Common Mistakes to Avoid When Changing Web Hosts

While you wouldn’t think it, the truth is that your web host is an important factor in determining the success or failure of your website. Granted, you may responsible for its content and maintenance and that it is your hard work and SEO techniques that have driven up the popularity of your site; but if your web host fails, all your efforts go down the drain in one big whoosh! So you could accurately say that your web host is sort of the foundation on which your site is built, and because the foundation is the most important aspect for the stability of any building, you must choose your host with care.

When you’re choosing a host for the first time, you don’t know how well your site will fare – the jury is yet to take the stand and the verdict is not even in the picture. But as the days go by and you’re able to perform all the standard tests and analyses, you know how much traffic your site generates, how efficient it is, how fast it loads, and how reliable the information provided is. And with all this information, you also begin to become more aware of the continuing viability your web host or lack of it.

If your site’s needs grow but your web host does not allow you the room to do so, it’s time to effect a change. The process of changing web hosts is sometimes trickier than finding one for the first time – now, you know exactly what your site needs and you cannot afford to make mistakes during the change because that would mean a loss in readership and consequently a slide in your popularity. Most webmasters are aware of all that they need to do to move their sites, but common mistakes keep cropping up every now and then. In general, when you’re moving your website to a new host, keep the following in mind:

• Don’t undertake the change on your own if you don’t have the technical expertise to carry it out. Don’t hesitate to ask for help if the change is absolutely necessary; if not, wait for awhile before you change hosts because the change is disruptive to the smooth functioning of your site.
• Don’t change hosts when your site is at its peak unless it is absolutely necessary; you’re going to end up losing visitors who don’t take too kindly to waiting for sites that are down.
• Find out if the new host will satisfy all your site’s existing needs and allow room for new ones that will definitely crop up over the course of time as your site grows and becomes more popular. Most webmasters check for future growth prospects but fail to see if their current needs are met (their mistake is that they assume they will be met).
• Don’t cancel your old webhost before ensuring that all your data has been moved to the new host. The entire site, with files, databases, photos and everything else, has to be completely in place and up and running before you can safely cancel your old account and delete everything that is associated with it. To be on the safe side, keep both running for a while, and if there are no glitches, delete the old account. It may be more expensive, but it’s worth the cost when your site is popular.

This guest post is contributed by Bailey Digger, she writes on the topic of web design degrees. She welcomes your comments.