Many of our clients get nervous when it’s time to transfer their web site in house: rightly so: their website is typically their lifeline to their clients and new prospects.  I think many have had horrendous experiences with transferring a site in the past, this is how we do it:

1.) If we are building a new web site for a client, we setup a hosting account on one of our web servers including all email addresses etc., that the client will need once the DNS (domain name system) is transferred to our name-servers (name-servers are assigned to a web hosting server to identify it.)

2.) If the client is simply transferring an existing website to our servers, we take this approach: We obtain FTP access to their existing web site host, download their site locally, and then setup a hosting account on our web server.  We then upload those files (from the previous site) to the new account we have created.  We then have the ability to see the web site on a temp URL to make certain that everything is functioning as it currently is with the existing host. Once we have kicked the tires and ran the web site through QC, we inform the client that we are ready to ‘point’ their domain to our name-servers.

3.) The client / or us (if requested) go into the client’s registrar’s account (where you registered your domain name initially) and change the existing name servers to point to our web servers.  This only takes a few minutes and once submitted through the registrar, it can take up to 48 hours until the domain is actually sitting on our server.  We’ve seen web sites on our servers within 10 minutes of switching, but have also seen it take up to 2 full days to ‘settle in’.

4.) The main objective is for the switchover to be seamless: this is why we upload the existing site PRIOR to switching the DNS.  Oftentimes our client will not even notice a difference or notice when the ‘switch’ has occurred.

5.) Some minor changes on the client’s end: We really try to make everything as simple as humanly possible for our valued clients, but there is one adjustment many of them need to make once the site has switched over and that is their outlook email settings: We send the client detailed instructions on how to edit their existing email settings and obviously are available to walk them through the relatively simple process.

We understand that some of this can be daunting, but we’re here to help.