Small Business Hosting Solution

How to Change a Web Host:

Selecting the right web host for the website is a very vital decision for any business. It is web hosting that authorizes you to share information, sell products and services, and communicate with people through a web site. All small businesses nowadays host their own website on the internet. They want to achieve this purpose without spending too much money and time thus sometimes they choose a web host which is economical but is not appropriate for the business. They hardly pay attention while choosing the web host for the website, but as the business increases it becomes impossible to continue with the existing web host and a need arises to change the web host.

Following are six steps you can take to change your web hosting provider without having an adverse impact on your business and without confronting any major problems.

Step 1: Back-up Your Web Site Locally

Before informing your current host that you want to switch to a new host because of the problems emerging to your website and your business due to the web host you should first back up your web site locally.

You should copy all the files, scripts, dlls and the database of your website to your local computer system. You should also remember the important configuration information of your web site. You should get your SSL certificate and key, if you possess one and you should also record all the information about the software, drivers, security settings, and registry entries about your web site. You should document information regarding any modifications or updating that could be different on your new host's server as also the user names and passwords for any email accounts you have got.

Step 2: Find a New Web Hosting Provider

The next step in shifting from your old host to a new one is to find a new web host for your website. You should first jot down all the essential features that you need in your web host taking into account the development and expansion in your business and the current and future needs of the business. You should evaluate the various offers provided by different web hosts and should choose the best one for your business.

You should collect the software and configuration information for your web site and you should check that your new host will be able to support everything you are currently running on your site. Thus the web host encompassing all the required features should be chosen for the website.

Step 3: Get Your Domain Name Registration Information

The next step is to find out your domain name registration information. This could be done through a WHOIS site. Through WHOIS one can find out who has registered a domain name and information regarding the registration and Web site data could be found out. WHOIS searches multiple registrar databases to provide you with the registration information on millions of domain names with many diverse extensions, in spite of where they are registered.

You should visit a WHOIS site and check that are you listed as the owner of your domain name, if you are not listed as the owner you can not even ask the old host to transfer it to your new host. Then in this situation your old host or who ever is listed as the owner of the domain name will have to give you their permission to move your site.

Step 4: Move Your Website to New Host

Load all the websites files, scripts, dlls and database to the new host's servers. The new host will provide you with a temporary domain name; you can use it for testing the website. You should change the path information, relative links or script paths if they had been changed.

When you set up your new email account at your new host you should leave your previous email intact at your old host for a few days so that you can receive emails in any location. You should inform your customers and site visitors that you are changing web host and should provide the new address of the website.

Step 5: Update Your Domain Information

If your new web host is also a domain registrar then it will handle the swap for you, even if not then also it will certainly be able to help you contact your previous web host or the registrar with whom your site is registered. If you are not listed as the owner of the domain name, it is going to create problems for you. Make sure that when you are reregistered then you are recorded as the owner of the domain name to avoid future conflicts.

The change can take several days to initiate and can take up to a week to make its way through the internet. If you can keep your old site up for several weeks after making the change it will be better.

Step 6: Cancel Your Old Web Hosting Plan

After getting your domain name changed and your site up and running and fully tested, then you can inform your previous web host about the change and that you want to discontinue your old web hosting plan.

But before doing it, you should first read your contract and make sure the contract clearly states that you own all your site's content. If you are not stated as the owner of your sites content in the contract then your site could be considered the property of your host. You should thus write a letter to your old web host in polite terms and just move on.

One last check of all your links and thus you can officially consider the change of your web host. For some time after the transmission starts, your Web site will get visited at both its new and old locations. For the first two days most of the traffic will go to your old site, but as soon as they come to know about the change they will quickly shift to your new site. Thus once you know the exact steps to be taken, changing a web host does not appears as a difficult task.

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