
WordPress website migration is a process many site owners use to change providers to improve their site’s speed and performance to grow their online business. This article will give you a full overview of the steps for migrating your site to its new WordPress Hosting server safely so you don’t lose your data, and ensure your customers can find and access your new site location while maintaining performance and functionality. We’ll also show you the different types of migration methods, how to prepare for it, and tools to help you make the change as easy as possible.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- WordPress website migration is a process that involves moving all site components while maintaining functionality and minimizing disruption to users, business, and SEO.
- Choosing the right WordPress host and thorough pre-migration planning minimizes risks and ensures all essential elements are accounted for before the transfer.
- Your choice of migration method (manual vs. plugin) should match your level of technical knowledge and the complexity of your WordPress website.
- Thorough post-migration testing and optimization ensure your website functions properly and performs optimally in its new environment.
- Understanding common migration challenges helps you prepare for potential issues and implement solutions quickly when problems arise during a WordPress website migration.
Table of Contents
What is WordPress Website Migration
WordPress site migration is the process of relocating your website from one hosting environment to another while maintaining your old site’s functionality and user experience. Site migrations are more than just copying files to a new location. It requires managing various elements below, ensuring proper configuration, and maintaining data integrity throughout the transfer to a new hosting provider.
WordPress Core Files
The foundation of all WordPress sites is the core software that powers the CMS (Content Management System). These website files include the wp-admin directory, the wp-includes directory, and other PHP files that make your site function. During migration, they need to be transferred properly from your existing site, maintaining their structure and permissions to ensure everything works as before.

Database
The WordPress database stores all your website’s content, including posts, pages, comments, user information, and settings. It requires careful handling during migration to prevent data loss. The database also contains important configuration information that must be updated for the new web hosting environment.
Themes and Plugins
All your WordPress themes and plugins include their own files, settings, and data. This includes both active and inactive WordPress plugins and themes, as well as any customizations made to them. Just like the core software and database migrating them needs to account for their components and ensure they are compatible with the new hosting server and function correctly on your live site.
Configuration Files
Essential configuration files like wp-config.php contain crucial information about your new website’s database connection and other site-specific settings. These files need to be properly modified during a WordPress website migration to reflect the new server specifications while maintaining security and stability.
Media and Content
The media library contains all your uploaded images, videos, documents, and other content used for your website. These files can make up a large part of your site’s data and must be transferred while maintaining organization and file paths. It is especially important to ensure media files are linked correctly to their corresponding content after migration.
WordPress Hosting Migration Impact
It is important to keep in mind that migration can impact your online business in several ways. Understanding these effects can help you plan better and avoid issues.
Potential Downtime
During migration, you may experience some downtime. The duration depends on factors like the size of your site, migration method, and technical knowledge. Proper planning can help minimize downtime, but you should be prepared for possible service interruptions and try migrating during low-traffic periods.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Website migration can affect your search engine rankings if not done properly. Changes to your URL structure, site layout, or content organization can affect how search engines crawl and index your site. Implementing proper redirects and maintaining SEO elements will help keep your migrated site’s search visibility especially if you are moving to a new domain.
User Experience
The WordPress website migration process can temporarily affect your new website’s user experience. This can include slower loading times, temporary breaks in features, or the need to clear browser caches. Make sure you communicate with users about potential disruptions to help manage expectations and maintain trust.
Performance
Moving to a new hosting service can directly impact your website’s performance. Factors like server software and hardware specifications, and hosting configuration all determine site speed and reliability after migration. Monitoring these changes and making necessary adjustments helps ensure optimal performance with your new host.
Pre-Migration Checklist
A successful WordPress website migration begins with thorough planning and preparation. This helps identify potential challenges, ensure compatibility, and create a systematic approach to the migration process.
Choose a Reliable Host
Choosing the right hosting provider is the first step in the WordPress website migration process. Your choice will directly impact your website’s performance, security, and reliability. Choose a provider with modern server hardware and software compatible with your website’s requirements such as PHP and MySQL database versions.
Select a new hosting account plan with enough CPU, RAM, and storage for your needs. Make sure you factor in bandwidth, traffic limitations, and performance optimizations like sever-level caching. They should have strong backup systems and security features with reliable networks, and high uptime guarantees.
Evaluate the availability and quality of customer support and if the provider helps with the migration process. Many hosts offer free website migration services via their support teams.
Website Audit
Before starting any migration, it’s essential to conduct a comprehensive audit of your existing WordPress site. Start by creating a complete inventory of your website’s content, this includes:
- All pages, posts, and any custom post types.
- Media files and their locations.
- Custom fields and metadata.
- Navigation menus, widgets, forms.
Create a list of your active and inactive plugins and themes to identify essential plugins that must be migrated and remove unnecessary or redundant ones. Review any customizations and modifications to your site’s files such as custom CSS and JavaScript along with documenting their settings and configurations.
Next, check their compatibility with the new hosting environment and the latest WordPress version before moving your site to its new home.e new hosting environment and the latest WordPress version before moving your site to its new home.
Hosted.com offers free migration with our WordPress Hosting plans.
Our dedicated customer support team will help you get your site up and running as quickly and easily as possible.
WordPress Website Migration Methods
There are two main ways to migrate WordPress sites, manually or using plugins. Understanding these methods can help you choose which you would be more comfortable with and best suited for your needs and hosting solution.
Manual Method
Doing a manual WordPress website migration offers complete control over the transfer and can be necessary when dealing with large websites or if specific customizations need to be maintained. However, it is more technical and usually not recommended for beginners. Here is a step-by-step guide to performing a WordPress website migration manually.
1: Backup Website
Start by creating a complete backup of your site, WordPress files, settings, and database. You can use a plugin like UpdraftPlus or use your current host’s backup tools in their control panel’s file manager. This copy of your website gives you a fallback and keeps your data safe in case anything goes wrong during the process.
2: File Transfer
Use an FTP client like FileZilla to connect to both your old and new hosting servers. Upload the entire WordPress core files mentioned earlier to the root directory of your new server.
Next, transfer your theme and plugin folders and media library to the new server. Make sure to maintain the original directory structure and the correct file permissions and ownership for all files and directories are intact.
3: Create Database
Use phpMyAdmin or a similar export method to download your entire WordPress database from your old host as a zip file. Before importing, clean up the database by deleting any temporary tables, or unnecessary files.
Perform a global search and replace to update any old domain names, URLs, or database prefixes with the new ones. The next step is to create a new database on your new hosting account. Use the phpMyAdmin import tab to upload the cleaned-up SQL file into the newly created database and check that all database tables and relationships have been uploaded correctly.
4: Update wp-config.php File
Open your wp-config.php file in a text editor and update the credentials to connect to the new server. This includes the database name, user, password, and host. Save the modified file and upload it to your new WordPress installation’s root directory.
Using Plugins
The benefit of migration plugins is a more streamlined approach using automated tools handling most of the technical aspects via the WordPress dashboard. This is often the easiest way for beginners to migrate sites.
They offer easy site backup and restore options along with database optimization for improved performance during the transfer process. Automated search and replace lets you easily update URLs, database prefixes, etc., while file filtering lets you control which files and directories are included in the migration.
Some popular premium and free plugin options for WordPress website migration include:
- All-in-One WP Migration: A widely popular choice known for its ease of use and powerful site management features.
- Duplicator: A well-regarded option with strong security features and a free version.
- WP Migrate DB: Primarily focuses on database file migration, making it suitable for specific database-related tasks.
- BackupBuddy: A comprehensive full backup and migration solution with advanced features like remote storage.
- UpdraftPlus: A versatile plugin offering both backup and migration, with cloud storage integration like Google Drive.
- Migrate Guru: A free WordPress migration plugin that excels in migrating large websites quickly.
The general plugin migration process works as follows:
- Install and activate your chosen plugin on both the original site and the new installation.
- Use the plugin to create a migration package with your entire site’s files and data.
- Transfer the migration package to the new hosting server.
- Start the automated migration in the WordPress dashboard.
- The plugin will usually handle new URLs and path updates during the process.
Note: It’s important to ensure the plugin is compatible with your WordPress version and hosting environment for easy migration.

Post-Migration Tasks
After migrating your WordPress website, testing needs to be done to ensure everything functions correctly in the new environment. This helps identify and resolve any issues before your current site goes live. The best practice is to do this in a staging site, especially for major changes.
Performance and Functionality
Access your website in a web browser to ensure it’s working correctly. Thoroughly test all menu items and navigation links to ensure they lead to the correct pages and check that all core features such as posts, pages, comments, and media uploads are functioning as expected. The same goes for all installed plugins and themes.
Domain Name System (DNS) and SSL Certificate
If changing domain names, monitor the DNS propagation status to track how long it takes for the changes to be made and test site access if it is accessible on the new domain.
Once DNS propagation is confirmed, update your site’s URLs, social media links, email addresses, and any backlinks to point to the new host. Finally, update your XML sitemaps and robots.txt file to reflect the destination site.
Once domain propagation is complete, you’ll need to install an SSL certificate on your new server to enable secure HTTPS connections. After this, test the secure connection across all pages and resolve any mixed content warnings (where some content is loaded over HTTP instead of HTTPS). Most hosts will install and configure the SSL for you during WordPress website migration.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Check SEO elements to ensure they are correctly migrated. Verify that canonical URLs are correctly set to prevent duplicate content issues. You then review and adjust the robots.txt file to ensure search engines can properly crawl and index your website.
Next, submit updated sitemaps to search engines to inform them of the changes and help them re-index your website. Regularly monitor Google Search Console for any errors or warnings. You’ll also want to verify the implementation of schema markup to help improve your website’s visibility in search results.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
During or after a WordPress website migration, you may encounter some of the following issues.
Database Connection Errors
Database connection errors can occur if the database credentials in the wp-config.php file are incorrect or if the database itself is unavailable. Common solutions include:
- Verifying database credentials in wp-config.php.
- Checking database host settings.
- Confirming database user permissions.
Broken Links and Missing Images
Broken links and missing images often result from incorrect file paths or missing files during the transfer process. You can fix these by:
- Running a search and replace on the database for old URLs.
- Checking file permissions on the media directory.
- Verifying proper file paths in the new environment.
- Updating hardcoded links in content and widgets.
Incompatible Themes and Plugins
Issues with theme or plugin incompatibility with the new server environment can cause unexpected styling, broken functionality, or even a completely non-functional site. If this happens:
- Test each plugin individually to identify conflicts.
- Update themes and plugins to their latest versions.
- Check for PHP version compatibility.
- Consider alternative plugins if needed.
File Transfer Problems
File transfer problems can happen due to poor network connections, insufficient permissions, or incorrect file transfer settings. If you encounter any of these issues:
- Review the migration steps and double-check all configurations.
- Check file permissions and ownership.
- Verify available disk space.
- Monitor for timeout issues during large transfers.

FAQs
How do I transfer my entire WordPress site?
To transfer your WordPress site, back up all files and databases, transfer them to the new host, create a new database, update the wp-config.php file with new database details, and update your domain settings. You can do this manually or use migration plugins.
What is WordPress website migration?
WordPress website migration is the process of moving a WordPress site from one location to another. This could be changing hosting providers or changing domains. It involves transferring all files, databases, and configurations while maintaining the site’s functionality and appearance.
How much does it cost to migrate a WordPress site?
The cost varies depending on the method chosen, for example, many WordPress hosts often include free migration when you sign up. The final cost depends on site complexity, size, and whether you need professional assistance.
How to migrate a WordPress site to another domain for free?
You can migrate to a new domain for free by creating a complete backup of your site, installing WordPress on the new domain, using a free migration plugin, or doing a manual migration yourself. This requires technical knowledge but can be done without additional costs beyond hosting.
Other Articles of Interest
– Migrate A Website To WordPress From A Different CMS
– Migrating to a Higher Capacity WordPress Host
– WordPress Backup Strategies Before, During, and After Site Migration
– A Clear Guide To Migrate WordPress Sites Seamlessly
– Unveiling the Differences: Dedicated Vs VPS Vs Shared Hosting
- About the Author
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Rhett isn’t just a writer at Hosted.com – he’s our resident WordPress content guru. With over 6 years of experience as a content writer, with a background in copywriting, journalism, research, and SEO, and a passion for websites.
Rhett authors informative blogs, articles, and Knowledgebase guides that simplify the complexities of WordPress, website builders, domains, and cPanel hosting. Rhett’s clear explanations and practical tips provide valuable resources for anyone wanting to own and build a website. Just don’t ask him about coding before he’s had coffee.