Critical migration mistakes and how to avoid them

Moving your website to a new host can feel like a daunting task, particularly if you have not done it before. A better deal, a server upgrade, or a change in requirements are all good reasons to move, but the process has a few genuine pitfalls. Get any of them wrong and you could lose data, face extended downtime, or end up rebuilding from scratch.

These are the four mistakes most likely to cause real damage during a migration, and what to do instead.

Not backing up your files first

Whether you manage your site by uploading files directly or you work through a template-based platform like WordPress, you can always create a backup before you move. A backup preserves your uploads, page content and the configuration that makes your site look and work the way it does.

For WordPress sites, there are plugins that handle this automatically. Set them to run on a schedule and confirm that nothing has changed since the last backup ran before you start the migration. If you prefer a manual approach, take a full backup right before you begin.

The point is to have a complete copy of everything somewhere safe. If the migration goes badly and you lose data, you can restore from that copy rather than rebuilding the site from nothing. Our guide to backing up WordPress covers the main options if you are not sure where to start.

Migrating at the wrong time

A migration can take your site offline for a period of time. In most cases this is manageable, but if something goes wrong the outage can stretch to 24 hours or more. Timing matters.

Scheduling a migration the day before a product launch, or in the middle of a campaign that is driving traffic to your site, is a risk that rarely pays off. You could be turning away visitors and losing potential customers at exactly the moment you need them most. Pick a window when traffic is low, such as overnight or during a quieter period in your business calendar, and give yourself enough time to deal with problems if they arise.

Starting without a plan

Migration involves several steps that need to happen in the right order. If you start without reading through the process first, you can find yourself stuck partway through with your site offline and no clear path forward.

Before you begin, make sure your new hosting account is active and paid for, that you have your login credentials to hand, and that you understand what each step involves. Read the full process before touching anything. Knowing what is coming at step four before you start step one makes a significant difference to how smoothly things go.

If you are moving to a cPanel-based host, the migration guide in our knowledge base walks through the process in detail. For a manual approach, the manual migration guide covers that too.

Not asking for help when you need it

Not everyone who runs a website is a technical expert, and there is no reason to pretend otherwise. If you hit a problem during migration, or you are not sure where to begin, reaching out to your new host’s support team is the right move.

A good hosting provider will have seen every variation of migration problem there is. Asking for help is not a sign that something has gone wrong. It is how you stop something from going wrong. The alternative, pressing on without understanding what you are doing, is how migrations end with a site that cannot be recovered.

Above all, make sure your site is protected before you move a single file. A backup stored somewhere outside your current host is the one thing on this list you cannot afford to skip. If you are ready to move and want a host that makes the process as smooth as possible, take a look at our cPanel hosting plans.