If you are moving your website’s content to a different hosting account, it can be easily done with the help of backups.
If you simply want to change the domain of your website but leave the content as it is (for example you had domain.tld and want to have newawesomedomain.tld), and both domains are in the same hosting account, you would just need to copy the website files from one domain to another. A step-by-step guide for WordPress can be found here: How to Change WordPress Domain Name: A Step-by-Step Guide.
If you are using any other CMS or have a custom coded website, here are the steps to change your website’s domain:
Step 1 – Preparations
First, you need to define your final goal and check your hosting account, as the process is slightly different for various cases.
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If you want to have your website accessible by the new address, but leave the old address working and both domains leading to the same content, the best option for you is to simply park your new domain to the old one.
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If you want to completely copy or move the website’s content to a different domain name, make sure that the new domain name is added to your plan. You can check it in the Add Website section in hPanel:
After this, open your File Manager:
And check if you can see both domains in your File Manager:
Based on the reply, choose one of the options below.
Option 1: You see all your domains in File Manager
Open the public_html folder of the domain you wish to copy files from:
Select all the files and click on Copy or Move (based on if you want to leave the copy of the files on the old domain):
Click on Change to choose the destination folder for the files. Path should be: domains/new_domain_name/public_html. Press Copy or Move to finish the process:
If your website has a domain mentioned in any configuration files (like OpenCart, Joomla, and many more), make sure to update the domain name in those files. You might need to contact a developer or a forum specified on your CMS for additional guidance.
If your website uses a database, and you are completely moving the content, you can simply continue using this database. If you want to have a copy of it for the new domain, all you need to do is:
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Import your old database’s backup to the newly created database.
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Correct URL’s in a new database along with configuration file on your website.
That’s it – your content is fully moved or copied to the new domain
Option 2: You see only one domain in the File Manager
If you see only one domain in File Manager, and your domains have different usernames while added to the same hosting plan, the procedure of moving or copying the website content would be the following:
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Upload the backup to the new domain’s public_html folder.
If you are also using a database proceed with these steps:
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Create a new database for your new domain.
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Import your old database’s backup to the newly created database.
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Correct URL’s in a new database along with configuration file on your website.