Guide

How to move a business website without losing anything

Switching hosts is safer than most people expect if you do it in the right order. Here's the checklist.

Before you touch anything: back everything up

Before starting a migration, take a full backup of your site files, database, and — separately — your email if it's hosted with your current provider. Most hosts offer a one-click backup; if yours doesn't, download the files manually via FTP and export the database. Don't skip this step even if your new host offers a migration service — you want your own copy regardless.

The order that avoids downtime

  1. Set up the new host first — get your site fully working on the new server before touching DNS. Most hosts give you a temporary URL or IP to preview it.
  2. Test thoroughly on the temporary URL — check every page, forms, checkout if applicable, and load speed before going further.
  3. Move email separately and carefully — if email lives with your old host, plan its migration on its own timeline; email getting lost mid-move is one of the most common migration headaches.
  4. Lower your DNS TTL a day or two in advance — this makes the eventual switch propagate faster once you're ready.
  5. Update DNS to point to the new host — this is the actual "go live" moment. Expect anywhere from a few minutes to 24–48 hours for full propagation.
  6. Keep the old host active for a week or two — as a safety net until you've confirmed everything — including email — is fully stable on the new host.

Protecting your search rankings

If your URLs stay exactly the same, moving hosts by itself has minimal SEO impact. Keep your site's URLs unchanged during a host migration — a hosting move is not the moment to also redesign your URL structure. If you're changing domains at the same time as hosts, that's a bigger project requiring proper 301 redirects, which is worth handling as a separate, deliberate step rather than bundling it into a hosting switch.

✅Back up first — files, database, and email, before you start anything.
✅Test before switching DNS — use the temporary URL your new host provides.
✅Keep URLs unchanged — don't combine a host move with a URL restructure.
✅Overlap both hosts briefly — don't cancel the old plan the same day you switch.

When to just let the new host do it

Several hosts on our list — including our top pick, Liquid Web — offer free, done-for-you migration as part of signing up. If your site is anything beyond a handful of static pages, this is usually worth taking them up on rather than doing it manually, especially for a database-driven site like WordPress or an online store.

ℹ️
Free migration: See our Liquid Web review — their team moves your existing site over for you at no charge.

Moving your site soon?

See which of our picks offer free, done-for-you migration.

View hosting picks →