How to Transfer Hosting From GoDaddy to Bluehost
Go Daddy and Bluehost are two of the many companies that offer Web hosting and domain registration. These Web hosts provide webmasters with reserved space on a server to store their site's files and give visitors access to them. If you have a website hosted with a company and you decide another company is more suitable for your needs, moving your files from the old host to the new one is a straightforward process.
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Instructions
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Log in to your Go Daddy account. Navigate to "My Account" and select "My Products" from the drop-down menu. Click on "Hosting." A list of websites you have hosted with Go Daddy will come up. Locate the website you wish to transfer. Click on the control center "Launch" button for the relevant site. Once in the control center, select "Content," then click on "FTP client" from the drop-down menu. This will open a java application that has two windows; the window on the right displays your files as they are arranged on your computer's hard drive, and the window on the left shows the files you have hosted with Go Daddy that make up your website.
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Create a new folder on your local drive. Do this by clicking the provided "New folder" icon. The java application allows you to browse the files and directories on your computer, so put the new folder where you will easily find it, such as on the desktop.
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Open the new directory. Use your control key to select all the files and folders shown in the left window. Download them to the new directory by clicking on the arrow button that will become clickable as soon as you select files.
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Go to the Bluehost. Click on cPanel and log in to your account. Click on the "File Manager" link. Select the radio button "Web Root." A new tab will open in your browser. Select "Upload" from the top horizontal navigation menu. Another tab will open with browse buttons for you to find where your website's files are located on your hard drive. Use the "Add Another Upload Box" to create a browse button for each file you need to upload.
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Click on "Browse" and locate the folder that contains your website downloaded from Go Daddy. Upload each file and arrange them into directories using your Bluehost cPanel. They should be organized just as they appear on your local drive.
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Return to your Go Daddy account and locate the domain manager. Find the domain name corresponding to the site you are moving and click the "Launch Dashboard" icon. From the dashboard, click the "Nameservers" icon and enter the nameservers in the provided fields that Bluehost gave you when you signed up for your account. They can be found in the welcome email you received or on the left-hand site of your Bluehost cPanel. When you have entered the Bluehost nameservers, click "OK."
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Check that your site is working correctly. It can take 24 to 72 hours for the new nameservers to propagate, as DNS servers across the Internet need to update. While propagation is taking place, your website may be temporarily unavailable.
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Confirm your website is working. When you see your is site back online, confirm you are seeing it on Bluehost and not as a cached page by making a small change to one of your pages and uploading it. When you see the change after refreshing your browser window, you will know the site is fully-functioning on Bluehost.
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Go back to your Go Daddy account dashboard and find the products section, located beneath the domain manager. Select the package corresponding to the hosting you have just transferred; it will be identifiable by the domain name. Click on the name, and a three-tabbed window will open. Click the second "Edit Account Details" tab. Look for the link that says "Cancel this Account," which is located after an option to upgrade your hosting plan. Performing this action will not delete your entire Go Daddy account but will terminate your subscription for the hosting plan that was providing a space for website you have transferred to Bluehost.
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Tips & Warnings
If you have a complete copy of your website on your hard drive, it is not necessary to first download the files from Go Daddy. However, you may wish to do this for backup purposes.
File Transfer Protocol software can be used to download your files from Go Daddy or upload them to Bluehost. Third-party FTP software is usually speedier and more reliable than cPanel software.
References
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