How to Transfer Your Website From Yellow Pages

Let’s face it, changing providers isn’t always easy to do even when the company you’re transferring to and from are both helpful and friendly; that’s the whole reason we have a SiteMigrator service to do it for you. That change can be made much harder when the company you want to leave keeps trying to stop you, and there’s no worse offender for this we’ve seen than YellowPages.

This is a typical lay of the land for a transfer from Yellow Pages… let’s explore in more detail:

Domain Registration – who’s in control of your domain?

If you’ve checked your domain registration since moving to Yellow Pages, you might have noticed your email has changed to multimedia@yp.ca. That, unfortunately, puts them in control of your domain. Even worse, they’re not going to change it for you. They’ll give you a dozen excuses for why, but I’ve seen more people who can’t get their contact information changed / transfer authorization (EPP) code than people who can. 

The first step is to regain control of your domain. Of course, you should try to do this via Yellow Pages first. Call them and ask them to change the Registrant and Admin emails to your email address. If When they say no, don’t panic! We’ve gone through this before, and this is what we’ve needed to do:

• Make sure your information on the domain matches your own.
  • Even if the email doesn’t, make sure that your name and address / phone are correct. Ideally they all match, but you can settle for name and one other corroborating piece.
  • If they don’t match, talk to Yellow Pages to get that updated. Since this doesn’t relinquish control, they likely would do this for you.
• Take a picture of the front and the back of your driver’s license.
• If this is a business domain, scan / take pictures of your Articles of Incorporation or other business registration documents as applicable.
• Call Enom at (425) 274-4500. Explain to them that you’re a customer of their reseller, Yellow Pages, and that YP has refused to change your email address on file or provide an EPP (transfer) code.

Enom will generally ask for the documents I’ve referenced to validate that you are in fact the owner of the domain. This has typically taken 1-4 days for them to do; remember that the steps they’re taking to do this are for your protection as a domain owner (it is frustrating, I know, but bear with them!).

Web Hosting – Your site needs a new home

Whether you managed to talk Yellow Pages into giving you a copy of your website or you’re going to be starting out from scratch, you’re going to need a new home on the web. Of course, I would recommend our own Canadian web hosting platform, but whatever you choose you’ll want to have it set up and ready.

A new website for a new host?

Ask YellowPages to provide you with the content that makes up your website. They may actually give you a zip file with all the HTML files.

Please Note: if you do get the HTML files from YellowPages to transfer, the only way to make changes to the website will be to know how to edit raw HTML. If you don’t know how to edit raw HTML, then you should follow the steps linked below to create a new WordPress site instead, where you’ll be able to create and edit the site visually.

Once you have your new hosting ready to go (previous step), you can either upload the site HTML files, or create a new WordPress site. Even a placeholder with your contact information would be a good way to start!

If you’re looking for a fresh start, or even just a revamp of your existing site, and you don’t wish to create it yourself, we offer a range of web design services to meet every budget.

Make sure your email is set up

Does Yellow Pages provide your email service? Well, unfortunately, it’s connected to your domain registration. The moment you move your domain, your email *will* go down. So, how do we fix this?

Step 1: Create email accounts on your new hosting account

Step 2: Set your new email accounts up on your devices (phone / computer)

Step 3: Migrate over your existing email (see the Email section here)

Transfer your domain

Now that we’ve got everything set up, hopefully Enom has gotten back to you. Your email address should now be updated for the domain, and they will have hopefully provided you your EPP / Transfer authorization code.

Step 1: Change Name Servers. Your new web host should have provided name servers for your hosting account. Either call eNom again using the telephone number above and ask if they can change the name servers for you, or login to the eNom panel and change them yourself.

Step 2: Initiate Registrar Transfer. If you don’t wish to use eNom as your registrar, once the name servers are updated (or if eNom won’t do it), begin the transfer to the company you want to register the domain through. Here’s how to transfer a domain to Websavers.

Step 3: Confirm Transfer. Confirm the domain transfer. You should receive an email at the address you gave Enom for the domain. This email will ask you to confirm that you’d like to transfer it. You often have to click a link or the transfer will fail. Keep an eye out for that email!

Step 4: Wait For Completion. Sit back and wait; it can take anywhere from an hour to six days for the transfer to complete. Don’t worry, you’ll get an email when it’s done.