If you’re not a very technical person can be a daunting task to transfer your site to another host. Also you may run into several problems with your current host because they don’t want to lose you as a customer. When you ask for information about transferring your web hosting service they may not be forthcoming with the information you need. Therefore information in this article is very valuable because you’ll be able to go through the process yourself.

How to transfer your website to another host step by step

1. Select a reliable web hosting provider

Research several web hosting companies before transferring your website. The most important things to look for include:

• Enough space and bandwidth to host your website
• Ability to easily upgrade your hosting plan should you need more space and bandwidth
• Reliable technical support
• Server uptime is 99% (sometimes servers will be down to allow for upgrades)
• Regular backups of your site files
• Statistics to track the number of visits to your website
• Fantastico for one click installation of WordPress or Joomla

2. Download website files to your computer

FTP into your current server to download all files to your computer. If your website uses a database make sure you create a copy of it before canceling your current web host.

3. Change the nameservers

Log in to your domain name registrar to change the old nameservers to the new ones provided by your new host. They will look similar to this:

ns1.domain dot com

ns2.domain dot com

Allow to 24 to 48 hours for your domain name to propagate over the Internet. If you want to check the nameservers have been transferred successfully do a Whois Lookup by visiting whois dot net than entering your domain name.

4. Upload your files to the new web host

Upload the website files stored on your computer to your new web hosting provider using FTP software (e.g. Filezilla, SmartFTP). Make sure you also upload your database. You can do this using PHP admin within your web host control panel (cpanel). After uploading all the files enter your website address in your browser to see if your site is displayed correctly. Sometimes a few files fail to get uploaded. If so, repeat the uploading process.

5. Cancel your previous host

Before canceling the previous host make sure you have transferred your domain name and all your website files to your new web hosting provider.

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Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of http://www.DrostDesigns.com

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