Your website is hosted with some web hosting company and you are getting increasingly frustrated with their services. Your website has been down for several times, it is difficult to get in touch with the technical support team and when you finally do, solutions take ages to come! And then you notice that another web host’s plan seems promising and cost lower than what you are currently paying, so you decide to bid goodbye to the previous hosting company and transfer your website to this new web host.
There are several steps involved in transferring a website; you can either do them yourself or choose to get the web host to transfer it for you. Here are basically the steps of transferring a website from one web host to another:
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Save all files from your website
You need to use an FTP utility to download all the files from the web host to your computer. If you are looking for a free FTP software, we highly recommend FileZilla. Remember to backup the database as well. You can do this easily through a web-based database software such as PhpMyAdmin.
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Upload your files to your new host
Again, you will need a software to do this. You can of course use FileZilla for this task. You will also need to upload the database which you have backed up from the old host. Once again, you can do this easily by importing the database using PhpMyAdmin.
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Transfer your domain name
You need to contact the domain name registrar to update the Domain Name Server (DNS)
to your new host’s DNS information. Bear in mind that your website will not be accessible during the time your records are being updated which will take anywhere from 1 hour to an estimated 24-72 hours. -
Amend your website
Sometimes, your website might not look like how it originally was on its previous host. This is when you need to make amendments accordingly.
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Test your website
Make sure that every function of your website works. You can then end your subscription with your former web host if everything works fine.
The website moving/transfer procedures above would be tough to do for anyone who doesn’t have sound technical knowledge, and troublesome and time-consuming for people with the knowledge and experience to do it. This is when you should look for a web host who would take care of these procedures for you! As you can see that there is quite a lot of work involved in the transferring of a website to from one web host to another, expect some charges for the services rendered.
HostGator Free Website Transfer
However, a few web hosts perform website transfers for free. HostGator is one of them who would take care of all procedures and ensure that your website is up and running excellently on their hosting. There are other good reasons to consider HostGator as your new web host. Hosting plans are competitively priced and start as low as $3.96 monthly and all plans entitle website owners to unlimited disk space and bandwidth.
The bundled free Site Builder and Site Studio Website Building Tools enable you to build your websites easily. Subsequently, customizing and managing the website will be a breeze using the cPanel control panel, which is the most used hosting control panel used in the world. HostGator is generous with its freebies too, throwing in 4,500 free website templates, 52 free scripts that can be installed with just a few clicks, $100 worth of Google AdWords credits and a free domain name.
Editor’s Advice
The various attractive perks of HostGator’s plans should draw new and existing website owners to host their websites with them. For those who have websites hosted with other web hosts, transferring your website should not be an obstacle or deterrent in preventing you from hosting with HostGator. This is because HostGator takes care of every step required in bringing your website over from your former host and ensuring that it runs optimally with them, at no charge at all.
HostGator Coupon Code
If you are still undecided if you should transfer to HostGator or not, we are pleased to let you know that you can even get a whooping 25% discount on the hosting price by using the coupon code “GATORSPECIAL2011“.
Alternatively, if you prefer, you can use the coupon code “ONLYPAY1CENT” to get the first month of hosting at 1 cent only! Well, this is next best to free web hosting, right?!
To get these discounts, just enter one of the coupon code into the “coupon code” field when you are placing your order. Oh, you can only use one of the code, not both at the same time.
HostGator is a good web host. I have 2 websites hosted with them since 3 years ago and I am absolutely happy with the uptime and technical support. I will be adding another blog onto the same hosting account later… till then, thank you for the great hosting review!
Hello Amy,
You are right, HostGator is a very good web host and is also very popular here. Thank you for re-affirming this.
Thank you for the Hostgator coupon, it gave me 25% discount. I love it also they helped to transfer my blog from Blogger to my WordPress blog which is hosted by them. Hostgator is really good. Thanks ~~~
Fatimah Ali,
Yes, we have shared the 25% discount coupon. Glad that you are making use of it and get a cheaper price from HostGator. It’s great to know that they have helped you with your blog’s transfer. Good stuff! Thanks for sharing your hosting experience.
Thanks for the info, Jasmine.
Hi David,
Thanks for dropping by. No problem, I am just providing information.