How to Migrate a Business Website Without Errors

Moving your website to another server is a big step for any business. If you’re looking for ways to improve your website performance, migrating it might be what you need. In this guide, we will explain how to migrate a business website without errors.

Prepare a backup

Before you start the migration process, it’s important to take a few precautions. Fortunately, many of these steps are easy to complete and don’t require a ton of time or effort.

Backup

Backing up your website is an essential step in migrating it safely. You can use one of several methods for doing this depending on your hosting situation and the type of backup software that you have access to.

Database

A database stores all of your site data, including information about users and posts. This means that if any part of your database gets corrupted during migration (or even just after it), then there could be serious issues with how certain parts work on your new site going forward—so make sure you back up both the entire database itself as well as any individual files inside it before transferring them over.

Files

While not considered part of “the website” itself by most people, some businesses store important files like content management system (CMS) backups in their servers’ root directories so they’re easily accessible when needed; if this applies to yours then make sure they’re backed up before starting off on this journey.

Copy the database

To migrate your website, you’ll need to copy the database from one platform to another. Here are a few points to keep in mind.

First, the new platform’s database needs to be compatible with the old one. If not, some of your data will either be lost or corrupted.

Second, the new server needs to be compatible with both platforms’ databases; otherwise, you could lose all of your content during migration (or worse).

Third, all user accounts on each account (whether they’re added by an administrator or self-created) must have access privileges granted by both platforms’ servers at all times during migration in order to ensure that users can access all parts of their websites without interruption or error messages appearing when they try and log into various features or sections of said sites’ content management systems (CMSs).

Finally, hosting plans should also remain identical as much as possible between old and new configurations so there aren’t any discrepancies between hosting costs incurred before versus after migrations take place over time. Especially, since some companies may be locked into contracts with providers where annual costs per month might increase significantly if they were able to leave early due solely because there wasn’t enough time between those two periods being considered valid reasons for doing so anyway.

Export files

The first step is to export all your files from the old platform to a folder on your computer. This process can be done using a programming language that converts HTML to PDF which is C#.

Once you’ve exported all of your files, download them via FTP over to the new server. Make sure you don’t just download the most recent version; if this is your first time migrating a website and don’t have much experience with it yet, it’s best not to start out with such big changes as removing or adding pages. Instead, just transfer all of your old content into its new home so that you have something easy and familiar on which to build in future migrations.

Change DNS nameserver

When you’re ready to migrate, you need to change the nameserver. If your old host isn’t using your domain name anymore, this can take some time to get it back. However, if your new host is using the domain name for their own purposes, it’s best not to risk them losing access because of a mistake.

If you don’t have control over DNS (the system that translates your domain name into an IP address), then I recommend contacting both hosts and asking them to set up an internal redirect (a temporary redirection or 301) so that visitors will be directed from one site to another without ever knowing anything has changed.

Finalize the migration

The final step is to test the migration and make sure everything works as expected. If you find any problems, don’t be afraid to revert back by restoring data from your backup files.

After testing is complete, you should change your DNS settings so that they point to the new server where your migrated website lives. This will tell all of your customers that they’re on a new URL now—and it’s important that visitors know this change has been made.

The last thing left after migrating is updating all links that point to old URLs in order for them not to break when users try visiting those websites again later down the line (for example: if someone bookmarked their favourite pages before moving them over).

Conclusion

Migrating your business website can be a stressful process, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. With the right tools and a little bit of planning, you can easily transfer all of your data and files over in no time at all. 

About the Author

Monica is a passionate writer and content creator. Her interests include outdoor activities, fitness, technology, entrepreneurship and everything in between. Say hi to Monica on Twitter @monical_lee.