This is one of my worst week since I planned to change my web hosting account. I have heard so much of Hostgator and think it is time to move there since my web hosting account is expiring in 15 days time! Can you imagine how worried I was to race against time?
Now that I have a brand new web hosting account, it is also time for me to set a new rule on my blog. I have received some emails asking how did I improved my PR of over 8 millions 3 months back and now I am being ranked at 505,203.
Therefore starting today, I will make a blog post at the end of the week to share with you guys what I have done to my blog. Without further ado, this is what I have done for the week.
As I have shared earlier, my whole week was on the planning on how to move my WordPress blog to a new hosting account. There are many reasons to move a blog. Others moved their blog because they have sold the blog or move a blog on an addon domain to be the primary domain. I am hoping my decision to move my blog is the right choice as well!
I moved my blog because I felt the old web hosting account might be overloaded. At times when I try to save a post, it took ages to get it published. The next lingering issue was the Live chat also took awhile to pick me up.
On those unpleasant occasions, I also tried to use Live chat to Hostgator to enquire more details since I already had plans to change web hosting account. Surprisingly I was able to get help from the Live chat of Hostgator almost instantly!
Enough of why I decided to change web hosting. It is time to detail how I did it which is more important. I search the Internet for information and settled on the post, which gave me much more confident to move my blog myself instead of getting help from the web hosting account.
Support at Hostgator is always there. It is good to do it yourself since the experience you have learned is priceless.
A. Backup your database.
If you owned a few blogs, you will have a few databases lying in your web hosting account. Look for the right database. If your blog was installed via Fantastico, the default name of the database will be “wrdp1” followed by “wrdp2” and so on.
Step 1, click on the table, “wp_posts” circled in red on the left.
- View Post in Database
Step 2, click on “browse”.
- Browse Title In Database
Step 3, will show you the first few blog posts you have made. From the wordings of the title, am sure you will know if this is the database of the blog that you wish to move.
- Title of My Post
Step4, click on the “export” tab on the top.
Step 5, ensure all the tables are selected which is shaded blue in the top left. By default you are exporting it in sql format. Finally in structure and data, ensure you have the correct boxes checked and unchecked.
- Export Settings
You are ready to export your database and it will be saved in your computer.
B. Backup your WordPress content.
To backup your WordPress content, you will need a FTP software and Filezilla is everybody’s favourite since it is FREE and user friendly.
- WordPress Content
From screenshot, the column on the right(1) is showing all the files in my web hosting account. The column on the left is my computer. You might want to create a folder(2) in your computer to store the WordPress content that you have created.
Simply click and hold on “wp-content” and drag to the folder on the left that you wished to store your files and you are done! There are lots of files in there and it will take awhile for it to download into your computer.
C. Create a new WordPress blog via fantastico
I have done post before and you can read how to create a blog.
D. Restore your database in new web hosting account
Log into your Cpanel of your web hosting account and scroll down until you see this icon, phpMyAdmin. Once clicked, it will show you are the database in your account. Since it you have newly installed a WordPress blog, you will see “wrdp1” database in your account.
Step 1, check all the tables in your database “wrdp1”. Like I said, if this is your first installation of a WordPress blog, then it will be “wrdp1”. If it is not, look for the respective database that you wish to import you old database from your old web hosting account.
- Drop Tables and Import
Step 2, select the drop table option and when asked to confirm, click “yes”.
Step 3, you are now ready to import your database you have stored in your computer.
I did encounter a problem at this point of time. I think my database was too big and I had to upload my database into my web hosting account and contact the support guys to help me to import it. But I was successful with my other blog and that is why I am sharing with you now.
E. Restore your WordPress content
Once again you have to use Filezilla to upload the “wp-content” folder in your computer and into the new web hosting account. Ensure you are into the correct folder before you drag and drop it in. Do not drop it directly into the new “wp-content” folder. Instead drop it below all the folders.
Choose over write if you are prompted with this option. If it is a new installation, this step should be a breeze.
Every website has a unique Internet address and that is called Domain Name Server, DNS. Now that your blog is at a new web hosting account, you need to inform your domain name registrar on the location of your site.
If you bought your domain name from Godaddy, then go over to their website and tell them you want to change the DNS of your blog and they will provide you a link to teach you how it is done.
Finally I am almost done. I was able to see my home page when I have done all these steps that I have shared above. However, once I clicked on any link, I encountered error 404. Webpage not found.
This is so because I have edited my permalink to make it search engine friendly. Read more about permalink. Just log-in to your WordPress blog. Go to Setting and followed by Permalink. Type in “ /%category%/%postname% “ which is to make your post search engine friendly which I have shared when I started this blog.
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3 Comments
In my opinion, it ‘s impressive and useful. Thank you.
Thanks for all that info on how to move a blog to a new hosting account. I wanted to do this last year with one of my blogs but the very thought of it put me off. Now it doesn’t seem all that difficult.
Thanks.
Hi Robin
It is okay to be afraid and so was I as well !
I searched and took awhile to muster some courage to do it since I know I will benefit much more on a new web hosting company.
And I am glad I have done it! Really enjoying the service being provided by hostgator.
I hope you take action soon.
Good luck!
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