Migrating a site without downtime
Moving hosts is routine, not surgery, under one rule: the old site keeps running until the new one is proven. The sequence, step by step.
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Hosting migrations have a reputation they no longer deserve. Sites move constantly, receiving hosts help, since free migration is a standard acquisition offer worth asking for, and the whole discipline reduces to one principle. Nothing is turned off until its replacement is verified.
The sequence
- Inventory first: the site's files and database, and the residents that are easy to forget: email accounts (MX records are independent of the website and the classic migration casualty), subdomains, cron jobs, TLS needs, forms that send mail.
- Build in parallel: the complete site set up on the new host while the old one serves traffic undisturbed. Files copied, database imported, web server and TLS certificate configured.
- Test against the new server directly: before any DNS change, the owner's own machine is pointed at the new host (a hosts-file entry does it) and the real site is clicked through: pages, forms, admin, checkout where there is one. This step is the whole difference between a migration and a gamble.
- Lower the DNS TTL: a day or two ahead, the relevant records' TTL is reduced so that caches expire fast. Propagation shrinks from a feared day to minutes.
- Freeze, sync, switch: for a dynamic site, content changes stop briefly (or the store goes into maintenance mode), a final database sync runs, then DNS is repointed. The old server keeps answering stale caches; the new one takes fresh traffic. Nobody sees an outage.
- Verify, then linger: the new site confirmed on the real domain, certificates valid, forms and email flowing. The old hosting stays alive for a week or two as the cheapest insurance available; while it exists, rollback is one DNS change.
What goes wrong
- Email dies: the site moved, and the MX records were cleaned up with it. Web and mail are independent; only what is moving gets touched.
- Hardcoded old paths: absolute URLs or server paths baked into configuration or database. WordPress migration tooling handles this; a custom site needs a search.
- The certificate gap: the new host serving HTTPS without a valid certificate at switch time. The certificate is issued before DNS moves, not after.
- Nobody lowered the TTL: the switch works, but old caches serve the old server for hours. Harmless while it is still running, confusing once it is not.
Let the receiving host do it
Managed hosts migrate incoming sites as routine; Cloudways and Liquid Web both treat it as onboarding rather than a favour. The owner's job shrinks to the inventory, the testing and the DNS switch, the parts that need knowledge of the site.
Recommended hosts for this path
Sites that have outgrown shared hosting and do not want to take on server administration.
Business-critical sites and WooCommerce stores where downtime costs money and support has to answer.
Quick answers
Will migrating hurt Google rankings?
A same-domain host move is invisible to search engines: same URLs, same content, a new IP address, which they handle constantly. Ranking risk lives in domain or URL-structure changes, which are a different project with their own redirect discipline. With the domain and the structure kept, SEO is a non-issue.
How long does a migration take?
Calendar time: a few days, dominated by deliberate waiting for the TTL to drop and the verification period to pass. Working time for a typical site: hours, most of them testing. Visitor-facing downtime, done this way: none.
When is downtime unavoidable?
Almost never for the visitor-facing site. The exception is a write-heavy application during the final data sync: stores and forums briefly freeze new writes so that no order or post lands only on the old server. That is minutes of maintenance mode at a chosen quiet hour, not an outage.
Last reviewed 3 October 2026 · Getting Digital