How to Move a Contractor Website to a New Host Without Losing Leads

Moving a website to a new host does not have to mean downtime. Done in the right order, visitors never notice. Done in the wrong order, the usual casualty is not the website at all. It is the company’s email, or the quote form, which stops delivering on the new server while everything looks fine.

This is the order we follow.

Before you touch anything

1. Find out what else lives at the old host. Is your company email hosted there too? Is the domain registered there? Each of those needs its own plan. Moving the website must not move or cancel them by accident.
2. Do not cancel the old hosting yet. Keep it running until the new site has been live and checked for at least a week or two.
3. Collect the logins. You need the domain registrar, the old hosting account, WordPress administrator access and, if email is involved, the email provider.
4. Take a full backup. Both the files and the database, saved somewhere other than the old server.

The move, step by step

Copy the site to the new host

The whole site is copied to the new server while the old one keeps serving visitors. Nothing changes for the public at this stage.

Test the copy privately

The new copy can be opened on a temporary address or by pointing a single computer at the new server. Check the pages that matter: home, services, contact, and every form.

Test the forms and email on the new server

This is the step most often skipped. A form that delivered from the old server may fail from the new one, because mail providers decide whether to trust a message partly by which server sent it. Send a test through every form and confirm it reaches the inbox, not only that the thank-you message appears. Our guide on quote forms that stop sending emails explains why this happens.

Lower the DNS timer in advance

Your domain’s DNS records tell the internet which server to visit. Each record has a timer that says how long that answer may be remembered. Lowering it a day ahead means the switch takes effect in minutes rather than hours.

Switch at a quiet time

Changing the DNS record to the new server is the actual move. Do it when traffic is low, such as early on a weekday morning, not on a Friday afternoon and not during storm season if you are a roofer. Changes can take up to 48 hours to reach everyone, though it is usually much faster.

Check the live site

Once the domain points to the new server, confirm the padlock appears in the browser, submit each form again, and click through the main pages on a phone.

The mistakes that lose leads

• Email goes down with the old host. If your mailboxes were part of the old hosting package and you cancel it, email stops. Move or separate email first.
• Mail records are overwritten. Changing the wrong DNS records can redirect your email along with the website. Only the records for the website should change.
• Forms fail on the new server. The site moved, the form looks the same, and requests go nowhere.
• The old host is cancelled the same day. If anything was missed, there is nothing to go back to.
• Content added during the move is lost. Anything published on the old site after the copy was taken will not be on the new one. Hold changes for a day or copy again before switching.

After the move

• Watch the forms and email closely for the first week.
• Check Google Search Console for new errors.
• Run a speed test and compare it with the old result.
• Make sure backups are running on the new host.
• Cancel the old hosting only after all of the above looks right.