Manner

While there is no convenient “one size fits all” resolution to solving your migration issues, there are steps that you can take in order to minimize the unprofitable downtime that occurs as your official company website moves from one server to another. By following these easy steps, you can ensure that your customers won’t lose sight of you during the time that your website is offline. It’s important to follow these directions and keep your public in the loop so that they will quickly discover your new and improved website and resume your company to customer relationship as soon as possible.