How to Change Web Hosting Service Providers
If you are paying for web hosting and are unhappy with the service or have simply outgrown it, you can change service providers. There are some aspects to this process to keep in mind in order to make it a smooth transition so that your website experiences minimal downtime during the changeover.
Find a replacement web hosting service. Make sure you read through all the terms and conditions to ensure it is a better fit than your current hosting plan. Let them know you are transitioning from another web hosting service, and see what kind of assistance they may be able to help you with. Ask them if you can test out the plan you are considering to see if it will meet your needs. You do not want to choose a new hosting plan that is worse than what you already have.
Contact your current web hosting provider at least 6 to 8 weeks before the changeover. This will help to make sure everything goes smoothly. If you do not give them adequate notice, it can cause a lot of hiccups when you are ready for the new service to take over. You want as little downtime as possible because time is money, especially if you are selling products on your site.
Update all your web pages on your old hosting plan. This is vital because if you only have the most recent backup from two weeks ago, you will lose everything since the backup and it will not transfer to the new host. Therefore, update your pages and then do a complete backup. You will use this backup file to import all your content to the new host. Once everything is imported over, you can go live with the new hosting service and if all looks good, discontinue the old hosting permanently.