Website migration is not only a technical task but also a critical SEO event. If not done accurately, it can result in downtime, broken pages, and a drop in rankings. If you are planning to transfer your website to a new host without losing traffic or negatively impacting your SEO performance, this guide is for you. It provides you with a complete, step-by-step process to ensure you transfer website to new hosting without losing traffic or harming your SEO performance.
This guide includes a proven website migration checklist and strategies from WebFoundr’s own Fully Managed Website Services team. Whether you’re looking for the best website hosting a small business website or a complete website migration service, this guide will help you avoid mistakes and protect your SEO.
Step 1: Benchmark everything before you move
Before you transfer your website to a new host, set a baseline:
- Check organic traffic by page through Google Analytics/GA4.
- Check organic landing pages and ranking keywords using Search Console, Ahrefs/SEMrush.
- Crawl the website and export each URL using Ahrefs, Sitebulb, and Screaming Frog.
- Export the backlink profile and XML sitemap for high-value pages.
This step ensures you can detect issues quickly if something breaks after migrating a website from one host to another.
Learn how maintaining performance is part of our Fully Managed Services.
Step 2: Full backup + document config
To safely transfer your website to a new host step by step create a full backup of:
- All Website files (public_html or equivalent).
- Database dump (mysqldump or phpMyAdmin export).
- Environment variables, cronjobs, and nginx/htaccess setup.
- SSL certificates or a plan to reissue them.
- Email settings and MX records.
There should be a minimum of two backup locations (local and cloud). To confirm the integrity of the backup, restore it in a sandbox.
Step 3: Set up new host and staging environment
Choosing the right hosting provider is important, especially if you want to switch to the best small business website hosting or enhance performance. Follow these steps to migrate a WordPress website to a new host without any downtime:
- Make a staging environment with the same PHP, database version, and caching as the production environment.
- Create a staging domain and block indexing with a noindex tag and a password.
- Set up SSH, SFTP, and a secure admin user.
WebFoundr offers both fully-managed hosting and website migration service, so a managed provider can supervise the process and ensure there are no interruptions. For optimized hosting built for SEO, check WebFoundr Hosting.
Step 4: Migrate files and database to new server
This is an essential step when you migrate a website to a new server without downtime.
- Copy all files (rsync, FTP, SFTP). Use rsync whenever you can to preserve timestamps and permissions.
- After importing the database, update any environment-specific settings, such as connection strings and site URLs.
- Recreate scheduled tasks and file permissions.
- Install and test SSL certificate.
- Configure caching and CDN in the same manner as in production.
- If you have a WordPress website, check wp-config.php for updates.
→ Need expert WordPress migration? Visit a Fully Managed provider.
Step 5: Complete QA on staging
This is the heart of any website migration checklist 2025. A successful staging crawl that matches production is critical before cutover. Run full QA:
- Crawl staging with Screaming Frog to find broken links or missing pages.
- Test forms, login, checkout, redirect behavior and microdata.
- Run Lighthouse / PageSpeed and compare key metrics to production.
- Compare robots.txt and sitemap.xml to production
- Ensure canonical tags are present and correct.
→ If you need a team to handle full QA, see SEO Services.
Step : Plan DNS cutover & minimize TTL impact
This enables you to transfer your website to a new host without losing traffic during propagation.
- Lower TTL (Time To Live) for DNS records to a small value (e.g., 300–600 seconds) 48–72 hours before cutover. Lower TTL helps faster propagation at the cost of slightly more DNS queries.
- Schedule the cutover during low traffic hours for your audience.
- Keep the old host active (do not delete) for at least 48–72 hours after the DNS change to handle users hitting cached DNS. Many guides recommend running both in parallel during propagation.
Step 7: Perform Final Sync & Go live
- Final sync: rsync latest uploads and apply last DB changes.
- Put the site in maintenance mode if needed for dynamic sites.
- Change DNS A records to the new host and re-verify TTL behaviour.
- Reissue / reconfigure SSL if IP-based SSL is needed.
- Immediately run a post-launch crawl and indexation checks.
- Keep the old host available for rollback while DNS finishes propagating.
Step 8: Add redirects, and canonicalization
- If any url changed, implement 301 redirects from old URLs to new equivalents (server config or CDN edge). 301 redirects preserve link equity when set properly.
- Preserve URL structure where possible, the fewer URL changes, the lower the risk.
- Ensure canonical tags point to the preferred version and update sitemap.xml.
- Correct redirect mapping is the #1 way to avoid ranking loss during website migration service operations.
Step 9: Post-launch validation & monitoring
For the next 48–90 days, monitor these closely:
- Google Search Console: index coverage, crawl errors.
- Analytics: compare sessions by page to your benchmark.
- Logs: server logs to spot sudden 404 spikes or crawl issues.
- Backlinks: use Ahrefs/SEMrush to ensure proper backlinks and redirects.
- Core Web Vitals and page speed, confirm no regressions.
Step 10: Common problems and how to fix them
- Check index coverage, robots.txt, canonical tags and 301s. Re-crawl and submit sitemap.
- Ensure you have 301s for changed URLs; restore missing pages if needed.
- Verify base URLs, file permissions of assets (images) and that static assets were copied.
- Verify SSL certificate chain and host names.
- Recheck server resources, caching and CDN configuration, if the site is slow.
Managed providers like WebFoundr offer website migration service support including troubleshooting and rollback.
Why use professional migration services?
Even with a checklist, migrations can be time consuming and risk revenue. A managed website migration service bundles backups, QA, DNS cutover, and monitoring, reducing risk. Webfoundr provides hosting and migration services and can handle zero-downtime transfers and post-launch monitoring to protect traffic and rankings.
FAQ
1. Will migrating hosts always cause a ranking drop?
No. If you preserve URLs, implement correct 301s, maintain sitemap & robots and monitor closely, most sites see no meaningful ranking loss.
2. How long will it take to see if traffic is affected?
You’ll often see immediate changes in user behavior and crawl reports within 24–72 hours, but allow 30–90 days for Google to fully reprocess a major change.
3. Should I change URL structure during migration?
Avoid it if possible. If you must, map every old URL to a new one with 301s and monitor backlinks to ensure equity passes.
4. Can I migrate without lowering DNS TTL?
You can, but propagation will be slower and you’ll have a longer window of split traffic. Lowering TTL beforehand speeds the switch.
