Upload your site: guides by host

your hosting provider

where you pay for the website hosting → File Manager (often inside cPanel) or FTP → the web folder

1. 1. Sign in where you pay for hosting

   Sign in where you pay for the website hosting and look for File Manager (often inside cPanel) or FTP. Open the web folder: public_html, www or htdocs, the one with the old site's index file. Not sure who hosts it? Ask me who hosts me in the chat and I'll look it up with you.

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 the web folder (public_html, www or htdocs) 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 the folder above it (the folder that contains the web folder (public_html, www or htdocs)). Click + Folder, name it old-site and create it. Back in the web folder (public_html, www or htdocs), select everything (hidden files included), click Move, type the folder above it/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 the web folder (public_html, www or htdocs), 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 the web folder (public_html, www or htdocs) click Upload, choose yourbusiness-remo.zip (the download from your Remo account) and wait for 100%. Go back to the web folder (public_html, www or htdocs), select the zip and click Extract; keep the web folder (public_html, www or htdocs) as the destination and confirm. The zip is flat: index.html, site.css, the other pages and the photo folders land directly in the web folder (public_html, www or htdocs), nothing to move up a level. Then delete the zip.

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

   Look in the web folder (public_html, www or htdocs) 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. the web folder (public_html, www or htdocs)/index.html must sit directly in the web folder (public_html, www or htdocs), 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 the web folder (public_html, www or htdocs) (previous step).

8. 8. Keep the padlock (HTTPS)

   Your host's panel has an SSL switch (AutoSSL, Let's Encrypt, Install SSL): turn it on; then Force HTTPS or the .htaccess rule. 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).
• Builders (Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy's Website Builder, Duda, Weebly, Hostinger's builder) have no File Manager: if that is what you see, tell me and I'll give you the options.

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