I just moved over a customer today with WordPress, and he was so happy to be transferred away from Godaddy and amazed at how easy it was, I realized a lot of people might be stuck on a bad host out of fear of moving. I just wanted to explain exactly how easy it is to move your site. Firstly, Web Host Pro offers free site moving for any WordPress and cPanel-based website. We do everything for you, usually within minutes.
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If you prefer to get your hands dirty like I do then here’s exactly how to move your WordPress site to a fast trustworthy host like us 🙂
1. You’ll need a couple tools. An FTP client and access to PhpMyAdmin or a way to export your database. VERY IMPORTANT – When you sign up for your new host, make sure to use the same “username” that you did before. Or your database information will not match.
2. The first thing is to simply download the site. With an FTP program like WinSCP. You would just highlight the entire folder the website is located in and download it to your desktop.
3. Next, you need to get your database exported. In phpmyadmin, you just click on the database and click export in the upper tab then leave the default settings and click go:
4. Now set up WordPress on your new web hosting account. Most hosts like Web Host Pro have an auto installer that allows you to add WordPress with one click.
5. Now upload the files via WinSCP and just overwrite the files that are there. Technically, you only need to upload the files in the WP-CONTENT folder, but if it’s easier to just upload everything, then go for it.
6. Now go to your new phpmyadmin click structure and check all. Once everything is checked, click drop to remove all the tables and content.
7. In your new phpmyadmin click the upper tab that says “import” and click “choose file” then navigate to the MySQL file you saved before and click go:
8. Now log in and update anything needed, it will have a message if anything needs to be upgraded or updated.
9. Pat yourself on the back, you’re now free from the shackles of your bad host.
Oh, there’s some great WordPress plugins that do all this for you, like All in one migration. If you don’t mind paying a little for it, you’ll save some time and effort with these. But make sure to remove the plugin once you finish the move. They use a lot of power to run.