Setting up a site on Presslabs

Here you can learn how to migrate your site from another hosting provider or to add a new a site to our Presslabs platform.

Once you registered for a Presslabs account and completed your billing information in the Account Section in our Managed Hosting Dashboard, you are ready to set up your site.

There are two ways to set up your site: migrate an existing site or create a new site. For detailed information please follow the instructions below.

Migrating an existing site

All the migrations to Presslabs are personally handled by our engineers in order to streamline the process of changing hosts. The migration process consists of several steps:

  1. We request and check the credentials of the existing host. SSH access is preferred to ensure a quick & flawless copy of the site content. Alternatives include cPanel/WHM access or even a full backup provided in a download link.

  2. Some DNS record changes are needed, like lowering the TTL of the main A-record of the site and the CDN subdomain record.

  3. We make a 1:1 replica of the site on our servers. This may take several days, depending on the amount of data that needs to be copied.

  4. We make an initial check of the site on our platform and fix all the errors we can find.

  5. The owner checks the site using an /etc/hosts setup and gives the final green light.

  6. We make the final data sync. This is generally a period of 1-2 hours when you need to pause content editing, to ensure no data gets lost.

  7. We change the main IP address of the site to point to Presslabs.

  8. The nameservers are changed to point to the Presslabs name servers.

The whole process can take up to one week, depending on the amount of data, as well as timely access to the right places (e.g. DNS manager).

After the migration is finished, we usually come up with a set of optimisation proposals that cover various aspects, such as the set of plugins used, the site theme and/or the database. Depending on the situation, we might recommend discussing with a developer for some optimisations that would help your site perform optimally on our platform.

Creating a new site

Adding a new site in our Managed Hosting Dashboard is one of the easiest things to do. You just have to follow 3 easy steps:

  1. Request a new site by clicking on the plus icon in our Managed Hosting Dashboard.
  2. Wait for our approval of your site request.
  3. Start publishing!
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