Moving a website to new hosting, a new platform or a new domain can feel risky, but most problems are avoidable with the right preparation.
From migrations I’ve run, the issues usually come from small things: no recent backup, DNS changed too early, old PHP versions, unsupported plugins, or forms not tested after the move.
A simple pre-move checklist:
- Take a full website and database backup.
- Check PHP, theme and plugin compatibility.
- Test the site on staging before going live.
- Lower DNS TTL in advance.
- Move at a quiet time, not Friday afternoon.
- Test forms, payments, logins and redirects.
- Keep the old site available until the new one is confirmed.
- Have a rollback plan.
Migration should be planned, not hoped for.