How-To Guides

How to Migrate Your Site to HostGator in 6 Steps

A 6-step site migration to HostGator that won't break your site or your SEO. The process most guides skip the most important parts of.

Marcus Rivera
By 3 min read
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On this page 9 sections
  1. 1 Before you start: 4 things to confirm
  2. 2 Step 1 — Back up the old site
  3. 3 Step 2 — Use HostGator's free migration (if available)
  4. 4 Step 3 — Manual migration: upload files
  5. 5 Step 4 — Manual migration: import database
  6. 6 Step 5 — Update wp-config.php (WordPress only)
  7. 7 Step 6 — Test before changing nameservers
  8. 8 What to do after the nameserver change
  9. 9 The 3 things people break on migration
A laptop showing a website migration interface

Bottom line: A clean migration takes about 90 minutes if you follow the order below. The order matters — most broken migrations are out-of-order migrations.

Before you start: 4 things to confirm

  • You have admin access to the old hosting account
  • You have HostGator login + cPanel access
  • You can access your domain registrar (to update nameservers)
  • You have at least 30 minutes uninterrupted

Step 1 — Back up the old site

Two backups, two formats:

  • Full file backup: Download the entire public_html directory via FTP or cPanel File Manager.
  • Database export: phpMyAdmin → select database → Export → SQL format → Save.

Keep both files locally. These are your safety net if anything breaks.

Step 2 — Use HostGator's free migration (if available)

HostGator offers a free migration on most shared plans. To request it:

  • Log into your HostGator account
  • Open a support ticket: "Migration assistance"
  • Provide old hosting login details
  • Wait 24-72 hours

Skip to Step 6 if you go this route.

Step 3 — Manual migration: upload files

  • Connect to HostGator via FTP (Filezilla works)
  • Upload your full public_html backup to HostGator's public_html
  • Wait for the upload to complete fully — partial uploads cause site breaks

Step 4 — Manual migration: import database

  • HostGator cPanel → MySQL Databases → create a new database
  • Create a new user, assign full privileges to the new database
  • cPanel → phpMyAdmin → select new database → Import → upload the .sql file from Step 1
  • Wait for import to finish — large databases can take 5-10 minutes

Step 5 — Update wp-config.php (WordPress only)

Edit wp-config.php in HostGator's public_html with the new database credentials:

  • DB_NAME: the new database name from Step 4
  • DB_USER: the new database user from Step 4
  • DB_PASSWORD: the new password from Step 4
  • DB_HOST: usually 'localhost' on HostGator

Step 6 — Test before changing nameservers

This is the step most migrations skip — and it's the one that prevents the broken-site disaster.

  • Edit your local hosts file to point your domain at HostGator's IP
  • Visit your domain — it should now load from HostGator
  • Click around. Test the homepage, a single post, a category, the contact form
  • If anything is broken, fix it BEFORE updating nameservers
  • Once everything works in the test, remove the hosts file entry and update nameservers at your registrar

What to do after the nameserver change

  • Wait 1-24 hours for full DNS propagation
  • Re-test the live site
  • Submit the new sitemap to Google Search Console
  • Cancel the old hosting plan AFTER 7 days of confirmed stability — never sooner

The 3 things people break on migration

  1. Skipping the local hosts test (Step 6). Always test before nameservers move.
  2. Cancelling old hosting too soon. If something fails on day 3, you need the old account to roll back.
  3. Not updating WordPress siteurl. If URLs in the database are absolute, run a search-replace after migration. Better Search Replace plugin handles this in 30 seconds.