There are many reasons someone will want to migrate a WordPress blog from one host to another, your blog auto grew your current web hosting, high renewer fees, high monthly fees, you just don’t like them anymore, etc.
Whatever is your reason for ditching your hosting company, in this post, I am going to share with you how to migrate a WordPress blog from one host to another.
In this example, I am going to move my blog from WPX hosting to Hostgator, this does not mean that Hostgator are better, I love WPX hosting, but they can be a little bit expensive for most people so in that case, I recommend starting with cheaper hosting like HostGator and when you make some cash move back to WPX Hosting.
Before you move your blog, you will need an account, if you do not have one click on the back below.
How To Migrate WordPress Blog from One Host to Another Host
Step 1: Backup your WordPress files and database
In order to back up your files, just log in to your account, go to Backups, then select the website you want to back up, you can either download the backups that you already have in your account or you can create a new one.
Step 2: Download all the files into your computer
Click on file backup and on database backup to download both files into your computer.
Step 3:Add a domain to your new hosting
If your domain is not added to your hosting, you can add it, the first thing you need to do is to log in on your Cpanel (most hosting use it), locate the domain section then click on the addon domains Icon.
On the next page, you will see a page when you can add your domain name and then click add domain.
Step4:Upload the files into the new hosting
After you finish adding your domain name, just go back to your Cpanel, this time click on File Manager, then select the domain name you just added.
Go on and click on the upload icon, then you will see the window like the image below.
Click on Select File, go and locate the directory where you saved the files in step 2, select them and the upload process will start. This works best for smaller blogs for bigger blogs I recommend uploading your files using Filezilla.
After the uploading is 100% done, click on the go back button, then right-click on the file and then click on extract.
You will need to provide the path, this is the direction when you want your file to be located, we want them at the root domain, just type your full domain including the extension after the .com or.net or whatever your domain extension is.
Then click on extract.
Step 5:Create a new database
To create a new database, go back to the home page of your Cpanel and then click on Mysql Database Wizard. You don’t have to be technical to do this.
The first step will be to create the database name, just give it any name. Copy the name of it and put it somewhere (notepad, word, etc), then click Next.
The second step would be to create a user name and the password, make them you save them in a document, we are going to need them.
The last step will be to add the user and the database, all you need to do is to click the checkmark on all privileges and then scroll down and click on that button to finish the process.
Step 6:Upload the database
Now we need to upload the database. All you need to do is to go back to the home page of your Cpanel and then click on phpMyadmin
Select the database you created in step 5, then click on import.
Select the database file we downloaded in the second step.
Do not change anything, just follow the steps. When it is done go to the next step.
Step 7:Update database password and username
After finishing uploading the database, go back to the Cpanel home page, click on the File Manager, select the domain name we are moving files, locate a file with the name wp-confing.php.
Right-click the wp-config.php file, locate DB_NAME and change the database name ( the one inside ‘…..’ without removing the ‘..’,
Do the same for DB_USER here is where you put the username you created when you were creating the database.
and lastly, change the password, you change this by replacing the password that is inside the ‘…..’ after the DB_PASSWORD
Step 8:Update DNS
Now we need our domain name to point to our new host, this is why I always recommend registering a domain name using a different company, in this example if we had registered our domain name with WPX, it would be very difficult to change the DNS.
If you have registered your domain name at Namecheap this is what you can do.
Log in to your account, select the domain name you are moving to, and click on manage.
When you bought the new hosting, they sent you some information and one of them is the DNS information, most of the time there are two, ending with anumber.yourhosting.com. Just copy that information and paste it as shown in the image below and click the checkmark.
It will take up to 24 hours to point to the new hosting, I recommend doing this transfer at least three days before your plan in the old hosting ends.
Final words
Congratulations, now you’re fully IT certified and ready to apply for any IT job ( I am joking). This is how you migrate a WordPress blog from one host to another with zero downtime.
Your visitors won’t even notice that the blog when moved, thank you for reading, if you want to learn more about making money online or blogging please subscribe to the form below so that I can send you updates anytime I have a new post.