*THE BIGGEST FEAR OF WORKING WITH A WEBSITE HOSTING COMPANY*

Will they STEAL my website?

Clients come and go, that’s called turnover, and having owned a website hosting company for the past 10+ years we’ve seen more than a handful go.
What surprises me most is that sometimes it’s like the business owner has a self-fulfilling prophecy that their website host is going to treat them badly, even if their host has the best of intentions.

In my book, Webmasters For People, I outline everything a business owner ought to be aware of with regards to how they host their website, and how to partner with said company in the most effective way possible. Inside that book, I have an entire chapter dedicated to website backups. If you ask your Webmaster (aka “Website Host”) do I have a backup of my website? The answer you ought to have is “Yes, instructions for how to access it are X, and instructions for using your website’s backup are Y.”

As long as you have access to download a backup of your website, you as the business owner have the power to move your website to any website host that you desire.

In fact, most website hosting companies will migrate your website for free. It often is a job that can be completed in just 15 minutes over the phone.

It’s what’s known as a “loss leader.” A term I’m sure you’re familiar with. A loss leader is a marketing strategy that involves selling a product at a price below its market cost to attract customers and encourage sales of more profitable products. The idea is that small initial losses can lead to greater profits overall.

My point is that if you’re moving website hosting companies, and you have a backup of your website you already have everything you need. This should give you peace of mind and a clear conscience.

(Pick up the phone or shoot me DM—a 5 minute conversation with me and your job is done!)

(Want to move off our host? No problem, here’s your backup. No hostage situation, just good business.)

Final Thoughts On Moving/Migrating Your Website To A New Host

If you’ve moving off one website host onto another, work with the new website host to migrate it. If you choose to work with the website host you’re moving off of, expect a small but reasonable migration fee. Don’t be “surprised” or upset or have a bad taste in your mouth because of it. You requested a service and your current website company has no reason to work for free to perform that service for you. They do not have any benefit from the loss leader of migrating your website for free, so don’t expect it. You wouldn’t provide your services to someone for free, don’t expect someone else to!