by Laura | May 9, 2017 | web development and blogging
Moving a website from one URL to another can be a pain and carry some risk. And there are many reasons to want to clone a website (on it’s own domain or on a subdomain):
- you may want an archive site
- you want to play around with an existing site without disrupting your live site
- you want to move a newly created site to another url
In the past, I have used the C-panel on Bluehost to copy files. Today, I found a better way: All-in-One WP Migration. It’s easy to use and it worked well. Here’s what you need to do:
- set up a new domain or sub-domain
- install WordPress on this new domain or sub-domain
- install and activate All-in-One WP Migration on your existing/source site
- go to the All-in-One WP Migration plugin in your existing/source site
- click ‘export’ and save the file to your computer, Dropbox, or any of the options give. This will create a zip file of your website
- log into your new/destination site’s WordPress dashboard
- install and activate All-in-One WP Migration
- click ‘import’ and choose the source site’s zip file that you just created. You can do this with drag and drop.
- It will then instruct you to log into the destination site’s WordPress dashboard using the source site’s credentials (it will have replaced your destination site’s user name and password). Go to setting and save the permalinks twice (yes, you have to hit save twice; this is a WP bug
That should be it. The first time I did this, it took a while for the new site to show up. I thought this was strange and no one has been able to say why. I also can’t find any other users reporting this problem. Aside from that, this plugin worked great and I’ll be using it on more sites going forward.
Have you tried it? What do you think?
by Laura | May 8, 2017 | web development and blogging
This post refers to Bluehost hosting, although the process is likely similar for other hosting companies. Bluehost does offer easy WordPress install, but so do many hosting companies.
Log onto Bluehost
Click on ‘WordPress tools’
Click ‘new install’
Choose where you will be installing WordPress. In this case, we’ll be installing on a sub-domain you have created. Scroll down to the bottom of the drop-down and find the sub-domain where you’d like to install WordPress.
You will get this message: “You can get a free SSL certificate to improve the security of this new site, but your free certificate will only work if you select an addon domain.”
Leave the Path name blank.
Add a title. This sub-domain will act as an independent website. It is not a page or a post on your site.
Fill in the Admin username, password, and email. Again, this sub-domain will be acting as an independent site.
Then log in to WordPress. This will be at yoursubdomainname.yoursitename.com/wp-admin.
by Laura | May 8, 2017 | web development and blogging
If you are setting up a new site and use Bluehost with WordPress install, your WordPress C-panel will give you the option of setting up a staging site instead of a live site. You can even completely copy a live site to a staging environment and work on it there.
by Laura | May 8, 2017 | web development and blogging
Congratulations! You’ve decided to redesign your website.
But maybe you still have some love for the old site and want to visit it every now and then. You can create an archive site.
Just create a subdomain where you’d like your old site to live. You could call it mygreatoldsite.mysite.com. But any name is fine.
Then go to your hosting company (I use Bluehost) and go the the File Manager. Copy the files from your old site (you can avoid copying any sub-domains) to the archive folder, mygreatoldsite. You can then visit mygreatoldsite.mysite.com whenever you’d like to see your old site. And you can begin building your new site on your main domain.
by Laura | May 8, 2017 | web development and blogging
This post refers to Bluehosting hosted WordPress websites, but other hosting companies are likely similar.
This is easy, but often forgotten. Simply log onto Bluehost. Click ‘WordPress tools.’ Then ‘backup.’ Select the site you’d like to backup in the dropdown. Then scroll down and click ‘create new.’
That’s it.
by Laura | May 8, 2017 | web development and blogging
Many people build their websites live. That is, they set up a domain name, get it hosted, install WordPress and a WordPress theme (if using those), and get to work.
New websites rarely have an audience anyway so having your ongoing drafts viewable as you go isn’t really an issue.
But what if you are redesigning and rewriting an existing site. You probably don’t want your site visitors to see all that construction in progress. So you can maintain your current site as is and build your new site behind the scenes on a sub-domain. And setting that up is easy.
You will go to the C-panel on your hosting company’s website. I use Bluehost but all hosting companies with a C-panel should be similar. Click on ‘domains’ then ‘sub-domains.’ It will then allow you to name your sub-domain, which will be a prefix of your site. So the sub-domain name will look like this: testing.yoursitename.com. Or perhaps staging.yoursitename.com. You decide what you want the sub-domain name to be. It will also ask you to name the Home folder. If you don’t name it, it will give it the same name as the sub-domain, which is what you want anyway so you can leave it blank.
Hit ‘create.’ That’s it. Your sub-domain is set-up. Now you will just install WordPress and a theme, and begin building your site as if it were your main site.
