Most people stay with hosting they have outgrown for one reason: they are afraid the move will take the site down, lose their email, or wreck their Google rankings. Done in the wrong order it can do all three. Done in the right order, visitors notice nothing at all.
The principle is simple. Build the new home completely, test it privately, and only change DNS at the very end. Everything below follows from that.
Before you touch anything
- Take a full backup from the old host — files and database — and download it. Do not rely on a backup that lives only on the server you are leaving.
- Write down your email accounts. Every mailbox on the domain, because these must be recreated on the new host before DNS moves.
- Find out where your DNS is actually managed. Sometimes it is the registrar, sometimes Cloudflare, sometimes the old host. This is the single most common cause of confusion later.
- Lower your DNS TTL to 300 seconds, at least a day before the move. TTL controls how long the internet caches your old address; lowering it first means the switch propagates in minutes rather than hours.
Step 1: set the site up on the new host first
Create the hosting account, upload the files, import the database and update your configuration — for WordPress that is wp-config.php with the new database name, user and password. Create the mailboxes too, so nothing is missing when mail starts arriving.
At this point you have two complete copies of your site. The old one is still serving visitors. Nothing has changed for anyone.
Step 2: test the new copy privately
You can view the new site before DNS points at it by editing the hosts file on your own computer, which tells only your machine to resolve the domain to the new server. Check the homepage, an inner page, the contact form, images and the checkout if you have one.
This step is what separates a calm migration from a frantic one. Every problem you find here is a problem your customers never see.
Step 3: move DNS — the actual switch
Only now do you change where the domain points. Two ways to do it:
- Change the A record to the new server's IP address, wherever your DNS is managed. This is the lighter-touch option and keeps your existing DNS provider.
- Change the nameservers at your registrar, which moves DNS management wholesale. This takes longer to propagate and moves your MX records with it, so only do it if you have already recreated your email on the new host.
Keep the old hosting running for at least a week afterwards. Some visitors and some mail servers will still be using cached DNS, and the old server quietly catching them is exactly what prevents downtime.
Step 4: reissue SSL and check the site properly
Your old certificate does not travel with the site. Issue a new one on the new host once DNS has moved — certificate validation requires the domain to already point at the new server, which is why this comes last, not first. On PK Hosting a free certificate installs from the Security tab of your service page and renews itself.
Then confirm the site loads over https://, the padlock is present, and that http:// redirects to it.
Protecting your search rankings
A same-domain hosting move is invisible to Google if the content and URLs stay the same. Rankings suffer when people quietly change things during a migration:
- Keep every URL identical. If any must change, redirect the old one to the new with a 301.
- Do not launch a redesign at the same time. If something drops, you will not know which change caused it.
- Check for a stray noindex. Staging copies are often set to block search engines, and that setting can travel with the files.
- Keep the site fast. A faster host can help; a slower one hurts.
Email is where migrations actually go wrong
Websites are easy. Email is where people lose things, because messages are delivered continuously and the mailbox contents live on the old server. Recreate every address on the new host before you move DNS, and if there is mail you need to keep, copy it across with an IMAP transfer tool while both accounts still exist. Our guide to business email on your own domain covers the settings.
When to just ask someone to do it
If your site takes payments, runs a membership, or you simply would rather not spend the evening on it, hand it over. We migrate sites onto PK Hosting for you, including the DNS timing and the email accounts — tell us what you are running and we will handle the sequence.
Or if you are ready to set it up yourself, choose a plan and start with step one.
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