Move a WordPress Site the EASY Way using GoDaddy Site Migration

• How to use GoDaddy’s Site Migration Tool to MOVE a WordPress site from another host provider.
• How to use GoDaddy’s Site Migration Tool to COPY a WordPress site for testing themes, plugins or layouts.
• How to set a domain name with a WordPress site.
• How to use temporary domain names with a WordPress site.

If you are new to WordPress or a veteran, I think at some point we’ll all agree an easy way for moving or copying your site is pretty nice.  This tutorial is all about the easy way to move a WordPress site or copy a WordPress site.

The most obvious reason needing to move your site is perhaps to change hosting providers or upgrading hosting services.  Definitely as you grow your community, at a minimum, an upgrade is in your future.

On the other hand there are a number of reasons to make a copy of your site. The most important reasons are not to test plugins or updates in the production WordPress website.  As a site matures and evolves changes to the theme or layout are inevitable as well.  It also makes sense to explore and develop these changes outside of the production site as well.

Let’s consider the steps to make a copy of or move a WordPress site.  I’ll cover this in more detail in a later tutorial, I promise, but here is a summary of the steps taken.

• Potentially your time researching how to move a WordPress site
• Copy WordPress files using a FTP Client like Filezilla
• Export WordPress database using MySQL directly or something a little more user-friendly like myPhpAdmin
• Upload WordPress files to new location, probably using the same FTP Client
• Import WordPress database, and probably using myPhpAdmin
• Update the wp-config.php file
• Set up a domain name from either a transfer or one you have unused
• Change the domain name in the WordPress database

Now let’s compare that too GoDaddy’s Site Migration Tool.

• Collect WordPress Administrator user name and FTP user name
• Migrate website using the Site Migration Tool
• Optionally, set up a domain name from transfer or use the default provided temporary domain name

We’ve gone from eight steps to three steps and not to mention the learning curve between the two is substantial.

To use the Site Migration Tool you need a few things to make it happen:

• Website URL
• WordPress Admin Username and Password
• FTP URL
• FTP Username and Password

It’s so easy there really isn’t much to say.  Um, yep!  That’s pretty much it.

• GoDaddy
• GoDaddy new customer discount
• WordPress.org
• BONUS: GoDaddy Managed WordPress Support

Thanks for watching and more than anything I hope you found this helpful. If you have questions be sure to post them in the comments below so everyone can learn from it as well. I read all comments and will get back to you with an answer. If this tutorial helped you at all be sure to share, like or tweet it. Thanks for the support and I’ll keep getting better and continue providing valuable information. Cheers!