It is pretty simple these days because all the mainstream hosting services make it easy for you. The process is simple and it goes a little something like the list shown below.
 1) Make a backup of your files
This is easy enough as you can do it on the cloud or you can do it manually onto your hard drive if you wish. You now have a safety net as you cannot guarantee that everything is going to go smoothly. At least this way you do not risk losing your website and all the work you put into it.
2) Create your account with your new host
This is going to be pretty simple because hosts make it easy to set up new accounts and are often the first to give you advice and help with transferring your website over.
3) Transfer your files to your new host
This is easy enough as the new host will have a portal or GUI that allows you to do this. You only need use the FTP that the new host offers or that you are planning on using with your new host anyway.
4) Set up your new email account if needed
If your new host offers this service then you may take them up on it, it is up to you as you may have your account registered elsewhere.
5) Point the name servers at your new service
You are probably going to have to go to the registrar that you used to create your domain name or buy your domain name. Some of the hosting services may do this for you. Have the DNS pointed from your old server to your new server? You will have to take advice from the registrar if you have difficulty, but the chances of that are slim as it is a fairly streamlined system these days.
6) Test your site to see if it works
This is as easy as going on to your website and testing it. You may also use the “site:†function on Google and test out a few of the links on there to see if they go through to working website pages.
7) Delete your old files from your old server
This is easy enough since you have spent most of your time loading and removing pages and elements from your server in the past.
8) Cancel your old server account
At what point you do this is up to you, but doing it in the order on this article will often mean that your website has very little downtime. However, it may be a case of when your domain name is pointed at your new server.
ServerPronto offers the best affordable and secure hosting service in all dedicated server packages.
Photo credit Flickr/Lars Plougmann
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