Work through this before and just after pointing the domain at us.
Before
- Site working when previewed through your hosts file
- Mailboxes created here, so mail works the moment the domain switches
- Existing mail copied across if you are moving provider
- DNS TTL lowered a day or two beforehand so the change takes effect quickly
- A note of every current DNS record – website, mail, SPF, DKIM, and any verification records – recreated here
- A backup of the old site, downloaded and kept
The switch
- Change nameservers or the A record
- Leave the old hosting running for at least a week
Just after
- Confirm the certificate has been issued – check SSL/TLS Status in cPanel
- Turn on Force HTTPS Redirect
- Update the site's own address setting to the https version
- Send and receive a test email in both directions
- Submit a test through every form on the site
- If it is a shop, place a real order end to end
Within the first week
- Check Search Console for indexing problems
- Look at the error log for anything unexpected
- Take a fresh backup now the site is live and settled
- Only then cancel the old hosting
If something is wrong
Open a ticket rather than changing DNS back and forth – each change takes time to propagate and repeated switching makes diagnosis much harder.
