You have a website and it has been working great on your host. However, It may be a time that you want to change the host for various reasons. In my case, I changed the host for better performance and to build up my SEO ranking. Check out two hosts below. You may want to host your website or your client’s site there.
Best WordPress Hosting
SiteGround
One is SiteGround which is a powerful WordPress hosting recommended by WooCommerce plugin, WordPress.org, and Yoast SEO plugin. SiteGround provides the BEST hosting support that is available 24/7 and has an extremely fast response.
InterServer
Another one is InterServer which is a budget web hosting but the performance is not a joke. InterServer offers a built-in security server and fast support 24/7. With $4/month, you won’t find this deal anywhere else. Plus, InterServer promises a price look guarantee. Renew price is the same price you pay forever.
Kinsta
I personally use many web hostings since I have to find the right web hosting for my clients and my own websites as well. Apart from SiteGround and InterSever, Kinsta is another level-up of web hosting for high-performance and highly secured servers. I choose Kinsta for my serious clients such as hospitals. Check all three hosts and see which one fits your needs best.
For WordPress site migration, there are two ways that you can move the WordPress website to the new host. One is using the plugins and another is using PhpMyAdmin or other MySQL interface applications (SQLyog). In this post, I am going to talk about moving the site without the plugins. I assume that you already have the new domain name or using the current domain name. Also, you already have the new host login (cPanel).
Moving a WordPress site without a plugin
Single-site and Multisite
In order to move the WordPress site smoothly, follow the steps below.
- Export the database from the phpmyadmin at the current host
- Create a new database at the new host
- Import the imported database into the new host
- Now changing the domain name at the new database via phpmyadmin
- For Single site
- wp_options table, find the option_name fields below:
- siteurl => https://domain-name.com
- home => https://domain-name.com
- wp_options table, find the option_name fields below:
- For Multi-sites
- wp_options table, find the option_name fields below:
- siteurl => https://domain-name.com
- home => https://domain-name.com
- wp_n_options table, find the option_name fields below (n is the number of mini-sites):
- siteurl => https://domain-name.com
- home => https://domain-name.com
- wp_blogs table, find the domain field and change it to your domain name without http:// or https://
- wp_site table, find the domain field and change it to your domain name without http:// or https://
- wp_sitemeta, find the meta_key field look for siteurl value, and change it to your domain name with http:// or https://
- wp_options table, find the option_name fields below:
- For Single site
- Transfer all WordPress files (wp-admin, wp-content, wp-includes, all files from the root) from the current host to the new host
- At the new host, visit the WP login at https://example.com/wp-login.php
- Log in and go to Settings then Permalinks and just save it twice without any changes in order to flush the URLs for the site on the new host
- Now your site should work on the new host
Migrate multisite to localhost
If you migrate the WordPress Multisite from the live site to your localhost (your computer), you must create a visual host such as myweb.local. Moreover, in your wp-config.php, you must change the “DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE” value to your visual host as well.
Search and Replace the old domain with the new domain
For the steps above, the image or link is still using the old domain. Note that, please backup your database before replacing the old domain.
You can simply replace the old domain with the new domain by using the Elementor plugin (Free version) if your site uses the Elementor plugin. Simply go to “Elementor>Tools>Replace URL”.
If your site doesn’t use the Elementor plugin, you can use other search and replace plugins from the market such as Search&Repalce plugin.
How about GUID? – database migration option
In wp_posts table, you will see the “guid” column. The GUID stands for “Globally Unique Identifier”. It is a field that is intended to hold an identifier for the post which is unique. Ideally, you should not change this GUID. The GUID field is primarily used to create WordPress feeds. However, if you never use the WordPress feeds, you may ignore GUID.
Regarding the method above, the GUID won’t change to a new domain name if the domain name is different from the old site. For example, you are moving the site from www.example.com to www.example.net. When you are moving the site using the method above, the GUID won’t change to www.example.net.
To fix it, you should migrate the database using the WP Migrate DB plugin instead of exporting and importing the database directly via phpmyadmin. I often use the WP Migrate DB plugin for migrating the site including GUID. It is working well all the time.
Moving WordPress site with plugin
If you don’t want to wait time and don’t feel comfortable with manually moving the site, you can follow “How to move your WordPress site with zero downtime”.
Conclusion
Moving the WordPress site to a new host is not too complicated. The main issue you have to focus on is the URL. If you are moving the WordPress site from the old domain name to a new domain name, you want to make sure you replace all URLs with the new domain name and no URLS refers to the old domain name. Moving WordPress multisite can be tricky. But if you understand the multisite structure, it won’t be difficult for you. If my post is helpful and saves you time, please consider buying me a coffee.
Lastly, choosing the right web hosting is important too. I recommend all three hosts above because I am been using them for so many years and they never let me down. Those hosts offer Free migration with WordPress experts.
