Moving to a new web hosting provider is often a very tricky task. It involves multiple factors related to website, budget, operations and many more. However, a reliable web hosting provider should often provide smooth migration services such that you can plan your transition efficiently and smoothly.
Website Backup
While migrating your website with new web hosting service provider involves making sure that your website is safe from potential hazards like data loss of files including images, videos, CSS files, applications, scripts, plugins and so on. To be safe, you should secure all these important data and files in a separate computer as well.
DNS Change and Propagation
Transferring your website with other web hosting provider requires changing and updating the DNS and submitting it for the review and verification. Until then your web hosting provider might provide you with a temporary IP address. This IP address will assist you in making your website functional. You should also update the domain record types as per the new web hosting provider and ensures that they work smoothly. Most web hosting providers assist their migrant customers in setting up and configuring their DNS records.
Emails
After migration, you have to ensure that your web hosting service provider re-check the configuration of your email again. Incoming and outgoing emails are configured correctly and limits of these emails should be set as per your requirements.
Testing new website and functionalities
Once you have migrated your data and files from an old web hosting provider to a new web hosting provider, you should check the internal links using checking tools. You have to ensure that all the links are working as they were before the transition. You have to comprehensively check the plugins, apps, forms and each relevant features of your website. In addition to this, you have to check the log files and errors and troubleshoot the issues.
Inform your visitors and customers about the migration
Make sure you inform all your website visitors and customers about the migration process and inform them in advance about any downtime if any. It will help them to be sure about sharing of personal data and doing the monetary transaction on your website. It will help them in adding credibility to your website.
There could be multiple reasons for switching to a new web hosting service provider. The reasons me vary from the resource limitations, service levels to the support services. However it is not always an easy task to manage the migration hence the above mentioned factors should be taken in due consideration while migrating your website and application without compromising on the other factors.