Facing issues with your hosting or just want to revamp an existing website? Migrating a website can be a cumbersome job and thus it is recommended you take certain things in mind to do it successfully. We will give certain pointers that will help you make no mistakes and ensure that the website has comparatively less downtime and has no change in SERP’s ranking.
Choosing a better host
If you are facing problems with the existing hosting provider and want to migrate to a new one or it’s just that your needs have increased overtime, you have to associate with a better hosting provider. Choosing a good hosting company can be a pain as there are so many of them. It’s better if you seek recommendations from friends and other knowledgeable people. You can also put up this question on forums and FAQ websites like Wiki how and Quora. You can also consult a website development firm, they will surely help you in this case. You should investigate certain things before making a decision:
- Server Reliability: Referring to uptime scores (ideally should be 99.99%)
- Server Upgrading Options: (Can you upgrade your hosting plan in the future or not?)
- Multiple Add-on Domains: Is there an option to add a few more websites on the same server?
- Renewal Cost: Will the cost be affordable or not?
- Refund Policy: What if you don’t like the server performance? Will they refund?
- Easy-to-use Hosting Control Panel: An easy to understand C-panel can help in many scenarios.
- 24/7 Live Chat Support: You can have issued any time, will the hosting company provide round the clock assistance?
Backup your website
It is important to back-up your website once you have made a decision regarding the hosting. You can back-up your files easily using the c-panel of your existing hosting before thinking of migrating a website.
An ideal back-up would follow these steps:
- Log into cPanel.
- In the Filessection, click on the Backups
- Under Full Backup, click Generate/ Download a Full Website Backup.
- On the next page, select the Home Directoryoption from the Backup Destination drop-down menu.
- For Email Address, select whether or not you wish to receive an email notification once the backup is complete. (You may also change the notification email address in the provided field if you wish.)
- Click Generate Backup.
SEO checklist
If your website has undergone SEO modifications and you have generated backlinks for the website, you should keep in mind the following before migrating a website:
- You should regenerate the xml
- You should apply txt file making any modifications that are necessary
- Keep in mind that the permalink should be the same (URL should be the same as the old site or the links that you submitted during your off-page activities will shoe a 404 error)
- Also make sure that your Meta title, Meta descriptions, and keywords are in place for every page.
- You will also have to regenerate your SSL certifications and reapply.
- Once you have made on-page modifications it is necessary to re-index the website once through webmaster tools.
- Do a rank check after 8-10 hours when the migration has been done.
- It’s best to test the website speed at the same time. A significant decrease in website load time can increase your website’s performance.
If you follow these steps, you will certainly benefit and the cumbersome job of migrating a website can be scaled down easily without making any alterations in your SEO. If you fail to chalk out a plan and execute it, you will have various issues. So plan in advance and go through the whole process meticulously. You can also consult a website development firm, they will surely help you in this case.