UPDATE 10/30/2018: I have found an outstanding plugin to move a website from one hosting account to another. The plugin is called Duplicator and is available by searching for plugins, or by going to: https://snapcreek.com/duplicator/duplicator-free/
UPDATE 01/20/2016: If you’re not using “Better Search Replace” to move your website(s)…….you’re working too hard. This is a fabulous plugin and I highly recommend it.
UPDATE 01/18/2016: I have not tried it, but there is a plugin that can negate the problems you may encounter in your database after relocating your WordPress website. The plugin is called “Better Search Replace”, and I was turned on to this plugin by my hosting service SiteGround. I will update this post again after I have tried it.
When I first started working with WordPress, I thought moving a WordPress website from my development machine to production would be pretty straightforward, however, things seemed to always “break” after the move.
After searching the web, I came across this interesting tidbit of information.
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-delicate-theme-options-lost-when-moving-to-new-domain
Many thanks to Sayontan Sinha for this insight. This information has saved me countless hours.