I’ll admit it… I’ve been a fan and user of WordPress for quite a number of years now. There are MANY reasons for this, most of which are pretty much self evident if you do any research about building a personal or small business blog.
However, in the past, I have maintained my home page – the first thing people see when coming to my domain – the old way. Building complicated and reasonably attractive pages through the use of code and tools like Dreamweaver is a daunting task at times.
More recently though, I’ve realized that I have been spending FAR too much time doing the simplest updates and have been fooling myself thinking that I have really been saving money. Sure, I haven’t had to hire someone to do the work for me so I’ve had no ‘out of pocket’ costs with these revisions over the years. But they have cost me PLENTY!
Consider this for a moment. To include all the content on the previous version of this site, building it myself, took several weeks of coding and testing. Then several more weeks building and refining the content. Then, after all of that, it was so much effort to make any changes that changes weren’t made.
Fast forward to this version… The entire site, from the ground up INCLUDING the content you see here, was assembled in less than 20 hours. Roughly speaking, the last version cost me TEN TIMES that! But what’s MORE important in today’s markets is that this version will be dynamic. Changing constantly and doing so with a minimum of effort on my part. I can change the entire look in an hour if I should desire to do so. I can add content from anywhere I have a connection, even with my smart phone!
It’s better equipped for being found online, and as it will be more dynamic, it will be indexed more often, increasing my ranking – Google’s word for VISIBILITY – dramatically. And increasing your visibility online only means one thing… more traffic – and a greater chance of finding new clients.
Now… I teased you with the title of this post… if you’re looking for a tutorial on how to move a WordPress site… keep reading. If you’re not… well you really don’t have to read any more except the last paragraph below.
A good plan when replacing a site is to build the new version on a temporary domain or in a sub-folder of your main domain. You build and test and tweak and leave the old site so that your potential clients don’t see the errors, blunders, bad designs and so on that are a very real part of the process.
Once you’re all happy with it, you then have to move it to replace your old site. Problem… WordPress has a reputation for being somewhat difficult to move, and generally requires some advanced skills to do so. I’m a 35+ year veteran of computers and have done everything from programming to sales to support to training – and more! I was afraid of moving my new site when I started to read up on how to do so…
GOOD NEWS!!!
When the time to move your WordPress site comes along, follow these steps:
- On the site you’re moving (temporary site – old host – private server – whatever the reason – add the plugin called ‘WP Clone’ by WP Academy. In a few clicks, you’ll have that installed and activated.
- Go to the Plugin (find WP Clone on the Dashboard menu)
- Click Create Backup and wait a bit. When the backup is done, you will see a copy URL link to the right. Click it!
- NOTE: The new home of your site will be overwritten by these procedures… so make sure you’ve got a backup if there’s anything you want to keep!
- Login to the NEW home of your WordPress site and install WordPress if it’s not already installed.
- Install the WP Clone Plugin
- Select Restore from URL – and then paste in the link you copied above.
- Once again… wait a little while.
- When the restore is done… you’ll be offered the chance to fix your ‘permalinks’. Do it!
- You’ll then have to login in again.
Guess what… You’re done! The site you’re looking at was moved using that method, in about 5 minutes. Without hassles. Without (much) fear. And most importantly, without any additional problems after the move. There is one more thing you really should do when you’re done the above steps… Donate to the author of this amazing tool!
Well that’s it for now… Best wishes with your own domains and should you ever need to move a WordPress installation, now you know a fast and safe way to do so!
Cheers
njw