Whether you are migrating from an old host to a new one, or splitting a website away from the existing hosting package and assigning it to a new package, there are several things to keep mind.
If you are using WordPress and some type of shared hosting, make sure to disable and uninstall WORDFENCE security plugin as it contains files that will cause problems.
If you use Cloudflare
- Your server IP address will change so you will need to update the IP address and server name from your Cloudflare dashboard
If you use Wordfence
- There is a good chance that some Wordfence files will continue to point to the old host after the migration. In that case, you most likely will see HTTP 500 Error message, preventing you from accessing the site (a technician will need to manually make adjustments).
- To keep it simple, disable to uninstall Wordfence before performing the migration steps
Website Migration Steps
- Step #1 – Take a screenshot of the WP Benchmark Tool’s performance results
- Step #2 – Disable and uninstall Wordfence plugin
- Step #3 – Perform a backup from the WordPress dashboard (old host)
- Step #4 – Restore the WordPress backup files (new host)
- Step #5 – From your Cloudflare dashboard, click on the DNS link and update the IP Address and Server name
- Step #6 – Take a screenshot of the WP Benchmark Tool’s performance results and compare
- Step #7 – If you are using a cache plugin (i.e. LiteSpeed), you need to purge all cache