Switching To A New Hosting Server

You always have the right to change your web host provider whenever you want. Sometimes your current host provider’s equipment becomes outdated and you end up with a lot of site down time. Then perhaps another reason is, you have just found a cheaper host. If you have paid your current host by the year, you should make sure that you did not lock yourself into a yearly contract and will not be able to get your unused money back.

Changing an established site to another host provider is not all that easy of a task. Its not that it is extremely technical but it is time consuming. Often less than professional host providers take advantage of this. Knowing that people don’t want the extra work of moving. So they can continue to run their less than optimum service. When you do decide to move, there will be some down time that you must be prepared to live with . You are going to need some guidance with your move. Often the new host providers will assist in any way they can.

Step One: File Download What you are going to be doing is downloading everything from you website which is all of the files. Everyone of them that is used in your site. Start the transferring way ahead of the time you plan to leave the current host. Its takes time to do a smooth transfer. You want as least amount of problems as possible. Otherwise your site will end up being down for an undetermined amount of time until you get things rectified. . If at all possible take a least a month to do the download transfer.

Step Two: Domain Name Change Remember when you choose your new web host to ensure they have everything your site needs to operate at its optimum level. It would be wise for you to handle your own name transfer. Reason being, you need to get your files transferred before the domain name. The new hosting accounts are usually set up within a 24 hour period so you need to make sure your files are transferred then do your domain name switch.

Step Three: Backups are Critical . Backup absolutely everything you have on your website. In fact make two copies. Then you have one to work with during your transition, and the original is left in tact. This way if anything goes wrong with the working copy, you can get rid of it, recopy the original and start over again. In addition try to create your new directory as closely structured to the old one as possible. This makes the download go much smoother.

Step Four: The Upload: Your new hosting company most likely gave you a temporary location where you can up load and work on your website. This is really good because you can get all the prepatory work done, although you won’t be able to publish as yet. This must all be done before you change your domain name. While you are doing this open up a “catchall” email. This way you don’t lose your email contacts.

Step Five: When you do your domain name change, you are not actually changing the name itself. It is like putting in a change of address when you move from your residence. So the only thing really changing is the server information.

Step Six: Confirmation You must receive at least one confirmation email for you name change. You will note the change somewhere between 24-48 after the change. It will take the same time for all DNS servers to note your new domain location. This is called a propagation period. Once this is all in place you can cancel the services of the prior host.

It is important to get the computer services for your SEO for there are more and more need of the web hosting and web design.