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Migrating WordPress from GoDaddy in 15 minutes

Step-by-step walkthrough using our free migration tool. No downtime, no DNS pain.

PAPriya AnandDeveloper AdvocateApr 15, 20266 min read

Most GoDaddy WordPress migrations take an afternoon and end with at least one panicked DNS revert. They don't have to. Here's the path that, in our testing, works on the first try about 95% of the time.

What you need before you start

  • Your GoDaddy customer login (not the WordPress admin)
  • A RockSolidHost account on Starter or above
  • DNS access — wherever your domain is registered
  • About 15 minutes

The actual steps

1. Generate a migration token

From your RSH dashboard, go to Sites → Migrate → WordPress. Pick GoDaddy from the source dropdown. We'll generate a one-time migration token.

2. Paste it into our migration plugin

Install our migration plugin on the existing site. Paste the token. Hit start. Our system pulls a full snapshot — files, database, uploads, plugins, the works — and ships it to a staging URL on our end. This usually takes 4-6 minutes for a typical small-business site.

3. Verify the staging URL

We give you a temporary URL like staging-yourdomain.rsh.dev. Open it. Click around. Make sure it looks right. If something's broken (rare, but it happens — usually with custom plugins that hard-code the domain), our migration team will fix it for you, free.

3. Cut DNS over

Update your A and AAAA records to point at the IPs we give you. Lower the TTL to 300 ahead of time if you can — that means the cutover finishes for everyone in five minutes instead of an hour.

Don't change your nameservers unless you want us to take over DNS too. If you only update A/AAAA records, your existing email and other services keep working untouched.

That's it. The whole process is in the dashboard, and our team monitors every migration in real time. If anything looks off, we ping you before you have to ask.

PA
Written byPriya AnandDeveloper Advocate

Writes the tutorials she wishes existed when she was learning. Maintains three production WordPress sites in her spare time.

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