Cleaning up first.
WHY BOTHER
Moving a bloated site moves the bloat.
A migration is a natural point to clean up.
WHAT TO REMOVE BEFORE MOVING
Old backup archives sitting in the account Deactivated plugins and unused themes Old site copies in subdirectories Cache files Anything you do not recognise
THAT LAST POINT
Anything unfamiliar on an existing site deserves investigation before you copy it to a new one.
It may be a compromise.
CHECKING FOR COMPROMISE
Scan the site before migrating.
Moving an infected site moves the infection, and you start with a problem.
CLEANING THE DATABASE
Revisions, spam, transients.
Back up before cleaning.
WHAT TO NOTE
Which applications and versions you are running.
WHAT THIS ACHIEVES
A smaller, faster transfer, and a cleaner starting point.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Clean and migrate on the same day without a backup of the original.
