You've bought the site. Do you transfer it or do you leave it where it is? And if you do want to transfer it, where do you start?
To Transfer Or Not To Transfer, that's the question
If the seller recommends his hosting company highly, the history shows they've treated him well, the site has had little to no downtime (check using Netcraft), support questions were answered promptly and efficiently, and the charges are reasonable, there is the temptation to stay put.
The status quo implies
- no stress of moving. For some sites you'll have to move not just files and pages but databases and programs - can be tricky.
- dealing with the devil the site knows. While another hosting company you know may be providing great service for a different site of yours, there's no guarantee that their setup is ideal for this new site
- no change of IP. When you move to a new host your site is allocated a new IP by the hosting company. Sometimes that IP is shared with undesirable sites - or has a spammy history
- continuity. With moving complex sites the rule is that if something can go wrong ... it will. Staying implies guaranteed no downtime caused by the move.
- cost. There may be a period of pre-paid hosting on the old server that you may lose if you move.
The advantages with moving
In my book there is one major advantage to moving that weighs the scales heavily in favour of this option:
- experiencing what it takes to move the site. The importance of experience with the process cannot be over-estimated. No matter how good the host is, a day will come when the site needs to be moved and you need to know how.
- a fresh start. Sometimes a long neglected site that the buyer starts working on and refreshing with new content may benefit in the SERPs from having a new IP as well.
- geo targeting. A .co.uk site targeting visitors in the UK but hosted in Canada or Australia may be losing some of its geo-location advantages in the search engines because of its physical location
- getting rid of bad neighbours. If due-diligence exposes some unsavoury neighbours on the same server, it may be worth moving the site
- cost. If the buyer already has a dedicated server or VPS (Virtual Private Server), it may be cheaper to put the site on there
- getting better service. Obviously if the host the seller used was under-performing or overcharging it makes sense to consider other options
How to Transfer
To take over an existing site is a multi-part process described below (more on my other site - several pages probably worth a whole ebook on its own!)
Step 1: Transfer of the domain name to the control of the new owner. Contact your registrar and the old registrar for details. Broadly, this is what you do:
1. The buyer starts the process with the "gaining" registrar following their instructions
2. The gaining registrar sends an email to the administrative contact listed in the WHOIS.
3. If the contact replies within the time limit, the gaining registrar sends a request to the registry (the controlling body that oversees registrars). The registry sends an email to the losing registrar.
4. The losing registrar now sends an email to the administrative contact.
5. Provided the contact approves, the losing registrar releases the domain to the gaining registrar.
Step 2: Getting/downloading all the site's files and folders in the correct structure. Getting a copy of the applications (if any), database/s (if any), and non-publicly viewable configuration files such as the ".htaccess". Getting manuals, lists, instructions and passwords from the previous owner. You want to prepare a list of questions for him. I quote a small sample here:
1. What's required of the hosting? For example,
- What OS (Apache/Windows) is needed?
- What bandwidth and storage allowance do I need?
- What size of database is required?
- Do I need access to set cron jobs or change conf files?
- Do I need access to set size of the log files and rotation parameters?
- Do I need to change default SSI extension names from shtml to something else?
- Do I need Frontpage extensions on the server?
- Do I need a dedicated IP?
etc
2. What affiliate or other codes do I need to change? Adsense publisher IDs and other affiliate codes will eventually need to be changed to your own publisher ID/account number.
3. What about order processing and payment facilities? If these facilities are not transferring with the site, do I have something else in place?
4. What's needed to transfer the mailing list?
5. What software licences do I need?
6. If the site has affiliates, how are they managed? If it's a third party application then can control be handed over to you or will you lose all the affiliates?
7. What about agreements with merchants or drop-shippers? Will they transfer their agreements to me?
8. How to I backup the site?
Step 3: Uploading all the files, databases etc., to the new hosting company's server, in the right location following the instructions provided by the host (and doing all this while the site is still fully operational at the "old" location).
Step 4: Making the changes to take control. These fall into three areas - management, technical and financial.
1. Management
Create email addresses for all the emails that are in use at this domain.
Change the code for any free statistics such as Google Analytics.
Transfer control of the mailing list
Transfer control/ownership of software licences
Sort out the agreements with merchants or drop-shippers
Offsite changes: If the seller referred to his product on his various web 2.0 profiles pages and other pages or sites he controls has he updated the references?
2. Technical
If it's a dedicated server, you may have to set a service plan, allocate space and resources, create users etc.
You may need to modify file or folder permissions: CHMOD
You may need to edit files that access the database
You may need to double check what's in the htaccess file to ensure it does what you expect it to do
You need to double check all forms, feedback and comment functions to verify the destination
You may need to setup cron jobs
You may need to install scripts
You may need to edit conf files
Use Google Webmaster Tools and carefully go through all the options. There may be unseen problems on the old site that you can now rectify on the new server.
3. Financial
Adsense or other affiliate codes need to be changed to your own publisher ID/account number.
Advertisers, link-buyers etc., paying members, paying subscribers etc., need to know the new contact address. If they are paying by Paypal subscription or some other regular automated payment that needs to change so you receive the funds.
Payments out need to be similarly altered to avoid a situation where your valued partners (such as affiliates) don't get paid on time and withdraw their support.
Step 5: Changing the DNS settings at the domain registrar to point to the new hosting company thus allowing visitors to reach the new location of the site.
(I posted this originally in Sitepoint, This was around the time SP were deleting threads negative about Flippa, threads critical of their signature spam etc. Fortunately they didn't delete the above thread and just closed it. Anyway, they never thought it good enough to be made a sticky and it got buried. I thought the information would help some folk so am publishing this material again. Hope you find it useful.)
Any improvements/suggestions about the above? Any other tips?
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks