The Secret to WordPress Website Migration

When you at first start a WordPress site, there are two or three things you ought to do. You chose to tackle making a site. You need to set up an account, buy a domain name, bring WordPress into it, and set up your site as well.

A year travels by. Your site has been doing extraordinary well. You are right now content with your work. Unfortunately, you get a mail requesting that you reestablish your domain name. There is one issue be that as it may: restoration costs are significantly higher than joining over again for another record. The most ideal way out of this situation is WordPress movement otherwise called WordPress Migration.

Moving a WordPress site independently can be a hugely troublesome process, especially in the event that you’re new to the system. Managing a site movement consolidates routine endeavors. For instance, it may include re-embedding content, and re-doing your site, while also performing fortifications. Since these assignments are out and out different as far as the specific know-how required is concerned, it may be hazardous to move a WordPress site on your own.

What makes WordPress migration such a complicated task, is the way that different things can turn out severely troublesome in the midst of the migration strategy. This is the reason it’s basic to have a reinforcement fortification of the site before the migration begins. The site also ought to be constantly checked through the system.

How to move your WordPress site

There are a few factors which could help determine what your migration experience is like:

• Expertise required
• Labor required
• Appropriate amount of Time taken
• Efficiency (or accuracy)

Based on these factors, you can choose to perform a WordPress migration in two ways:

1. Migrate WordPress site manually
2. Migrate using a WordPress plugin such as Migrate Guru.

Every process has its pros and cons, but the trade-off depends on how important the above factors are, to you.

Migrate WordPress site manually

To manually migrate your WordPress site, you need to perform the following steps (explained in the WordPress codex):

1. Backup your complete site. You can do this manually, or via a tool, like a WordPress backup plugin like BlogVault. WordPress sites consist of 2 main parts: files, and a database. Both these parts are equally important and must be backed up before you make any changes to (or move) your WordPress site. To backup the site, you need to copy of the files via FTP, and the database, imported via phpMyAdmin.
2. Backup the database. Now that your files are cautiously placed on your local computer, you must export the WordPress database. You will need access to cPanels as well.
   1. Log in to your cPanel
   2. Navigate to Databases section
   3. Open phpMyAdmin
   4. Choose the Export tab
   5. Select a method
   6. Pick a format
   7. Click Go button to save the database on your computer

   

3. Make a new database on the new host. To move your site to a new domain, you’ll need to create a new database on the hosting service you’re moving to. This also means creating a new MySQL user with a secure password.
   1. Open cPanel on new host
   2. Navigate to MySQL Database
   3. Create a new database
   4. Create a new MySQL user
   5. Add new user account to the newly created database with all privileges selected
   6. Copy database name, username, and password

   
   Note: Once this has been done, keep the database name, new MySQL username and its password safe.

4. Alter the wp-config.php file to reflect the new database changes. You’ll need to change the database name, the database username, and the database user password.
   1. Open the WordPress folder you backed up previously.
   2. Make a copy of wp-config.php file just in case you do something wrong
   3. Open the wp-config.php file and look for this code:
      define('DB_NAME', 'your_database_name');
/*The MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'your_user_name');
/*The MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'your_password');
   4. Modify the database name, username, and password to newly created ones
   5. Save changes
5. Operate another backup. Be sure of this backup not overwriting the previous one. It should contain all the new modifications made to the database. Take after the means indicated in Step 1
6. Import the Backup to the new domain. Subsequently, you’ll have to move the files and database to the new domain via FTP and phpMyAdmin, respectively. Follow the below steps:
   a.  Login to your FTP account
   b.  Find WordPress or public_html folder
   c.  Upload the entire WordPress folder from your computer
7. Link your site to the new domain. When you’ve got external links on your site, they might break when you move them to a new domain. This is why it’s important that you update the links to point to the new domain. You can do this either manually, or via a plugin like Better Search and Replace or Search and Replace.
8. Update (or repoint) your DNS. You’ll have to update your DNS settings so they point to the new server instead of the old one. You can get the details required from your domain registrar.

Benefits and Disadvantages of a manual WordPress migration

Here are the pros:

• It is good methodology if you’re acquainted with WordPress
• It is free
• It gives you control

Now for the cons:

• It takes time
• It needs manual work
• It can be intimidating for a first-timer
• You need to be very careful at every step of the process

This is why substitute measures exist. There are migration services provided by web hosts, and a more popular option – WordPress migration plugins.

Migrate your WordPress site with Migrate Guru

Migration plugins on the other hand, are tools that through and through enhance the manual migration process for you. There are numerous WordPress migration plugins available in the vault. While their strategies vacillate barely, they all work on the central feature of playing a backup system, moving it to the new territory, and normally offering a Find and Replace work with the objective that URLs can be reexamined.

For depiction, we will take you through the path toward moving your WordPress site with Migrate Guru, a WordPress migration module that is phenomenal for moving gigantic WordPress websites.

Pros:

• Free
• Needs minimal manual work

Cons:

• Takes less time

The Necessary information required for using Migrate Guru

Migrating a site with Migrate Guru comes with a few simple prerequisites:

1. A new hosting account with a domain that has WordPress installed and knowledge of the directory in which you installed WordPress (You would have selected this when you set up a domain on your new hosting account)
2. Migrate Guru WordPress plugin installed on the site you want to move. You can do this by logging in to the site you want to move (the source site), navigating to ‘Plugins’ and clicking on ‘Add new’. Type in ‘Migrate Guru’ in the search bar, and click on ‘Install Now’.

Once installed, activate the plugin.

Using Migrate Guru

Step 1: Choose the host you want to migrate to, via Migrate Guru

a) If your destination host is on Migrate Guru’s list of hosts, choose one of them.

b) If you can’t see your host in the list, you can choose to move your site via FTP or cPanel, depending on which option you have the credentials for.

If you select FTP instead of a host, this is what you should see:

You’ll be asked for the following details:

• Email address: The email address to which you’ll be receiving emails detailing the progress of your migration
• Destination site URL: the URL of the domain you’re moving your site to
• FTP type: Make sure you know which protocol your host uses – FTP, SFTP, or FTPS. If you enter the wrong protocol, Migrate Guru will prompt you to change it.
• Host/Server Address: This should be on your hosting account’s cPanel.
• FTP Username and Password

If you select cPanel instead of a host, these are the details you will be asked for:

• Email address: The email address to which you’ll be receiving emails detailing the progress of your migration)
• Destination site URL: The URL of the domain you’re moving your site to
• cPanel Username and password

Note:

If your site is HTTP Authenticated, click on ‘Advanced options’ and enter the username and password for the source and destination site. They are needed ONLY if either the site being moved or the destination site is ‘https://’ instead of ‘http://’. If the URLs of either one begin with ‘https://’, they are HTTP authenticated. These credentials can be retrieved from the site’s server logs. Some website hosts offer apps in cPanel that make it easier to browse those logs.

Step 2: Fill up the form, click ‘Migrate’
When you have every one of the points of interest required ticked, top off the Migrate Guru frame, and tap on the Migrate.

Doing as such will take you to a constant progress screen where you can perceive the amount of the migration procedure is finished, and what amount is yet to be.

Migrate Guru will send you an email notification confirming that the process of migration has begun. Meanwhile, you will also be taken to a screen that portrays the real-time progress of your website migration. The link for the same can also be found in the mail notification.

Once the migration process is completed, you will receive another email from Migrate Guru notifying about the successful migration, and the link to the migrated site.

Reminder:

After your migration is over, it’s important that you repoint the DNS of your site to the location it’s been moved to. It takes about 4 hours for this to happen. For most hosting accounts, you can edit your DNS settings from the cPanel, under a variant of ‘DNS settings’.

Note: This link should help you with the details for Bluehost

Final Note

WordPress migration can be stressful especially if you’re new to the ecosystem or are unfamiliar with the processes required. However, having a WordPress migration plugin like Migrate Guru notably preserves time and effort to move your site without any downtime.