Leaving one web hosting company and moving on to a new and better one that suits your needs more needn’t be a long and drawn out nightmare. But it can be, particularly if you haven’t taken care of some basic necessities to allow you to control the situation, instead of a web host who feels they are somehow being wronged, whether that is true or not. Let’s examine how to keep the ball decidedly in your court when saying goodbye to your web host!

Is It Really the Hosting? – Make sure that the web hosting company is really the problem. Many times clients bolt in a fit of anger over perceived wrongs, that are sometimes even their own fault. You could end up leaving a perfectly good host for a worse one! Take an objective look, and then make a decision.

Start Looking For a New Partner – Once you’ve made the decision to move on, (or ideally before) start checking out offers from another web hosting company or three. Not only should you make sure that the issues you’re leaving the first host for won’t be a problem here as well, but also that this web hosting solution will be one you can hang on to for awhile. Make sure it is scalable, and has all the bells and whistles you are seeking at a price you can live with!

Do Your Backups – Make backups of your site, and download them to your computer. Never depend on being able to access the hosting account you’re leaving to move them to a new host. Remember, you want to remain in control of the process, and, you should have backups of your site anyway. It would also be a great idea to have a virtual backup as well as a physical one. This is easily done for you if you have online backups of your personal or business computer.

Test Your New Site – Once you have the files uploaded and the new web space available, you need to test the new site to see how it renders. Your new web host can give you a temporary web address, (the real one won’t be live until you switch your domain name servers at your domain registrar) and you’ll be able to see what it looks like. Once this is done, and you’re satisfied, it’s time for the coup de grace.

Make the Transfer – The final steps are transferring your DNS addresses to the new ones your new web hosting company has provided you. Once they are live and have propagated around the Web, (usually an hour or two) you can safely make the call or send the email to cancel your old hosting service. Make sure you cancel any automatic payments to them, and make sure you’ve removed anything you wouldn’t want remaining on their servers.

Leaving a web host seems like a lot bigger task than it really is, particularly if you follow the above steps, especially backing up your files. Many have skipped that part, and regretted it sorely afterward! Here’s to your new web hosting company!