Upgrade Your Web Hosting Services Painlessly

If you have a website, you can bet your graphic website designer friends that the time will come that you need to transfer from your old hosting service to new and entirely different web host to better suite your site’s needs or your firm’s, not- for-profit-organization or your personal finances and budget . But be aware of the difficulties you’ll encounter on the road. Changing your web host is not as easy as moving across the street to a brand new residence. It all needs organization and sequential steps for a successful web host transfer.

First and foremost create backup of all necessary files. The type of file can be in binary or ASCII format. There are instances that you need to backup files manually due to a different format of old web host’s control panel. However, do not forget to save a copy of server log which is also necessary for your web host transfer.

You need to have a trusted FTP, DNS, and scripts before web host transfer. Aside from them, you must have a temporary URL to check the site’s status during transfer. But if the new host is control by a domain, then take the basic and important step of informing and notifying the recipient upcoming server host service to not revise DNS until you tell them.

Transferring host can be in periodic state which gives you time to notice customers that there are some non working areas of your site. But if you have a large site structure, try to update on least traffic to avoid failure. Try to upload those pages with errors, next are the most visited web pages.

Before and during transfer, you must inform your customers and visitor about your planned hosting transfer. What you can do is to give an alternate email address so you will not lose their concerns during web host transfer. You have two options, first are to have periodic updates, and second are to transfer during least traffic. The first option lets you inform customers and visitors that there are some areas of site not working. The last option gives you enough time if you have huge site structure. Transfer first pages with custom errors, then, upload the most visited page. But be sure to transfer them in different days to avoid failure. Final step is to change DNS, it usually takes 1-2 days before it go in effect so you have enough time to enhance some part of your site. Do not throw the old host because you’ll never know what might happen to the new host. In addition, try to check for remaining concerns on the old email account. Monitor the new host for two weeks or until traffic and email goes well. If you feel comfortable it and it works fine, then, cancel your old account and enjoy using the new one.

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Karri Owens:

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