My Stories on WordPress Website Migration

On 2021-05-09, I finally migrated my websites!  Believe me, website migration is a nightmare.  It will take up a lot of time.  The worst is there is a lot of “fine prints” in the technicality.  If you are not familiar, chances are you will encounter lots of challenges.  I am here to share some of those “fine prints” if one is not careful, will end up in pain.  It would take days or weeks, especially if we do not do it on daily basis.  The following points are the lessons learned from the real-life experience:

1. An account with no Domain – I would recommend the use of an account of no domain if you have more than 1 domain to be migrated.  Personally, I see that as a more structured and neat solution.  Otherwise, the root directory will be a “mess” with lots of files.  
2. Software version – Pay particular attention to the PHP version of your hosting company.  Even if you were to move within the same hosting company, the PHP version could be different.  For instance, your existing website could be using PHP 5, but the new website could be an older PHP version.  In this case, it may end up with problems.  More annoying is what appeared in the cPanel server’s PHP version may not necessarily be the WordPress site is using.  So, it is better to check with the support staff for certainty.
3. Reset Router – There could be a situation where after you “migrated”, you are still seeing the “old web content”.  You might have cleared your browser cache, restart your computer…but you are still seeing the “old” content.  In this case, I would suggest resetting the router.
4. Technical Staff’s Competency – Remember, not all technical staffs are of equal competency.  Just be mindful that some might not as competent.  Especially, if the area is more technical if the staff is incompetent, you might be guided in the wrong direction.  As a rule of thumb, if you think the staff is incompetent, move on to the next one.