Sometime or another, it will happen to you. A client wants to change web hosts or perhaps you are changing web hosts yourself. There are a lot of things to keep straight and a certain order to do those things for it to be a smooth move.
Blog Pieces
To understand all you need to do in the move, it’s important to realize a blog is in a couple of different pieces. When you ftp to your web host, you may see the blog directory. This is where a bunch of files live — most likely with the .php extension. If you were to copy all of these files to your new host, you would not be copying your blog. These files are WordPress application files.
The main part of your blog — your content, pages, titles, categories, tags, seo information, etc — is actually stored inside a database. This database is brain of your blog. It gives WordPress the words to display on the screen.
Where to start
The first place to start is with the new web host. Do they have a one-click install for WordPress? If so, I highly recommend that you use it. Install a brand new blog on your new web host. The main reason for this is to get it in the new web host’s system that you have installed WordPress. This will allow for an easier time upgrading in the future through the new web host. If you copied the WordPress files from your old host, the new host would not know you had WordPress installed.
Things to copy from your old web host
Now, files to get from your old web host. You will need to get a copy of the database the blog has been using. The easiest way to do this is to load the WP-DBManager Plugin. Once you have loaded and activated this Plugin (on your old web host/WordPress install), you can go to Database -> Backup Database. Do not select the GZIP compression and select Backup. It will show you the file name of the backup and will put it in the directory /wp-content/backup-db. You will then want to ftp to your old host, copy the .sql file to your computer, and then upload it to your new web host.
While you are in ftp for your old web host, grab a copy of the theme that you are using and any Plugins you have installed. You’ll copy these over into the new installation for WordPress. The theme will copy over the look of your site. The Plugins may need to be updated, but with the newest version of WordPress, Plugin upgrades are automatic.
Things to do at your new web host
To import your database to the new web host, access the new database created in the installation process through phpMyAdmin. You can select the database that the new installation is using and click on the Import tab. Under File to Import, click the Browse button to locate the .sql file that you ftp’d earlier. In most cases this will run smoothly, but in some cases where the old blog has been running awhile, the database may be too big.
After this import, WordPress may tell you it needs to upgrade your database. Let WordPress do this. Copy over your theme and activated it. Check your Plugins for any that need to be upgraded for the newest version of WordPress.
Hopefully this gives you an idea of how to move a WordPress blog from one web host to another. If you have any problems with these steps or have questions, please feel free to email me.
Lisa B.
Open Source Maven
