Behind the scenes2026-07-31 · 5 min read
How we plan a website migration
The checklist we work through, and the step that causes most failed moves.
Copying files is the easy part of a migration and takes minutes. Everything that goes wrong happens around it.
What we check before touching anything
- PHP version and extensions the site depends on.
- Cron jobs, which are invisible in a file copy and stop silently when they are missed.
- Hard-coded paths and URLs in the database.
- Where mail is currently handled, and whether it is moving.
- Existing DNS records, including ones nobody remembers creating.
- TTL values, which we lower in advance so the cutover is quick.
The step most people skip
Testing on a temporary URL before changing DNS. It catches hard-coded links, missing extensions and broken forms while the live site is still serving normally from the old host. Skipping it is what turns a routine move into an outage.
Cutover
With TTLs already lowered and the copy verified, the DNS change itself is quick and both copies serve correctly during propagation. We keep the old host untouched until you confirm you are happy, so rolling back is always possible.