On Google, any people ask about moving to another web host or IP address without having any sort of glitches. If you have a static website or can spare one day when the site can move between two IP addresses, this would be helpful. However, if you have a dynamic site, the concept will remain the same, but will be slightly more difficult for you. The steps involved in the process are these:
Step 1: Sign up with a good web host provider
You can do some research work or follow some references to find a good web host for yourself. I preferred by present web host (csoft.net), which I selected after research, and I also found that the readership of the site was growing beyond my expectation. A non-SEO friend of mine used pair.com. Let me refer to the example using IP addresses. If we move from csoft.com to pair.com, the IP would change from 63.x.x.x to 65.x.x.x. DNS is a system used for mapping websites to the IP address which a machine uses, like, say, 61.115.6.132.
Step 2: Create a backup of your website on the new web host
Having a static website is good as it would just mean copying the whole file to the new web host - that's it. But having a blog is a bit hard since it generally involves MySQL for storage of posts. Some e-Commerce sites are more difficult for this purpose as the database is always synced over there. In such a case, you might have to set up a replica of the database between the old and the new location during the transition.
Let's cite an instance of a WordPress blog using MySQL database which can afford to be down for a couple of hours with little problem. Firstly, assume that you have used the FTP or tar for copying the static files from one web host to the other. You then need to create a fresh MySQL database on the new host. Normally, you can give the same username and database name. If not, then make sure you tweak the WordPress wp-config.php on the new location for updating the username, database name, and other relevant things.
You now have a new SQL database so that you can get away with the old one, copy it to the new one, and then load the database there.
Keep in mind that you not only have a username and a password for both the web hosts, but different usernames and passwords for the database at every single location. You may also have the MySQL database stored on a unique location, which is the reason I showed the host option while database restoration. Also, if the new host has a unique option for the database, you will be required to edit the wp-config.php file, else WordPress will be unable to access the database on your new host.
You have similar copies of your website at 2 locations. If your blog is just updated with a couple of comments daily, it's not a big issue if a comment is posted or if someone changes your database during the period when the transition is taking place. But if your site is huge and based on e-Commerce, then you will need to work hard to keep both the databases synchronized.
Step 3: Changing the DNS to point to the new web host
One needs to have an acquaintance with the term DNS because it's of paramount significance. Your IP address is indispensable for any agent striving to get to your site-be it Googlebot or anybody else. Rechecking the IP address after 500 fetches in order to determine the authenticity or making sure if some hours have gone are common factors. TTL (Time to Live), calculated in seconds, does have an impact if you have DNS-enabled browsers. It states that your fetched IP address is going to be safe for 'x' seconds and for this much time, the address can be stored. The browser is expected to proceed very slowly simply because the IP address is meant for everything on each webpage of your site.
TTL takes on an important role for DNS. Some websites like Yahoo!, Google, MSN, etc. have quite short DNS TTL setting of about 300-900 seconds. If you have several data centers, you will like to take one of them down to enable the data center mechanic to provide good data to the machines. If you have a short TTL, you will be able to pull the IP address of a data center out of the rotation in a few minutes.
It elucidates the days of 'Google Dance'. Staying nearly for a week and based on the data center that the user strikes, it served both the old and new results. Actually, it took many days to move the data to all the centers and having filled it with new data, each data center was overthrown and reinstated. The webmasters used to verify www2.google.com or www3.google.com in this course of time because they directed them to the latest data centers. Now, you can accomplish this entire process at the drop of a hat because of a perfect production system.
Step 4: Wait while the DNS change is propagated through the internet
Basically, this is a TTL function, and is based on whether you are actually switching to those name servers which are present in the DNS currently. Keep in mind that DNS is hierarchical, and it will take time for the DNS caches to be flushes as the TTL is exceeded. This switch, which cakes place at the root of DNS, would be quicker only if you use a smart registrar and a known set of the new name servers. The 'dig+trace domain' can be used in UNIX and Linux for verifying hat the new name server is present on the root server.
Step 5: The old website can be shut down when you know that Googlebot is fetching from the new web host and the IP address.
With the aid of your domain, your IP address can be verified. Make yourself familiar with the proceedings and remember that the new visitors should be endowed with the new IP address, whereas, it is possible for the previous visitors to employ the old IP address from their DNS store. Permitting a couple of days is recommended because it is possible for some people to possess long TTL set, although, these are mostly meant for a day or even less. So, get rid of hosting on the old location after a day. In order to have an infallible verification on this, test your logs and it is perfect if your log doesn't show any previous visitors.
Step 1: Sign up with a good web host provider
You can do some research work or follow some references to find a good web host for yourself. I preferred by present web host (csoft.net), which I selected after research, and I also found that the readership of the site was growing beyond my expectation. A non-SEO friend of mine used pair.com. Let me refer to the example using IP addresses. If we move from csoft.com to pair.com, the IP would change from 63.x.x.x to 65.x.x.x. DNS is a system used for mapping websites to the IP address which a machine uses, like, say, 61.115.6.132.
Step 2: Create a backup of your website on the new web host
Having a static website is good as it would just mean copying the whole file to the new web host - that's it. But having a blog is a bit hard since it generally involves MySQL for storage of posts. Some e-Commerce sites are more difficult for this purpose as the database is always synced over there. In such a case, you might have to set up a replica of the database between the old and the new location during the transition.
Let's cite an instance of a WordPress blog using MySQL database which can afford to be down for a couple of hours with little problem. Firstly, assume that you have used the FTP or tar for copying the static files from one web host to the other. You then need to create a fresh MySQL database on the new host. Normally, you can give the same username and database name. If not, then make sure you tweak the WordPress wp-config.php on the new location for updating the username, database name, and other relevant things.
You now have a new SQL database so that you can get away with the old one, copy it to the new one, and then load the database there.
Keep in mind that you not only have a username and a password for both the web hosts, but different usernames and passwords for the database at every single location. You may also have the MySQL database stored on a unique location, which is the reason I showed the host option while database restoration. Also, if the new host has a unique option for the database, you will be required to edit the wp-config.php file, else WordPress will be unable to access the database on your new host.
You have similar copies of your website at 2 locations. If your blog is just updated with a couple of comments daily, it's not a big issue if a comment is posted or if someone changes your database during the period when the transition is taking place. But if your site is huge and based on e-Commerce, then you will need to work hard to keep both the databases synchronized.
Step 3: Changing the DNS to point to the new web host
One needs to have an acquaintance with the term DNS because it's of paramount significance. Your IP address is indispensable for any agent striving to get to your site-be it Googlebot or anybody else. Rechecking the IP address after 500 fetches in order to determine the authenticity or making sure if some hours have gone are common factors. TTL (Time to Live), calculated in seconds, does have an impact if you have DNS-enabled browsers. It states that your fetched IP address is going to be safe for 'x' seconds and for this much time, the address can be stored. The browser is expected to proceed very slowly simply because the IP address is meant for everything on each webpage of your site.
TTL takes on an important role for DNS. Some websites like Yahoo!, Google, MSN, etc. have quite short DNS TTL setting of about 300-900 seconds. If you have several data centers, you will like to take one of them down to enable the data center mechanic to provide good data to the machines. If you have a short TTL, you will be able to pull the IP address of a data center out of the rotation in a few minutes.
It elucidates the days of 'Google Dance'. Staying nearly for a week and based on the data center that the user strikes, it served both the old and new results. Actually, it took many days to move the data to all the centers and having filled it with new data, each data center was overthrown and reinstated. The webmasters used to verify www2.google.com or www3.google.com in this course of time because they directed them to the latest data centers. Now, you can accomplish this entire process at the drop of a hat because of a perfect production system.
Step 4: Wait while the DNS change is propagated through the internet
Basically, this is a TTL function, and is based on whether you are actually switching to those name servers which are present in the DNS currently. Keep in mind that DNS is hierarchical, and it will take time for the DNS caches to be flushes as the TTL is exceeded. This switch, which cakes place at the root of DNS, would be quicker only if you use a smart registrar and a known set of the new name servers. The 'dig+trace domain' can be used in UNIX and Linux for verifying hat the new name server is present on the root server.
Step 5: The old website can be shut down when you know that Googlebot is fetching from the new web host and the IP address.
With the aid of your domain, your IP address can be verified. Make yourself familiar with the proceedings and remember that the new visitors should be endowed with the new IP address, whereas, it is possible for the previous visitors to employ the old IP address from their DNS store. Permitting a couple of days is recommended because it is possible for some people to possess long TTL set, although, these are mostly meant for a day or even less. So, get rid of hosting on the old location after a day. In order to have an infallible verification on this, test your logs and it is perfect if your log doesn't show any previous visitors.
About the Author:
About the author: Gregory Trune is a professional blogger in the web hosting industry. Visit WebHostingMadness.com to read his reviews on the top 10 hosting companies this year.
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