fbpx

Take your Business Online

fancy script font saying "the blog"

How to Migrate your Website from Godaddy to Siteground

plain home office desk with a plant and a bucket of pens and pencils.

Hi! I'm Crystal

Website Designer & 
Certified Online Business Coach. 

Wordpress | Searchie | Kajabi | MailerLite | ConvertKit | MailChimp
& more -Leaving no tech stone unturned!

Maria was really disappointed in Godaddy because they require that you use their marketing tools and email workflows if you use their website builder. Totally frustrated and ready to toss everything into the wind, she asked for suggestions and camaraderie and I was able to give her this answer.

AHHHH I’m so sorry that sounds really frustrating!!! Yikes. To be honest, Godaddy has just about nothing going for them anymore from what I’ve heard and also experienced myself/my clients. I’ve helped a number of clients migrate away from Godaddy for this reason.

I suggest that you choose a new host for both your domain and for your website. That’s the main thing. I recommend Siteground or Bluehost (Siteground is better in my opinion and the one I use, as a professional website designer).

Siteground has a free migrator tool as long as your current website in Godaddy is made with WordPress. If not, there may still be workarounds (I always find a way to manipulate tech till it does what I need it to do lol but it takes some finaggling sometiems). But anyway, the migrator tool will essentially copy your website, turn it into a file you export from Godaddy, and import into your Siteground (or whichever host you decide on).

You’ll copy the website over to the new host and it’ll have a temporary domain name for a bit. That’s fine.

Then you’ll go back to Godaddy and unlock the domain name (domain name and website files are separate beasts to reckon with!).

After unlocking it, you’ll be able to transfer the domain. Sometimes this takes several days for the domain to be entirely moved away from Godaddy to your new host.

And then you attach your “new” website to your old domain, in your new host.

Often times the host is VERY good with customer support; I have found Siteground support to be really helpful although some of my clients are confused with any tech talk so I sometimes have sat on the phone/live chat with customer support for them and completed the entire transfer process.

If you have an email that’s based on your business domain as well, that’s another thing you’ll need to transfer. This is a third and separate process as well, and potentially an even more complex feeling one but very much possible if you follow all the instructions correctly (even I have to get on customer support at least a few times mid email-transfer process lol).

Hiring help to build or rebuild your website, those are DEFINITE business expenses! And web design help and business education are separate categories of expenses too so even though it’s painful on the bank account as an up front investment, it sometime is comforting to remember that some of these things are claimable later on.

Check around for grants too. I’ve seen a number of grants floating around for getting websites built for new businesses etc.

I hope some of this was helpful to you. Again, I’m SO sorry for the frustration, I know how overwhelming all this tech can be. ❤ Please reach out if you have any questions about anything I said! Good luck my dear.

Love,

Your Tech Fairy.

Share this Article to