Switching hosts sounds scary. Your website is how customers find you, and you don’t want it vanishing for a day, or your email going quiet while you wait. The good news is that a move done in the right order causes little or no downtime. The trick is to build the new copy first, test it, and only then point your domain at it.
Here’s how it works, step by step.
Before you start
You’ll need to know a few things:
- Where your domain is registered. This isn’t always the same place as your hosting. Check who you pay for the domain.
- Where your DNS is managed. DNS is the set of records that tells the internet where your website and email live. It might be at your registrar, your old host or a service like Cloudflare.
- Who handles your email. If your email is with your hosting company, moving host means moving (or replacing) your email too. If it’s with Google or Microsoft, it’s much simpler.
- Your logins. Hosting control panel, WordPress admin, domain registrar and DNS.
Don’t cancel the old hosting yet. That comes last.
Step 1: Lower your DNS TTL
TTL stands for “time to live”. It’s how long other computers remember your website’s address before checking again. It’s often set to a few hours, or even a day.
At least 24 to 48 hours before the move, find the TTL on your main DNS records and drop it to something short, like 300 seconds (5 minutes). That way, when you switch over, visitors reach the new server within minutes and not hours.
It’s the one step people skip, and it’s the main cause of “half my customers see the new site and half see the old one”.
Step 2: Take a full backup
Back up everything, even if your new host says they’ll do it for you:
- The website files (for WordPress, that’s the whole wp-content folder at the very least).
- The database.
- Your email, if it’s hosted with the old company.
Store a copy somewhere that isn’t the old host, like your computer or a cloud drive. If anything goes wrong, you can always go back to this.
Step 3: Set up the new hosting
Create your account with the new host and copy the site across. For WordPress, you can use a migration plugin, or your new host may offer a free transfer. Whichever way you do it, you end up with a complete copy of your site running on the new server while the old one is still live.
Don’t change your DNS yet. Visitors are still going to the old site, so nothing is disrupted.
Step 4: Check email and MX records
This is where most “downtime” actually comes from. Your MX records tell the world where to deliver your email. If you change your DNS without looking at them, your email can stop arriving.
- If your email is with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, make sure the MX records stay exactly as they are in the new DNS setup.
- If your email is with your old host, set up the mailboxes at the new place first, move over the old messages, then change the MX records.
- Look out for the other email records too, like SPF, DKIM and DMARC. They help your emails avoid the spam folder, so copy those across as well.
A handy tip: take a screenshot or export of every DNS record before you change anything.
Step 5: Test the new site before going live
You can test the new copy before changing DNS by editing the “hosts file” on your computer, or by using the temporary address your new host gives you. Then check:
- Do all the pages load, and do the images show?
- Do your forms send, and does the message arrive in your inbox?
- Does the site work on your phone?
- Does the login to WordPress work?
- Are any shop checkouts or booking tools working?
Fix problems now, while nobody can see them.
Step 6: Check your SSL certificate
SSL is the padlock in the browser, and it’s what makes your site start with https. Most good hosts set up a free certificate (usually Let’s Encrypt) automatically, but it often needs your domain to be pointing at the new server first.
Check with your new host how this works. If you use Cloudflare or a similar service, you may need to set the encryption mode to match. And after the switch, click through the site and look for any “not secure” warnings.
Step 7: Switch the DNS
Pick a quiet time, like early evening or a weekend morning. Then update your DNS to point your domain at the new host. Since you’ve already dropped the TTL, the change should spread within minutes.
Leave the MX records alone unless you’re deliberately moving the email as well.
Step 8: Keep the old hosting for a bit
Don’t cancel straight away. Keep the old hosting for at least a week, ideally two. This covers anything that was missed, like forms that still point at the old server, or email that arrives late. When everything has been quiet, cancel it, and put your TTL back up to a normal value.
Want us to do it for you?
Digital Strength can handle the whole move for you, including websites we didn’t build. We copy the site over, check the email, test it all before going live, and only switch when it’s ready. Hosting is from £72 a year.
If you’d like to talk it through, email [email protected] with your domain name and where it’s hosted now.
FAQ
How long does a website move take?
The actual move is often done in a few hours. Allow a day or two overall so the DNS changes can settle and you’ve had time to test.
Will my email stop working?
Not if you handle the MX records properly. If your email is with Google or Microsoft, it shouldn’t be affected at all. If it’s with your old host, plan the email move as part of the job.
Will it affect my Google rankings?
Not if the site looks the same and works properly after the move. Keep your page addresses the same and make sure https is working.
Can I move a site that someone else built?
Yes. It doesn’t matter who built it, as long as you can get the files and database, or the old host will help with a backup.
What if something goes wrong?
That’s why you keep a backup and leave the old hosting running for a while. If something’s wrong, you can point your DNS back.
