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Moving Small WordPress Websites to GoWebsite.com

There are different ways to move your WordPress® Website between hosts. The easiest way is to use one of our Managed WordPress accounts, and then use its migration feature(more info). However, if you can't use the migration feature, you can use this process outlined in this article.

These instructions are best for relatively small, with no plug-in modification. You will moves themes, posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags, but not plugins.

If you have a complex WordPress Website or use plugins, we recommend Moving Large WordPress Websites to GoWebsite.com.

To get started, you need to set up WordPress on your hosting account. For more information see Installing WordPress on Your Hosting Account.

Exporting and Downloading Existing WordPress Blog Data

To export and download personal WordPress blogs away from the current server, you need to have access to your WordPress administrator dashboard and have access to your existing server.

To Export and Download a Personal Blog Away from a Server

  1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard. For example,
    http://coolexample.com/wp-admin, where coolexample.com is your domain name.
  2. Click Tools, and then select Export.
  3. Click Download Export File. This saves an XML file to your computer— the file name looks like wordpress.date.xml.
  4. Log out of the WordPress dashboard.
  5. Connect to your existing hosting account using File Transfer Protocol (FTP). For more information see What is File Transfer Protocol (FTP)?
  6. Download the wp-content folder to your computer.

If you're using the same domain name for the WordPress blog, you need to update your DNS, which brings your current blog offline. See Setting Nameservers for Your Domain Names for more information.

Importing and Uploading WordPress Data into a New Location

To import and upload your personal WordPress blog to our servers, you need to access the new hosting server and WordPress administrator dashboard.

To Import and Upload a Personal Blog To a New Server

  1. Connect to your new hosting account using File Transfer Protocol (FTP). For more information see What is File Transfer Protocol (FTP)?
  2. Upload the previously-exported folder (coolexample.com, in our earlier example) and replace the contents of the existing wp-content folder in your new hosting account.
  3. Log in to your new WordPress dashboard. For example,
    http://coolexample.com/wp-admin where coolexample.com is your domain name.
  4. Click Appearance, and then select Theme.
  5. Select the theme you want, and then click Activate.
  6. Click Tools, and then select Import.
  7. Click WordPress, click Browse to locate the previously saved XML file on your computer, and click OK.
  8. Click Upload file and import.
  9. Click Submit.
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