WordPress server migration with zero downtime.

Moving WordPress between hosts is one of those jobs that looks easy until it isn't. Migration plugins promise one-click moves but routinely produce broken serialised arrays, missing media library entries, scrambled WooCommerce orders, or sites that work on day one and fall over a week later when a cron job tries to run. We've cleaned up enough bad migrations to know that the right process is slower, more careful, and absolutely worth it.

What we do instead is a manual, tested migration. The site is cloned to the destination host first. The database is dumped and imported with proper search-and-replace for the new URL — handling serialised PHP objects correctly so plugin settings survive. Every URL in post content, options, postmeta and usermeta is updated. SSL is provisioned on the destination. The site is fully tested on a temporary staging URL before any DNS change happens.

The cutover itself is the only customer-facing step, and it's designed to be invisible. DNS TTL is lowered 48 hours in advance so the change propagates within minutes. At cutover we do a final database sync to catch anything that happened in the gap — new orders, comments, form submissions. For brochure sites that's optional; for ecommerce it's mandatory. DNS flips, the new site goes live, and we keep both hosts running for 24 hours as a safety net.

After cutover we monitor for 48 hours. We check error logs, watch for 404s, verify SSL is valid in every browser, confirm cron jobs are running on the new host, and test critical user flows (checkout, contact form, login) end to end. The deliverable is a faster site on the right host, with full documentation of what changed and where to find what.