How to Change Your Web Hosting Service

When it comes to traditional, brick and mortar retail space, we’ve all heard the adage that it’s “location, location, location” that counts. However, this adage holds equally true for an e-commerce Web site where the choice of a Web hosting service is one of the most important decisions that a Web merchant will have to make.

Now much has been written on how to go about choosing a good Web hosting service, and I don’t intend to repeat that advice here. However, an area that has not been adequately covered is what to do if you need to change your Web hosting service.

Why would you want to change? Reasons for changing usually fall into one of three broad categories: either your store outgrows the features and facilities your current Web host offers, or the performance of your Web host becomes unsatisfactory, or the worst possible scenario — your Web host goes out of business.

For a brick and mortar business, the biggest tragedy is probably a fire — few people realize how large a proportion of businesses fail to re-open after a major fire. I would equate the failure of a Web host for an e-commerce site to that of a fire for a traditional store, and would expect that a similarly high proportion of Web stores would go out of business as a result.

I guess that most Web merchants are complacent, either assuming that they will never have to change hosts or that if they do it will be a straightforward matter. However, the truth is that changing your Web hosting service can be very difficult, particularly for e-commerce sites because the software the store runs on – whether CGI scripts or a fully-fledged Web commerce server – needs to be moved as well.

So how do you go about changing to a new Web hosting service? Whilst it’s impossible to give site-specific advice, there are three key things you will need:

A new Web hosting provider to move your site to
Access to your existing data, scripts etc.
The ability to move your domain name

Selecting a new Web hosting service should be done very carefully. You may well be tempted to rush through this step because you are in such a hurry to move your site. However, you should take the time to choose the right provider or you will just end up with more problems in the future.

As I said at the top of this article I don’t have the space here to get in to the detail of how to choose a Web hosting service, but here are two useful articles from Ralph Wilson and Greg Sherwin that will help you.

Although these articles give a good overview on how to select a Web host for general business purposes, e-commerce sites need also to take in to account the type of shopping cart or Web commerce software they are running.

If your store runs on CGI scripts you will need a Web hosting service that will allow you to run these, as well as providing you access to a SSL-enabled server. However, in most cases your scripts will need to be amended to reflect the new server environment, so if you don’t have the skills to edit the scripts yourself you need to make sure you have someone available who can.
If you are running your store on a popular e-commerce package such as Intershop or Mercantec Softcart then, unless you wish to change the package you are using, you need to track down another ISP who supports this package. The easiest way to do this is to visit the software manufacturer’s Web site and get a list of ISP’s who they have partnered with.
If your current store is running on a single-source solution (such as Yahoo! Store) then you face the biggest challenge of all – for in addition to choosing a new Web hosting service you will also need to select and configure a new e-commerce package.

The next major hurdle is the transfer of data to your new store. If you are going to be using the same scripts or software package then their vendor should be able to advise you what files and data you need to transfer to your new Web site. If you are changing packages, then the best you can probably hope for is that your existing program will allow you to export your data as a CSV database file, which you can then edit and import into your new package.

Obviously to be able to do all this you need to have access to your current data and scripts. Normally you will be able to download these from your existing Web host, but sometimes (for example if the host goes out of business) you may not able to access these so you should always keep a local copy of all data, scripts etc. Many Web merchants are complacent about this, failing to realize that as a Web-based business their most valuable asset is their customer, sales and product data.

The final piece of the jigsaw — moving your domain name — should in theory be the easiest piece of all. Your new Web hosting service provider should give you the new nameserver information, which you should pass to the authority responsible for your domain name (e.g. Network Solutions for .com domains) once your new site is ready. The naming authority will then amend the nameserver information for your domain and after a period of about 72 hours (to allow for DNS propagation) all traffic will be directed to your new site.

However, many people run into problems here. The reason is that the naming authority will only accept change requests from the source listed as the domain’s “Administrative Contact” in their records. Unfortunately, what sometimes happens is that when an ISP or Web site designer registers a domain on behalf of their client they list themselves as the “Administrative Contact” and therefore the merchant finds that they are unable to move their domain name to a new host.

Obviously it is vital to make sure that you are listed as “Administrative Contact” for all your domain names. You should contact your naming authority to check this: this can usually be done online, for example domains administered by Network Solutions can be checked here.

Hopefully the above has shown you that changing Web hosting services is a major undertaking. You can make things easier for yourself, however, by making some contingency plans.

As a bare minimum you should always be able to answer YES to these three questions:

If you had to change Web hosts tomorrow do you know which hosting service you would move to?
Do you have a local copy of all your data and scripts?
Are you listed as “Administrative Contact” for all your domain names?

At the other extreme you could create and maintain a fully functional, duplicate Web site with another Web hosting service. Then, if you want to change Web hosts all you need to do is contact the relevant naming authority and point your domain names to your duplicate site.

The important thing is to be prepared. Remember that your Web hosting service provider is key to your online business – a critical supplier — and you need to choose carefully and continually monitor their performance. For although some Web hosts do go out of business overnight, most problems arise through a gradual deterioration of service that can be difficult to spot. Real-world businesses regularly review the performance of their key vendors and you should do the same with your Web hosting service provider.

How to Change Your Web Hosting Service

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