Why Does a WordPress Migration Require Care?
Transferring a website to a different hosting company or a new domain name may seem like a stressful process, especially for digital publishers and site owners. With traditional methods, exporting the database through phpMyAdmin and downloading thousands of images and theme files one by one over FTP takes hours and can also corrupt serialized data in the database. Especially on sites with a rich WordPress plugin and theme structure, such manual errors can cause pages to fail to open or access to the admin panel to be lost.
This is exactly where modern WordPress migration tools come into play. The leading tool of this kind, All-in-One WP Migration, removes complex technical steps by packaging your site with all its components into a single archive file. This way, you both make a comprehensive site backup and smoothly switch to your new server.
Step by Step Site Migration with All in One WP Migration
Before starting the migration, make sure you have full access to the admin panel of your old site and that a clean WordPress installation is ready on your new server. The process basically consists of three main stages: exporting, transferring to the new environment and configuring the settings.
1. Exporting Data from the Old Site (Export)
The first step is to take a complete backup of your existing site. You can follow these steps in order for this process:
- Log in to the WordPress panel of your current site and install and activate the All in One WP Migration plugin from the plugins menu.
- Click the plugin tab that appears in the left menu and select the Export option.
- From the advanced options, you can exclude data you do not want (for example spam comments or revision history); however, keeping the default settings is recommended for a complete migration.
- Click the "Export" button and select "File" as the destination. The plugin will collect your database, plugins, themes and media library into a single file with the .wpress extension. Once the process is complete, download the file to your computer.
2. Installing WordPress on the New Server and Importing (Import)
After performing a basic WordPress installation on your new hosting account, you can move on to the second stage:
- Log in to the panel of your new site and install and activate the same plugin again.
- Click the Import option in the plugin menu.
- Drag and drop the .wpress file you downloaded to your computer into the relevant area.
- The plugin will read the file and show a warning that the existing database on your new site will be overwritten. Confirm and proceed.
3. Refreshing Permalink Settings
After the import process is complete, your site's user information becomes exactly the same as the administrator information on your old site. Log in again with your old login details. Then go to the Settings > Permalinks tab and click the "Save Changes" button twice without making any changes. This critical step rewrites the .htaccess file and prevents broken links (404 errors).
Migration Solutions for Large Sites: Overcoming the Upload Limit
The free version of the All-in-One WP Migration plugin applies a default upload limit on most shared servers (usually 512 MB or less). If your website hosts high-resolution images, rich blog content or WooCommerce products, your backup file can reach several gigabytes. In such cases, instead of dealing with server configuration, you can use the All in One WP Migration Unlimited Extension plugin to migrate your site regardless of its size. This extension completely removes the file size limit, allowing even huge sites to be transferred without interruption.
Also, downloading large backups directly to your local computer and uploading them again can strain your internet quota or connection speed. Instead, you can use the All in One WP Migration Google Drive Extension, which provides direct cloud storage integration, to transfer your backups directly to your Google Drive account, and then complete the transfer to the target server with a single click. The All in One WP Migration Unlimited + Google Drive Extension solution, developed for those who need both unlimited size flexibility and the convenience of cloud backup at the same time, automates the process end to end for professional webmasters.
Checklist for Important Points When Moving a Site
To make sure everything works flawlessly after the migration, it is very important to review the following items:
| Checkpoint | Description | Level of Importance |
|---|---|---|
| DNS Records | Check that your domain name points exactly to the new server IP address. | Critical |
| SSL Certificate | Make sure HTTPS and the security certificate are active on the new server. | High |
| Contact Forms | Test that the contact and order forms on the site send emails without issues. | High |
| Robots.txt and Search Engine Settings | Verify that the "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" option is turned off in the WordPress panel. | Critical |
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the database get corrupted when migrating with All in One WP Migration?
No, while transferring database tables, the plugin preserves serialized data specific to the WordPress architecture and automatically updates URL changes row by row. This way, character corruption or data loss problems that are frequently encountered in manual migrations do not occur.
How long does the migration process take on average?
The processing time depends entirely on the total size of your site and the processing speed of your server. A standard blog site of a few hundred megabytes can be migrated within 3 to 5 minutes, while exporting and importing large e-commerce sites with gigabytes of media can take 15-30 minutes.
Will my SEO rankings be affected after a site migration?
If you are only moving the server without changing the domain name and you have saved your permalink settings completely, your SEO rankings will not be negatively affected. In fact, if you have moved to a faster and more stable server, your page loading speed will increase, so a positive development in your rankings may be seen in the long run.
