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How-toWordPress

How to migrate a WordPress site

Reading time
7 min
Last updated
25 Sep 2026

Migrating WordPress is mostly about sequence. Copy everything, test it on the new host while the old one is still serving traffic, and only then move DNS. Do it in that order and nobody sees an outage.

  1. 01

    Back up everything first

    Both halves: the files (wp-content especially) and the database. Take the backup from the old host and download it to your own machine — not just to the old server. A migration backup stored only on the server you are leaving is not a backup.

  2. 02

    Copy the site to the new host

    Three routes, in order of how much control they give you:

    • Ask us. Free managed migration on every plan — send credentials and we move it, usually the same day. Most people should stop here.
    • A migration plugin. All-in-One WP Migration or Duplicator. Fine for small sites; large ones hit upload limits.
    • Manually. Upload files over SFTP, export the database with mysqldump, import via phpMyAdmin, then update wp-config.php with the new database name, user and password.
  3. 03

    Test before DNS moves

    This is the step that prevents downtime, and the one people skip. Edit the hosts file on your own computer so only you resolve the domain to the new server:

    203.0.113.10   example.in www.example.in

    On macOS and Linux that is /etc/hosts; on Windows, C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts. Now browse the real domain on the new host while everyone else still gets the old one. Check the homepage, an inner page, a form, the admin login and any payment flow.

  4. 04

    Move DNS, then clean up

    Lower the TTL a day in advance, then change nameservers or the A record. Keep the old hosting running for at least a week — DNS caches clear at their own pace and some visitors will still land there.

    Once traffic has fully shifted: run AutoSSL on the new host, re-save permalinks in Settings → Permalinks, and remove the hosts file entry you added.

What usually goes wrong

  • Hard-coded URLs. If the domain changes too, the database is full of old absolute URLs. Use WP-CLI search-replace, which handles serialised data — a plain SQL find-and-replace corrupts it.
  • PHP version mismatch. A site running on PHP 7.4 may fatal on 8.3. Match the old version first, then upgrade deliberately.
  • File permissions. Folders 755, files 644. Wrong permissions after an SFTP copy show as media upload failures.
  • Mixed content. Moving from HTTP to HTTPS at the same time means the search-replace has to cover the protocol too.
  • Email. Covered in the DNS guide, and still the thing most likely to bite you.

Protecting rankings through a move

A same-domain host migration should cost you nothing in search, provided:

  • URLs stay identical — same paths, same trailing slashes.
  • The site is not accidentally left with Discourage search engines ticked on the new host.
  • robots.txt comes across and does not block the site.
  • Response times do not get worse. If the new host is slower, that is a ranking change.

Watch Search Console coverage for a fortnight afterwards. A jump in crawl errors is the early warning.

Common questions

Not if you copy and test before touching DNS. The old site keeps serving traffic the whole time; the switch is a DNS change, and visitors move across as caches expire.
Yes, on every plan including the cheapest shared one. Our engineers move the files, the database and the DNS, and keep the old copy warm for 14 days after cutover.
A typical business site takes under an hour to copy. DNS propagation then adds 30 minutes to a few hours before every visitor is on the new server.
Yes, and it is one of the more common reasons people move to us. Measured from Indian home and office connections, a round trip to a server in Singapore takes about 70 ms and to Virginia about 250 ms; to Mumbai it is about 35 ms.

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