WordPress Websites are 25% of the web design market share. is a very powerful content management system. It contains loads of excellent features that help to expedite the process of building and updating a website. However, when an issue comes up, WordPress could become a frustrating platform to use.
One of the biggest issues that I’ve seen with WordPress users is moving a WordPress website to a new web hosting company. In this article, I will walk you through 5 simple steps of moving a WordPress website to a new hosting.
With no hesitation lets jump right in.
Step One First thing, we need to back up the database from the old site. WordPress has numerous plugins to backup the database, my favorite is a plugin called wp-db-backup. Once the plugin is downloaded and activated, hover over Tools in the dashboard and select backup in the sub-menu.
The plugin will look for other tables in the same database. Keep in mind that if you choose to include all tables your backup file may be increased drastically.
Select whether you want the backup file sent to you by email or downloaded onto your computer and click the Backup Now! button.
Also write about… to include in the steps: how to SSH into the server and run the MySQL commands to backup and download the .sql files necessary to move. mysqldump -u root [database_name] > dumpfilename.sql
Step Two Now it is time to back up the content from the old location (plugins, themes, images, ext.). Log into an FTP client, like Filzilla, and navigate to the wp-content on the old location and download the folder onto your computer.
Note that this step might take a while depending on the amount of content that website contains. After this stage the website will be fully backed up.
Step Three Now you will need to move the website to the new location. In the last step you downloaded a folder called wp-content. Use the FTP client to navigate to where WordPress is installed on the new website and upload from your computer the wp-content folder. Now, the content is moved to the new location.
Step Four In this step you will be working with the control panel provided by your hosting company. Note that the options provided in this step might be described slightly different for each hosting company.
Earlier you backed up the database from the old website using wp-db-backup plugin. You were given two option to receive the backup file; downloaded onto the computer or sent by email. Make the file available on your computer.
Log onto your new hosting provider dashboard and click on mySQL database.
Click on the database that you created for the new website and access Access phpMyAdmin. Select the database on the left pan.
Click on **import **on the top navigation
upload the database backup file that you created earlier.
Step Five Change the database options table.
Expend the new database that you uploaded and select wp_options from the left navigation. Change the URL and Home fields to your domain and save the changes.
This is it! It’s that simple.
Hopefully, this article has helped you moving your WordPress site to a new location. Allow yourself to feel more confident and shop around for a new hosting plan that suites you best.