After hosting migration, the job is only half done. Once the files and database are transferred, you need to check a few things so the site works properly for visitors and Google doesn’t get confused. In this article I share my real experience step by step, including the problems I ran into and how I fixed each one.

If you haven’t read the steps for before the migration, please read my previous article first, then come back here.

1. First, make sure the site and dashboard open

In my case the site opened, but the wp-admin address returned “Not Found”. The reason was that the login URL was different from the default one. If you have a similar problem:

• Try the wp-login.php address.
• Check the history of the browser you used to log in before.
• If you have a security plugin, it may have changed the login URL.
• Check the .htaccess file.

Tip: write down your dashboard login URL somewhere safe.

2. Check how the site looks on mobile

On my site, a two-line heading collapsed on mobile and the lines overlapped. The cause was a low Line-Height value in mobile mode (1.3). To fix it in Elementor:

1. Open the page with Elementor and switch Responsive Mode to Mobile.
2. Click the heading, go to the Style tab, then Typography.
3. Increase Line-Height to 1.5–1.6.
4. Click Update and clear the cache.

Tip: always make this change in mobile mode so the desktop layout isn’t affected.

3. Redirect non-www to www

If your site opens both with and without www, Google treats them as two separate sites and page authority gets split. Choose one as the main version and set up a permanent (301) redirect from the other.

First, decide the main version: in the dashboard go to Settings, then General, and look at the “WordPress Address” and “Site Address” fields. On my site both used www.

I first wrote a redirect rule in .htaccess, but it didn’t work. Then I created the redirect from cPanel:

1. cPanel, Domains section, Redirects
2. Set Type to Permanent (301).
3. Select the non-www domain.
4. In “Redirects to”, enter the full www address.
5. In “www. redirection”, choose Do Not Redirect www.
6. Check Wild Card Redirect and click Add.

Common mistake: the “Redirect with or without www” option causes an infinite redirect loop.

4. Test the redirect the right way

After creating the redirect, my browser still showed the non-www address and I thought it hadn’t worked. But browsers cache redirects. The right way:

• Use httpstatus.io and check that it returns 301 first and then 200.
• Or test in incognito mode, or on your phone using mobile data.

On my site the online tool showed the redirect had worked from the start, and only the browser cache was misleading me.

5. Check plugins and settings

• Make sure Elementor is installed and active.
• If your site is multilingual, check your language plugin (such as Polylang), especially URL modifications, so the URLs use www.
• Clear the cache.
• Go to Settings, then Permalinks, and just click Save once.
• In Elementor use Tools, then Regenerate CSS & Data.

6. Google Search Console

• Verify site ownership. If your property is a Domain property (verified with a DNS record), it covers both the www and non-www versions, so you don’t need a new property.
• Never delete the DNS verification record.
• Submit your sitemap. With Rank Math the address is usually sitemap_index.xml. Open it in your browser first to make sure it works.
• If you see “Couldn’t fetch” after submitting, don’t panic. It usually fixes itself in 1–2 days. If not, remove the sitemap and submit it again.
• Google may take days to weeks to replace the old version. Be patient.

7. Clean up extra files

After the site has worked without problems for a few days, delete:

• Backup files such as .htaccess-backup
• The original_files_ folder created by Duplicator
• Duplicator installer files

Backup files inside public_html can be downloaded from outside, so they shouldn’t stay there.

Final checklist

• Site and dashboard open
• Login URL is written down
• All pages look correct on mobile and desktop
• 301 redirect works (tested with httpstatus.io)
• Elementor and the multilingual plugin are healthy
• Cache is cleared and permalinks are saved
• Ownership verified in Search Console and sitemap submitted
• Extra migration files are deleted

Conclusion

The most important lesson from this experience: diagnose before you act. When the redirect seemed not to work, instead of changing settings again and again, I used a simple tool (httpstatus.io) to see the real status, and found the problem was only the browser cache.

If you ran into problems while migrating your site, leave a comment.