Transferring your website is often a time-consuming process. It takes a lot of effort to choose a new platform and then to actually make up your mind about whether the migration is worth it. But it’s often not a question of a whim, but a necessity to keep a business alive. If your metrics are falling off and the prices of your current provider have recently skyrocketed without offering you any new benefits, perhaps it’s time for a change. You can consider moving your website to another platform, for instance, a website builder that offers more functionality.
Learn how to boost your website performance by simply migrating it to another platform.
What is a Website Migration?
Website migration doesn’t mean you have to build your website again from scratch on another platform. The process might look overwhelming, but it mostly means that you have to download your website from one platform and then upload it to another. It also means that you might want to change your domain and hosting provider, depending on what kind of service you use. A CMS like WordPress requires you to pay separately for domain and hosting services, which can be inconvenient. That’s why some users prefer to transfer their websites from CMS to website builders which provides all maintenance in one place.
Why Should You Transfer Your Website?
We noticed three main reasons why people choose to transfer their websites.
Bad Search Engine Optimization
If you notice that your metrics are getting worse and your website starts to rank lower in search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, it might not mean that it’s your fault. Not every hosting service or website building platform is equally well-optimized for search engines. For example, a website created on IM Creator will only be 40% SEO optimized; websites made with Google Sites are 80% SEO optimized; and the ones hosted on Weebly are 90% SEO optimized. Sometimes, due to various reasons, overall SEO optimization of a hosting provider might deteriorate, and it’s not something you can easily fix.
On your end, you can optimize your own meta-titles, keywords and descriptions, but you won’t be able to change the whole platform, unless you’re a part of the development team. In that case, rather than waiting, it’s better to transfer your website to another platform that provides 100% SEO optimization. Examples of such platforms include Site.pro, Wix, Squarespace and WordPress.
High Costs
Everything becomes more and more expensive, that’s a given. Even the subscription-based services are not immune to the inflation. But you cannot keep up with the rising prices, you shouldn’t pay for something you can no longer afford. Besides, it’s often the case that rising prices don’t lead to higher quality. The market for hosting services and website building is large, and there are many options available for every wallet, so you don’t have to glue yourself to one service. Estimate how much money you’re losing by sticking with your current provider and consider changing it.
There are definitely cheaper options that don’t compromise on quality. For instance, with Site.pro you can pay as little as $1,20 a year while having most of the website builder functionality. The platform also offers discounts for domains up to 20% off and allows domain parking and website import.
Lack of Flexibility
You might not catch onto it instantly, but your website builder that seemed advanced and new at first could turn out not to be as good as you expected. To some extent, it may be false advertising, but most of the time it’s just a fact that there will always be hidden issues you won’t know about until you start using the product. Maybe, you want to implement HTML elements, but your website builder doesn’t allow this level of customization. Some platforms might have their limitations in terms of scaling:
- Too few e-commerce payment gateways available;
- No language support;
- No real-time collaboration features;
- Limited storage;
- Slow and ineffective customer support;
- Rare updates and bug fixes.
You can wait for your provider to add new features, or simply choose a new one that already has them implemented.
To be certain that you’re making the right choice, be thorough with your research. Read reviews from other customers and try contacting the provider directly if you have any questions. The quality of customer support can say a lot about the overall service.
Other reasons include changes in direction, redesign and rebranding. Often, when a business wants to start things over, it will completely reboot everything, from logos, messaging, and tone of voice to the software itself. But it is much easier to migrate an existing website with all its infrastructure to a new platform than to rebuild it from scratch.
How to Transfer Your Website?
There are two popular options for website migration, and one secret one, about which we will talk a bit later.
- Manual migration. You create a copy of the entire database of your website yourself. Then, you transfer all the files and change the nameserver of the website’s domain. This method gives you the most control over the transferring process, but is also prone to errors, especially if you’re not a professional. By migrating your website manually you might save a little money depending on your final destination.
- Migration with a new hosting provider. Every hosting service is different, but in most cases you’ll have to contact the provider first and then hand your data to their specialist. The advantage of this method is that you don’t have to bother with transferring. An experienced professional will do everything for you. However, there are drawbacks. The process of website migration can be long and expensive. Some services might ask you to pay extra for parking your own domain, you should learn about it in advance so as not to get surprised later.
But, spoiler alert, transferring your website doesn’t have to cost you anything. Transferring a website to Site.pro is completely free. You can park your own domain, or purchase a new one at a much lower price. The process itself is fast and automated.
How to Transfer Your Website to Site.pro
You only need to complete 4 steps to import your website to Site.pro:
- Go to https://site.pro/Website-Import/;
- Enter your website’s URL into the field and click ‘Import’;
- Take a look at your website’s preview and make adjustments in the website builder and publish it;
- Use a free domain provided by Site.pro, connect your existing domain or purchase a new one.
Yes, it’s that easy. By joining Site.pro you also get access to the real-time collaboration function, unlimited number of websites, free mailbox, AI website builder generator, more than 43 payment gateways for e-commerce, etc.
When trying to import a website, you might stumble into ‘Ask administrator to enable this feature’ message. If that’s the case, contact your provider and ask them to activate the website import function.
Conclusion
Website migration can become a breath of fresh air for your website and change it for the better. New platforms equal new possibilities for growth and development. And it’s much quicker than you think. Don’t procrastinate on transferring your website, it only takes a couple of clicks!
