How to upload your website files Print

If you have a ready-made website, for example from a developer or exported from another host, you can upload it with File Manager or FTP.

Where to upload

• Main domain: the public_html folder
• Addon domain or subdomain: the folder shown as its Document Root in Domains → Domains

Your home page must be named index.html or index.php and sit directly in that folder, not in a subfolder.

Method 1: File Manager (best for a zip file)

1. On your computer, put all your website files into one .zip file.
2. In cPanel, open Files → File Manager and open public_html.
3. Click Upload and choose your zip file. Wait until the progress bar reaches 100%, then click Go Back.
4. Select the zip file and click Extract. Confirm the folder /public_html.
5. If the files were extracted into a subfolder, for example public_html/mysite/, open it, select all files, click Move and move them to /public_html.
6. Delete the zip file to save space.

Method 2: FTP (best for many files or regular updates)

Use a free FTP program such as FileZilla to drag and drop files from your computer. See How to create an FTP account and How to connect with FileZilla.

Websites with a database

If your site uses a database, as WordPress and most shops do, you also need to:

1. Create a new database and user. See How to create a MySQL database and user.
2. Import your database file (.sql). See How to import or export a database with phpMyAdmin.
3. Update your site's configuration file with the new database name, user and password. For WordPress, that's wp-config.php.