10 Steps How To Move Your Wordpress Blog To New Web Hosting

First, I thought transferring blogs to new hosting will be quite simple, but it required quite a few steps to follow before we can really transfer the blogs. I was having hard time this 2 days, so I would like to share how did I transfer my blogs to Hostgator successfully, so that newbie can be following the guide before moving on too.

Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to transfer blog to new hosting :

1) Upgrading To Latest Wordpress Blog Version
You need to upgrade your wordpress blog to the latest version if you tend to use Fantastico to install the wordpress script in your new web hosting because Fantastico will install the latest version for you. If your wordpress blog has different version, when you upload your old blog folder to the new web hosting, they can’t be matched.

2) Backup Your Files And Folders
You need to backup your old wordpress blog before moving on, usually people will only backup /wp-content folder because they store all the images, plugins, themes, and etc in this folder. If you have any other files or folders, backup it as well. For me, I used to backup the whole blog’s folders in case I missed out any important folder, at least I still have a copy of it.

3) Backup Your Database
I’m just like a newbie in transferring hosting, I just knew the purpose of the database. Database keeps all the settings for your site, posts, themes and etc. Backup your database from your old web hosting’s control panel, under phpMyAdmin, you can read how to backup your database by following the step-by-step tutorial from Wordpress team.

4) Addon Domain In Your New Web Hosting’s Control Panel
So now you need to add an addon domain in your new web hosting’s, so that you’ll have a folder for the blog that you want to transfer. You can do this from your new web hosting’s control panel.

5) Change Domain Name’s Name Servers
You need to change the name servers for your domain name to the new name servers that provided by the new web hosting company by using your domain registrar control panel.

As an example for Hostgator’s name servers, they are “ns1075.hostgator.com” and “ns1076.hostgator.com“. DNS propagation will take some time to complete, it took only few minutes from my experience, if it’s completed then you’ll not be able to access to your blog anymore, or you can clarify this with the new web hosting company, then you can proceed to the next step.

6) Installing New Wordpress Blog In New Web Hosting
Before installing a new wordpress blog in your new web hosting, you need to access to your new FTP server to see whether it’s accessible, if yes then you can start installing a new wordpress blog in your new web hosting by using Fantastico, it takes you few seconds to complete the installation.

7) Upload Files And Folders
Login to the FTP server, upload the old /wp-content folder and re-write the new /wp-content folder. I used to upload the whole blog folders and re-write them, I didn’t face any problem.

8 ) Upload Database
You need to upload your previous database to the new web hosting by using the phpMyAdmin in control panel. Remember that database keeps all the settings of your site, posts, comments, themes and etc, it’s important to keep a copy for your previous database, otherwise you need to do all the setting all over again.

You can only upload database that is not more than 52mb, I had a 12mb database and it took quite long for me to upload, so I request Hostgator to upload it for me. You can contact your web hosting company technical support to see whether they’re willing to import it for you.

9) Connect Your Wordpress To The Database
You need to connect your fresh installed wordpress to the previous database, you need to open wp-config.php in the root folder and change the database name, username and password to the previous database’s details.

10) Completed!
So you’ve completed moving your blog to the new web hosting, if you follow the 9 steps above correctly and your blog should work like usual now.