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4  Transfer the site to another domain

!

A site can be transferred to another domain.

While a domain name might seem right when first obtained, a change in business or personal focus may result in a change to the site focus, and another domain name may serve that better. At that time, this procedure can be used to shift the content to a new domain, whether on the same hosting provider or another.

It can be complex!

This is a complex technical process. For those who are challenged by such things, seek help from someone who is very familiar with email clients and cPanel to do or help with this if it feels too overwhelming.

For the primary account domain, the provider usually needs to do the changes, but the email accounts will be deleted and their emails lost. To handle such a transfer of emails, proceed similarly to the steps in the Transfer the site to another hoster procedure that deal with emails.

For an addon domain, the email addresses can be transferred at a later date than for the site content. The content transfer process is as simple as installing the software on the new domain, then overwriting its bare content with that from the current domain, then deleting the current sit'e content, which will also redirect all pages to their same path on the new domain. The old domain needs to be left as is for a few months so that returning visitors can still find the content, and search engines will eventually transfer all current domain reputation to the new domain.

Shifting a single domain means that all the emails for accounts using the domain need to be moved as well. Try to delete as many unnecessary emails as possible, and put the rest into folders, before then to minimise the time taken in the transfer. A drag-and-drop email client, like Outlook, will be necessary to move folders and individual emails between the old and new systems.

This procedure is best done on a computer because it involves a lot of drag-and-drop between two email accounts and a mouse is much more accurate and reliable for doing that when the target is text rather than a large area. Since the email transfer has to be done for every account on the domain, if using a single intermediate email account, do only one account at a time to avoid confusion.

Steps

The roles to perform this procedure are:

  1. a.Site owner
  2. b.Master manager.
To transfer a site to another hoster:1Explain the upcoming moveMaster manager

by performing:

1-1Create an articlewith:
  1. a.A headline like MOVING SITE TO NEW DOMAIN. Uppercase is deliberate.
  2. b.An explanation of when it will happen.
  3. c.If transferring emails, when that will occur, including a warning to avoid sending emails during that time as they risk being lost.
1-2Add to subsite navigation bars

by using Create links to add a link to the article as the first in each subsite's Subsite navigation bar.

2Create an email account

on the new domain for each account from the old domain to be transferred.

3Create a forwarder

on the old domain for each account to be transferred, and point it to the corresponding account on the new server.

All future emails will be forwarded to the new domain, ensuring none are lost during the process.

4Finalise all edits on the old siteMaster manager

by closing off any articles open for editing.

5Create a content archive of the old siteMaster manager

by performing:

5-1Open the Import page

by clicking the Import link in the last item of the Access section of the Work list page.

5-2Create a content archive

by clicking the Archive button in the first table row of the archives list.

A row will be added to the table with the archive details.

5-3Download the archive file

by clicking the Download link in the first archive file row, then navigating to the desired location in the resulting dialog box.

6Overall setup procedureSite owner

for the target domain's site, but the contents will be overwritten with the archive generated at step 2.

7Overwrite the siteMaster manager

for the new domain, using its step 2 to upload the archive file saved at step 3 here.

8Uninstall the site

for the old domain, providing the URL for the new domain at its step 3.

The new domain is fully functional, and all visitors to the old domain will be redirected to the same page on the new domain.

If email accounts are not being transferred to the new domain, the procedure ends here.

9Transfer an account's emailsSite owner

by performing:

9-1Add account to email client

for the account for each of the old and new domains.

9-2Show the old email account

by opening it one instance of the email program.

9-3Show the new email account

by opening it another instance of the email program.

9-4Copy a folder

by drag-and-dropping the folder from the old account to the new account. The Crtl key may need to be held down during this process to ensure that the folder is copied and not just moved.

9-5Repeat

for each of the remaining folders.

9-6Delete the old and new accounts on the email client

as per the process for the email client.

9-7Delete the old server's transferred email account

as per the cPanel process for that server.

10RepeatSite owner

for each of the remaining accounts.

11Make the new domain accounts fully functional

by creating any rules and forwarders for accounts on the new domain that existed for those accounts on the old domain.

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