The Solid Website Migration Software I Have Been Using Over 10 Years
Greetings, everyone!
My name is Rick Ng, and in this article, I will guide you through the process of migrating your WordPress website to a different domain, absolutely easy for those who don’t even know a single line of code.
Whether your website is as small as 1 gigabyte or as large as 100 gigabytes, I will show how it can be accomplished using a very powerful tool.
Once you surf around the internet, you can see there are tons of ways and migration software to migrate a WordPress website to a different domain.
But I can guide you a very simple way to do it using a solid plugin which I have been using for over 10 years.
So, if you find this information helpful, don’t forget to show your appreciation by bookmarking my website for more insightful WordPress tutorials as well as online marketing tips.
Firstly let me explain a little bit about “Website Migration” and why should you do it?
As a website owner, you might need to move your website to a new domain for a lot of reasons.
This could be due to:
+rebranding
+changing your business focus
+simply seeking a better domain name
+or simply move your website to another hosting with a better loading speed.
Whatever the reason, it’s essential to ensure a seamless transition to prevent any loss of data or functionality.
One of the most straightforward and effective ways to migrate your website is by utilizing the “All-in-One WP Migration” plugin.
I have been Using a WordPress plugin called “All-in-One WP Migration” for over 10 years.
All-in-One WP Migration has both free and paid editions.
=>Click Here To Visit The All-In-One WP Migration Website (Not Affiliate Link)
-For The Free Version, You Can Use With The Site Which Has The Database Size Under 512MB
-For The Paid Version, The Database Size You Can Migrate Is Unlimited.
It works amazingly no matter what your database size is 100MB or 3GB.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it:
1-Step 1:
Install the Plugin: Log in to your WordPress website’s backend and navigate to “Plugins” > “Add New.”
Search for “All-in-One WP Migration” and click on “Install Now” and then “Activate.”
The Solid Website Migration Method: I will guide you through the process of migrating your WordPress website to a different domain, absolutely easy for those who don’t even know a single line of code.
The Solid Website Migration Method: I will guide you through the process of migrating your WordPress website to a different domain, absolutely easy for those who don’t even know a single line of code.
2-Step 2:
Export Your Website: After activating the plugin, go to “All-in-One WP Migration” and select “Export.”
The plugin will prepare the export, and depending on the website size, it may take some time. Smaller websites usually export within seconds.
Download the Exported File: Once the export is ready, click on “Download” to get the exported file. It might take a few seconds or longer, depending on the website size.
Note: All-In-One WP Migration allows you to auto-download the website database file and store it under different ways (FTP, DropBox, Google Drive, Amazon S3,etc)
When I migrated my website, I decided to directly export the file to my computer
(It’s because I want to simply finish the website migration in 1-2 hours, not 24 hours or 48 hours).
I’m confident to say using all tips in my article today will help you complete your website migration within 1-2 hours, and you won’t have to buy any migrating service out there.
Please keep reading my post and I will show you how.
In my opinions, smaller websites mean that your website database size is under 512MB
For those websites which have a large website database like the site Glennreview you are reading (2GB).
It’s so painful waiting for your file to be downloaded.
Let me share my story when migrating my website from Godaddy to WPX Hosting.
I waited 1 hour for nearly 1GB/2GB to be downloaded and then the download process was suddenly interrupted due to something unclear.
My Home Internet Speed is pretty good so it couldn’t be the main reason to stop the download process.
It forced me to re-download the website database file which was so painful.
I really wanted to scream in hell at that time LOL.
Tip: I highly recommend you install 3rd-party download software so it can boost the download time.
After I got my download process canceled in the middle, I decided to use software called “Internet Download Manager” to download the file.
All you need to do is copy the download link and paste to IDM (Internet Download Manager) and then wait it do the rest of the work for you:
Magically, I got my 2GB of website database file in just 10 minutes.
Yeah, you can see the magic of IDM now.
Whenever you want to download something large from the Internet, I highly recommend you to use IDM.
It saves you so much time and effort.
Note: You have to “save” your current Login Detail (username + password” of your website to somewhere because after the website migration is done, you need this login detail to access your website.
3-Step 3:
Preparing the New Domain: Install WordPress on your new domain and make sure it’s a fresh installation. Remove all the demo content and themes, leaving you with a clean slate.
Let me further explain about this:
Here you need to visit your domain provider and do new configuration for it.
The process will be nearly similar for all domain providers.
For example: I’m using NameCheap, and I will need to add new Nameservers for my domain:
The next step is you will need to visit your new hosting provider and get the nameservers from there.
Configure the new nameserver to the domain of the website you want to migrate.
and then you need to wait for the configuration to get through.
I can’t say exactly how long you need to wait for the configuration.
-Sometimes I directly connect my domain to the hosting provider using the direct nameserver and I have to wait for about 24-48 hours.
-Sometimes I connect my domain to the hosting provider via CloudFlare
(Cloudflare is a leading internet security and performance company, providing CDN, DNS, DDoS protection, and security features to optimize and safeguard websites worldwide.)
And Normally when I configure the website via Cloudflare, it gets through so quickly (only 5-7 minutes).
Once you access your domain and see the new hosting provider shown on the homepage, it means the configuration is already successful.
(For example: I connected a website to Convertri Hosting and it shows the Convertri Logo on my website which means the configuration is done)
4-Step 4:
Now you need to install WordPress using the Done-For-You WordPress installer from your hosting provider dashboard.
For example: I’m using WPX Hosting and it allows me to 1-click install WordPress on my website as seen below:
Then You Upload and Install the Plugin “All-In-One WP Migration” on the New Domain:
Go to “Plugins” > “Add New” on your new WordPress installation. Install and activate the plugin.
Once activated, you can see “All-In-One WP Migration” located here:
Note: Please note that if your website database is bigger than 512MB, you have to purchase All-In-One WP Migration Unlimited Edition.
It means you need to purchase and then keep both Regular and Unlimited versions in your WordPress dashboard.
You can visit The All-In-One WP Migration’s Website and purchase the Unlimited Edition from here:
5-Step 5:
Import Your Website: Now, head to “All-in-One WP Migration” and click on “Import.” and then select the website database file you exported before.
Note: One more step, you need to access your hosting provider backend and increase the upload limit file size.
Some hosting providers set the default limit at 128MB or 256MB, and you need to increase it to a higher limit (like 512MB, 1024MB, 3072MB).
If you don’t do it, your import process might be interrupted in the middle.
Now all you need to do is wait until the import process is done.
The waiting time depends on how large your website database is.
Unlike the export process, you cannot use IDM (Internet Download Manager” for the import process.
For my case, It takes about 30 minutes to get my import process done.
Note: Now go to where you saved your old website login detail which I ask you to save from step 3.
You need it to access your website now.
Once the import process is done, you Check and Adjust Permalinks: After the migration is complete, go to “Settings” > “Permalinks” and ensure that you have saved the changes with the appropriate permalink structure. This will prevent any issues with your website’s links.
Verify Your Website: Finally, check your new domain’s website to see if the migration was successful. Verify that all pages, posts, and media have been correctly transferred.
Note: Sometimes if your website is already using the Cache Plugin, it might cause the minor issue to show your website properly.
For example, this is the screenshot of what my glennreview homepage looks like after 30 minutes of the import process.
It didn’t show my homepage properly meanwhile still showing other pages and articles properly.
Don’t panic, this is the cached problem.
-If you are using both the Cache Plugin and Cloudflare, purge/clear cache from both and then wait and keep waiting until your website is shown properly.
-If you are using the only cache plugin inside of your website, you also need to clear the cache and wait.
For my case, after 1 hour of the website migration, my entire website was shown properly.
So you don’t need to run around to seek any help if you face such a problem. It will be automatically gone after a few hours of waiting.
Note: After everything is fine, you need to do the final task which is “re-submit and re-verify your website in Google Search Console.”
The reason is that when you migrate your website to another hosting, “your old Google Search Console Verification File For The Previous Hosting” Is Gone, and you need to re-verify it.
Backups and Conclusion
In addition to using this tool for website migration, you can also utilize it as a backup tool.
Periodically making backups of your website is crucial to safeguard your data in case of any unforeseen issues.
Remember, it’s important to keep your website clean and remove any unnecessary media or data that may lead to bloating.
Regular maintenance will help ensure your website remains efficient and easy to migrate or backup.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article.
I hope you found it helpful and that you can now confidently migrate your website or create backups using this method.
(I used this plugin for over 10 years without any hassles, this is really my favorite plugin in terms of website migration)
If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to leave a comment below.
Have a great day, and don’t forget to keep following my website Glennreview for more valuable tutorials!