I migrated my website a couple of nights ago. Here’s how it went down.

Bye Bluehost

I’d been on Bluehost for a couple years, both domain and hosting. No real complaints. Although there were a few mildly annoying aspects of the service. But nothing that I would consider a deal breaker.

Overall, I had a vanilla experience.

The primary motivation for migration was to gain some first-hand experience with the WordPress.com/Pressable service.

If I’m offering something to customers, I want to endorse it, not merely suggest it.

Hello Pressable + WordPress.com

I’ve been on the Automattic for Agencies platform since it launched. You’ll find me poking around in there, pushing buttons and flipping switches almost on a daily basis.

So when the opportunity to migrate presented itself, I pulled the trigger.

Split Decision

First, a choice had to be made:

• Keep both domain + hosting on WordPress.com
• Register domain on WordPress.com. Host on Pressable

Without going into the deets, the relationship between WordPress.com and Pressable are interlaced. However, Pressable does not offer domain registration. And since the hosting package I wanted was on Pressable, I decided to split them up. No biggie.

Also, both Pressable and WordPress.com use Titan for their email service and isn’t included in the hosting package. I use Proton Business, so this wasn’t going to be a problem for me. But I was going to have to make sure DNS configurations were right.

On a side note, Pressable just released their MCP. This is not something I currently leverage. But as a solopreneur, I’m all for efficiency and streamlining. So this is definitely on my radar.

In the end, it was a split decision for the win.

Migration Prep

A seamless site migration with no downtime or interruption of services can be tricky. But the tools to facilitate this process nowadays are quite remarkable. And, this definitely wasn’t my first rodeo.

But still, there is a process. And steps must be followed.

As a brochure presentation, my site isn’t complicated at all. So this was going to be pretty straightforward. And even though the pressure from encountering glitches along the way was minimized, due to being my personal site, I didn’t want more pain than necessary to reach the goal.

Here was the plan.

Migration Process

• Purchase a Pressable hosting package.
• Set up staging site on Pressable.
• Backup and migrate current site from Bluehost to Pressable
• Theme switch and updates to new site on Pressable staging site
• Pray
• Transfer domain from Bluehost to WordPress.com
• Complete DNS voodoo
• Check email status and cleanup Bluehost account.
• Grab a few winks just before sunrise.

Debrief

Overall, everything went better than expected. Here were some key takeaways from this migration, that differed from my experience with past migrations.

• Bluehost doesn’t make it convenient to transfer a domain out. The main contention I have here is enduring the full 5-7 day wait to complete the transfer. Where nearly every other registrar I’ve dealt with offers an expedited process that only takes 1-2 days at most.
• Pressable’s admin interface is awesome. That is all.
• WordPress.com’s handling of the domain transfer was surprisingly smooth and impressively hands-off. Email and nameservers were automatically set with zero downtime.
• Again, due to the relationship between WordPress.com and Pressable, getting everything set right required paying attention to some details. But working through the documentation got the job done.
• The only glitch was a minor one and had to do with email DNS records. But easily resolved in a matter of minutes.

That’s a Wrap (Sorta)

Wrapping things up, I have two final thoughts.

First, if you’ve never completed a migration before, be patient. Especially when it comes to DNS propagation.

I recommend having a couple of separate devices like your phone, iPad, or laptop to check site status. Refreshing and clearing browser cache doesn’t always tell you the truth about what’s going on.

And second, I’ve come to embrace the idea that a website is never done. Just like home improvement projects. Homeowners know that of what I speak.

There’s always going to be tweaking, updates, and improvements, especially as technology is improving at even faster rates than ever. So I wasn’t too concerned that the site wasn’t going to be pixel perfect at relaunch. Especially with the theme switch.

I just wanted the front page to look presentable and get the move done so that I could continue to press forward. Hence, some of the wonky pages on here that now await some attention.

That’s it. Gotta get to work!