Switching To A New Web Hosting Server Tips

When you decide to change your web hosting server, it is a somewhat difficult task to search for a similar or even better web hosting company that suits your website. There are certain very important things that you need to keep in mind while you are changing your web hosting company and moving to a new one. Below are some of the important steps that you need to follow while moving your website to a new web hosting server.

Before you decide to go for any particular kind of web hosting service, check whether it provides you with all the necessary features that your current web hosting service has been providing to your website. Check if you are you getting enough disk space, the monthly bandwidth, and almost 100 percent uptime guarantee. Also check if you will get special web scripts, e-mail, e-mail forwards, auto responders, add-ons, security features like fire walls and antivirus, the programming languages, website control panels, and other such important web applications.

Also, before opting for a new web hosting service, check all its agreement clauses carefully. If you feel that certain clauses need more clarification, ask the web host immediately. It will save you money and more frustrations later, if you are careful in the early stages. If the new web hosting service has its own forums, then take time to read the important threads and posts on that forum.

There will be many happy or unhappy customers writing about their experience with the hosting company. These views will provide you more information about the new hosting company’s service quality and how quickly the support team addresses various complaints. You will also get the idea of how good the entire hosting service is, and how professional their staff is. Check how often the websites experience site downtime, and long it takes for the support team to get those websites online again. Such scrutiny is important to get the information needed before opting for the new hosting service.

Also, check what operating system is compatible with the new web hosting server and does it match your existing one. You need to also check whether your entire website is compatible with the new web hosting server. Checking the compatibility of the web hosting server with your entire website is important. This is because of the fact that if both are not compatible then you may have to recode your entire website, or at least a major part of it, to make your website compatible with the new web hosting server. In the process, you may cause irreparable damage to your site.

Set up your domain name to point correctly to the new name servers. Again, ask your new host to help you in doing this. While the domain is being propagated to the new web server, many clients and web visitors will complain about your website either is being down and nonaccessible, or the data may become nonrelevant. Some may be able to see the new content, while some may only see old content. But these issues will pass away within 2 to 3 days. If this is not resolved, then you must again approach your new web host and seek immediate help from its support team.

After confirming all these important concerns, you can go ahead and register for their web hosting service. After going through the preliminary requirements, spend some time setting up your e-mail accounts. Your new web server must have all the e-mail related details set up, or you may lose important e-mails from your clients and web visitors. Get the POP3 and SMTP set up.

After signing up for the new web hosting company, you must upload all your website’s files and the databases correctly. Set up the File transfer Protocol (FTP) details correctly. Ask your new web host’s support team to help you, because unless you have correct parameters set up for the FTP, you will not be able to upload your backups and databases that contain important details and web content correctly. Each web file must have the correct permissions set, and must be compatible to the new web server.

Generally, the file transfer takes place through the FTP (File Transfer Protocol). It is much easier and much safer to transfer the files using applications like FTP from the old web server to your personal computer, and then from the personal computer to the new web server. However, before transferring the content from the old web server to the new web server, make sure you take the back up of the entire content is properly taken and preserved.

After uploading your web files is complete, test your website thoroughly. Check the various web pages and their graphics load correctly, and check that all the links – external and internal – work correctly. Also check if the changeover to the new hosting company has changed your ranking in the search engine adversely! This may happen if your robot file, file permissions, or the various Meta tags etc., may need careful rechecking.

While transferring the files to the new web server, there are many chances that something may go wrong and you may lose some or even the entire content. So, if you have the backups of the entire content including the databases, then even if the data is lost during the FTP transfer, you can reattempt the uploading of your web files using the backups.

As said earlier, the most important thing that you need to check is the customer support of that web hosting service. You should see that your web host is capable of providing you instant and top quality support in case of crisis. You can check their website, blogs and forums for comments about your web hosts customer support. You can even personally contact the users of that web hosting service and ask for the feedbacks.

If possible, you should keep the old web hosting service going for at least a few more days. Add a redirect page to the old website which directs every user who comes to this website to the website on the new web server. By doing this, you will not lose your earlier web traffic to the old website.

These are extensive procedures but each one needs to be addressed carefully. Your important website demands these tasks from you! Also, successfully carrying out these steps and tips will ensure a long-term successful association with the new web hosting service.

Even the best web hosting service may not suit all your web hosting-related needs, so check each of the guidelines carefully about your site’s needs.  A related search on internet can provide you more information of how to make the changeover to a new hosting service easier.