Upload your site: guides by host

GoDaddy

godaddy.com → My Products → Web Hosting → Manage → Dashboard → File Manager → /public_html

1. 1. Open your hosting's File Manager

   Go to godaddy.com, sign in and open My Products. Under Web Hosting, next to your Web Hosting (cPanel) account, click Manage. On the Dashboard click File Manager (top-left corner). Make sure the path shows /public_html. If you only see Websites + Marketing, that product takes no files: read the note under the steps. Windows Hosting: open Plesk Admin → Files → httpdocs and follow the same steps. Managed WordPress: tell me in the chat first.

2. 2. Show hidden files

   Click Settings (top right of the File Manager), tick Show Hidden Files (dotfiles) and click Save. A WordPress site keeps a hidden .htaccess that sends every visitor to the old index.php; now you can see it and move it with the rest.

3. 3. Back up first

   In /public_html select every file and folder (click the first, Shift+click the last). Click Compress, choose Zip Archive, name it old-site-backup.zip and confirm. Then select that zip and click Download. Keep that file: it is your whole old site, and moving it back undoes everything.

4. 4. Move the old site out of the web folder

   Go up one level to /home/your-username (the folder that contains /public_html). Click + Folder, name it old-site and create it. Back in /public_html, select everything (hidden files included), click Move, type /home/your-username/old-site as the destination and confirm. Nothing is deleted: the old site just stops being public, so an old WordPress cannot be opened or hacked from the web. If your File Manager cannot leave /public_html, create old-site inside it and ask me in the chat for the two-line .htaccess that keeps it private.

5. 5. Upload the zip and extract it

   In /public_html click Upload, choose yourbusiness-remo.zip (the download from your Remo account) and wait for 100%. Go back to /public_html, select the zip and click Extract; keep /public_html as the destination and confirm. The zip is flat: index.html, site.css, the other pages and the photo folders land directly in /public_html, nothing to move up a level. Then delete the zip.

6. 6. Make sure index.html is the front page

   Look in /public_html for an old index.php, index.htm, default.html or default.php. If one is still there, move it into old-site: a server shows those before index.html. /public_html/index.html must sit directly in /public_html, not inside a folder.

7. 7. Open your site

   Open https://yourbusiness.com in a private window and click a few menu links. If the old site still shows, press Ctrl+F5; if it still does, an old index.php or index.htm is left in /public_html (previous step).

8. 8. Keep the padlock (HTTPS)

   On the Dashboard click cPanel Admin. Under Security click SSL/TLS Status, tick your domain, click Run AutoSSL and wait for 'AutoSSL Domain Validated'. Then, under Domains, click Domains and turn on Force HTTPS Redirect. If the site opens as http:// without the padlock, ask me in the chat for the three-line .htaccess redirect, or turn on your host's Force HTTPS switch.

Watch out

• The zip is flat: extract it IN the web folder and index.html lands at the root. If your panel created a folder with the site inside, open it, select all, Move to the web folder.
• An old index.php, index.htm or default.html left next to index.html wins: move it into old-site.
• Show Hidden Files before moving anything: a WordPress .htaccess left behind sends visitors to the old index.php.
• old-site belongs OUTSIDE the web folder (your home folder). Inside it, an old WordPress stays public and runnable.
• Never delete the old files: Compress → Download first, then Move. Moving them back undoes everything.
• Your email does not live in these folders; nothing here touches it. Do not cancel the old hosting if your email runs there (ask me).
• Extract takes one file at a time; a blank destination sends the files to /home. Type /public_html.
• GoDaddy shows index.htm before index.html, and index.html before index.php. File names are case-sensitive.
• AutoSSL gives the certificate but does not redirect: Force HTTPS Redirect is a separate switch.
• Many files? FTP works too: host = your domain, user = your cPanel login, port 21 (FileZilla).
• Websites + Marketing (GoDaddy's builder) has no File Manager: the files go to a Web Hosting (cPanel) plan or to the hosted plan.

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