A large website, either a professional site, or a website with many locations, is not just hosting a single page. Instead it is a cluster of pages, with special requirements for each one. We analyze what this involves, and whether the risk of content degradation with the “bandwidth” provided by your web hosting provider is enough to invest in a dedicated server.
Considerations
Why do you need bandwidth? The short answer is that you have some pages that you want to load fast and smoothly, and other pages that you want to load slowly and smoothly, so you need to divide the space in between them. There are a number of variables affecting that, including size of the content, number of requests, and how closely related the pages are. But our concern is whether using some URL for a different page can interfere with page loading speed.
Exact percentages of bandwidth allocated vary for different scenarios and packages. Google estimates about 30% bandwidth as a typical expense for a VPS (virtual private server) that meets the application requirements. What this means for you is that if you’ve opened your site to hosting via your domain registrar and didn’t put in a multi-line domain or expensive plan, your likely get 30% of your total hosting expenses due to bandwidth.
The question is whether using a different hosting service can affect your site’s performance or cause problems. The answer depends on what kinds of material you store there. (For instance, you might want to host your Instagram photos at a fast server, but after you upload them and share them with your friends and family, you’ll have to wait for the speed of the real world to catch up). When you decide to change hostname or back-up files to the new host, the process varies from site to site. I’ve seen some website owners think it is safe to switch hosts, because their directory will already contain many posts they’ve already uploaded. That is just not true. Although your original contents and files are in the same place in the web site, they are stored at different places on different servers. But there’s also the risk of losing your original files if you change host and haven’t backed them up, or if the site in question isn’t indexed by search engines.
It is a good idea to let someone know you’re moving from one host to another, and to explain how you will preserve any personal data you care about. You can let them know that your site is going to be rebuilt, or that you are planning to close the old host for good and switch to a new one.
Changing Web Hosts
As long as you use the same email address (as long as you registered it) on the new host as you did on your original host, your personal data is stored there and available to the new host. This includes the addresses, username, passwords, and any personal content (photographs, PDFs, MP3s, etc.) you’ve stored. Your old name and contacts will be displayed on the new host.
Generally, a new host’s information are stored in a different database, which is accessed via a separate password.
If you change host to an interesting host, check if they are indexed in the search engines, and you can then check if anything valuable is being saved on your old host. If your original site is still available, your personal data are stored on the new host, as well as the links that will lead to it.
Cleaning up after a move
After your move, you’ll probably have extra space and CPU usage on your new host. You can upgrade them using the FQDN for your old host on Settings > Hosts & Domains.
If you’re curious what old host information may be missing, you can look into the Hosts & Domains tab of Your Internet Information. In there you can check each host for physical access to all its servers (a.k.a. management server), but you can also check on the status of each server using the status category (e.g. Running, Stalled, Disabled, Unused). You can also look into the Hosts & Domains tab of the DNS Lookup tool.
Go the old host if you want to install WordPress and/or re-run your old site, or you can clear out your host’s internet cache by going to Settings > Internet Options > Settings > General.
Good luck! And if you need any more help or tips for your next move, join me on social media channels.