replace an existing website with a new one.

[andy.jones]

Hi All,

I am new to using cpanel and have a pretty basic question with regard to replacing a website which is already online with a completely new one.
There are numerous posts I have found relating to certain areas of what I am asking, but no definitive all in one explanation. I would have no problem if I was starting from scratch, but being my company website I cannot afford to get it wrong. Not all pages have the same name as the previous website and I would like to redirect any deleted pages to the home page of the new site.

Do I just upload the new website and overwrite everything in the public_html folder, redirecting if any is needed?
If not a step by step guide to what I should do would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[arunsv84]

If you are planning for a new website and want to remove the existing one, yes, you need to overwrite everything in "public_html" directory. I would recommend you to delete all the files and folders first from "public_html" and upload the new contents via FTP or logging to your cPanel >> FileManager.

Before this its good to take a backup of the full old website from cPanel >> Backups. So if something goes wrong you can restore it safely.

Check the following url for steps to backup your current website.

Creating a Website Backup in your cPanel - Web Hosting Hub

Check the following url to see how you can upload files using cPanel or Filezilla.

How To Upload Files To Your Website Using CPanel | CPanel

FileZilla Tutorial - How to use FileZilla FTP client

Cheers!!!

 

[andy.jones]

Thanks a million arunsv84 I will try this as soon as I can get to it, some time today.

1 more question, If I am deleting everything from the public_html folder how will I be able to redirect the pages from the old website?
, I only want to do this if it keeps up the web sites search rankings.
Some pages have retained their name, some will be no longer used and some will be created.

Thanks again

 

[arunsv84]

No problem.

You can use htaccess redirect rules to redirect the requests from old pages to new pages. While considering the SEO part, I believe you have preserved almost the same old site structure, navigation, internal links & URL structure in newly designed website. You can easily set 301 redirects to redirect old pages to new one. If your new website is completely different from existing one and if you are not having idea about the old url structure, it would be better to upload the new website to a sub-directory, test it, set the redirects as required and then move it as main website.

You can create a subdomain like staging.domainname.com, upload the new website to this one, test the website, set the redirects and test if everything is working properly and move it to the main domain.

Cheers!!!

 

[andy.jones]

Hi arunsv84

Your explanations are terrific I actually understand everything you have explained, thanks for that.

I think I will probably lean towards your subdomain solution as this will be less of a headache if I cock it up.

If you can think of any other problems that I might encounter please post.

your're a star.

 

[arunsv84]

Hi Andy,

Glad I could help. If you face any difficulty, please post it here and we will try our level best to assist you.

Thanks!

 

[ofertarca]

Really helpful explanations arunsv84. Complete and understandable explanations.