Transfer Your Site to iPage
If you already have your own website hosted on another web hosting provider, you might want to simply transfer it to iPage. This is logical since no web host is perfect. That is why many people wonder how they can transfer their websites to iPage. What are their options and how do they do it? Here, let us try to answer these important questions.
Why iPage Hosting?
A veteran web hosting provider, iPage has been delivering quality web hosting service since 1998 and has already helped in putting up millions of websites. You can find it on most web hosting review sites with high ratings and usually taking the top spot of the list of best web hosts.
How do you transfer your site to iPage?
If you want to transfer your website to iPage, you have two (2) options: first, you can choose to transfer your domain name to iPage’s registrar or second, you can choose to completely transfer your website including its files and databases. These two are different and will require different procedures. Transferring your domain is much easier since you don’t have to relocate any of your files or databases and the domain transfer can be completed in a few minutes. Here, we will try to explore these two options.
Transferring your domain to iPage.
Domains or domain names are the ones which identify your website on the internet like www.ipage.com. To get your own domain name, you need to purchase it online from Domain Registrars and you’ve probably done that since you are thinking of transferring such domain name. iPage has its own domain registrar and you can also purchase your additional domains from it. More importantly, it offers free domain registration for the first year so you can choose to simply register a new domain with iPage then forward it to your old website. iPage also has a unique feature called Domain Central where all your domain names, whether add-on, parked or subdomain, can be managed. It’s a one-stop-shop and is very useful if you have several domain names. This is also where your old domain will be transferred.
For domain transfer procedures, check out the following steps:
- Unlock your old domain – This is very important. Domain registrars will not allow your domain to be easily transferred since that would facilitate a stealing spree from web hackers. That is why your domain name is locked upon registration. This means that the first step to transferring your domain is unlocking it. Domain registrars have different ways of unlocking domains so check out their instructions on how to do it.
- Acquire a Transfer Authorization Code – This is an additional security measure for your domain. Transfer authorization codes or transfer keys (sometimes called EEPs) will serve as the bridge which will connect your old domain registrar to the new one. By keying in these codes, the intent of the domain owner to transfer is confirmed and the new domain registrar will be given authorization to accept the domain. The procedure for getting a transfer authorization code will again depend on your domain registrar. Sometimes you can find it in your domain account. Otherwise, you will have to request one from your old domain registrar. Thankfully, iPage has a Knowledgebase online where you can find a table of all domain registrars and the corresponding procedures for getting the transfer authorization code.
- Sign up with iPage and login to your hosting account – Apparently, you need to first register with iPage to get your own hosting account. Now that you have unlocked your domain and acquired a transfer authorization code, you can already transfer the domain to iPage registrar using the Domain Central. This is an icon found in your control panel which will show you a list of your domains and their status. Just click on the “Add Existing Domain”, enter the name of the domain you want to transfer as well as the transfer authorization code. Click the “Transfer” button. If the transfer was successful, you can now see your domain in the Domain Central’s list.
- Lock again your domain – Again, lock your domain to protect it from unauthorized transfers.
Manually transfer your website
In this method, you need to completely transfer all your website’s files and databases. This is really difficult since iPage, and other web hosts, have no support for automatic site transfers. You need to manually download all your files and upload them to iPage’s server. You will need an FTP client to do these tasks.
