Before migrating a WordPress site here are a few things that need to be considered.

• Design and UX

The key to a good website is creating it for your customers. Regardless of the budget, there’s a way to achieve this! It’s important to track insights, such as web analytics, bounce rate & session time.

• Check your new hosting provider’s functionality:

Checking the features of the new host is the first and most significant step to be considered before the migration of a website. Always choose a reliable web host for the migration. The possibilities of errors will be reduced if you choose a host with similar features as your current host. These features include Operating systems, control panels, etc.

• Ensure the URLs are the same:

Moving website hosts is an easy process in regards to URLs. It can be done by just moving the files. If the database and URLs are similar you can move by just copying the files and databases. If the database name changes then you need to edit the wp_config.php file. And if the URL changes then you need to change the home URL and site URL of the database from wp_options from PHPMyAdmin option. When your name changes then there’ll be additional concerns. Even though the files and database are moved there’ll be some references to the old domain which could remain within the database and might cause an error. So you must take care when changing the URLs. It is important if you are migrating with a new design, that the URL structure and content are the same otherwise you’ll see a decrease in rankings.

• Maintaining the Traffic:

One of the most important considerations for site owners is to ensure that there are no drops in traffic. Which means implementing traffic redirects. Map redirects for the blog posts, custom page types, and general pages to the new site using the proper HTTP redirect status so to preserve accrued SEO value and page rank. Sometimes redirects are required from one page to a different page, while in other cases, redirects involve one group of paths to another.

• Check Whether to Reinstall Plugins:

During WordPress migration, plugins have equal importance. So we need to think about the plugins before migrating to the WordPress site. The plugins that are used at the source might not be compatible with the destination server and it will create a conflict during migration. In such cases, you need to reinstall the plugins to avoid conflict.

• Check the Size of the Files:

You need to take the backup of the files from the old account, before migrating to a WordPress site. For that, you need to check the size of the files and directories. It’ll be difficult to download the files onto the system, if the size of the files is larger in size, as this might cause storage problems. So to avoid this, use the command to take the backup of files. Before taking the backup you need to remember the size of the files. The backup of the files is stored within the tar format inside the system.

• Check the Size of the Database:

It’s important to take a backup of your database and to ensure the size is exactly the same as what is stored on your current server (no change in size) as you could have missed some files. You can take a backup of the site via PHPMyAdmin or there are plugins such as ‘All-In-One WP Migration’ which allows you to take a backup of the whole site, including the database.

• Maintaining Aftercare:

Once your site is live on a new host, it’s important to conduct regular maintenance, especially with a CMS like WordPress, as if you have out-dated plugins it could make your website vulnerable and not function in the correct way. Our nerds provide a monthly maintenance service so you never have to worry about keeping your site up to date ever again!