How to Upload Your Website (in 6 Easy Steps)

After days of coding and tweaking your website, it’s time to publish your creation to the internet. This tutorial will show you how to upload a website in a few easy steps. Let’s take a look!

1. Pick a Reliable Web Hosting Company

Creating and maintaining a website is not something that you should take lightly. It’s crucial to pick a top-notch web hosting provider that has all the key features to kickstart your project.

Here are several factors that you should consider when choosing a hosting provider:

1. Live support. A good hosting service should have a team of experts who can help you at any time. There’s no worse feeling than running into some issues and having to wait for days to get a response.
2. Control over your web hosting space. The less control you have over your account, the more likely you are to run into trouble when your site grows.
3. Room for growth. Before you commit to a web host, make sure it offers scalable solutions that can provide more power (such as virtual private servers or cloud hosting).
4. Money-back guarantee. Nobody likes a bad investment, so make sure to check for a refund policy. This will give you a time frame to test everything out before committing to the service.

2. Choose Your Website Upload Method

The next challenge is picking the right tool to do the job. Here are four of the most popular tools to upload a website:

File Manager

A browser-based tool with all the key features to take care of your website files and directories. In hPanel, you can find File Manager under the Files section.

However, the File Manager has an upload limit. If your website files are larger than 256MB, you should opt for the next tool instead.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

Most web hosting providers include a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) service, so you can use it to connect to an FTP client. For Hostinger’s users, all the required credentials are located in FTP Accounts under the Files section.

FTP clients have no size limit, so you can upload as many files as you want. However, it does take a bit of technical knowledge that you can learn here.

Automatic Website Importer

If you’re a Hostinger client, you can find an Import Website feature in hPanel. You can use this feature to extract a website archive to the public_html directory. The tool supports .zip, .tar and .tar.gz formats, and the upload limit is 256MB.

WordPress Migration Plugins

If you plan to use WordPress, there are several ways to upload your website to the CMS. One of the easiest methods is using a WordPress migration plugin like All in One WP Migration. After installing and activating it, the rest of the steps are self-explanatory.

The upload size limit will depend on your hosting provider. Follow this tutorial to learn how to increase the limit.

3. Upload Your Website File

Now that you know the best tools to upload a website, it’s time to get your hands dirty!

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to upload your website using Hostinger’s File Manager and a well-known FTP client, FileZilla.

Using File Manager

1. Login to Hostinger’s hPanel and navigate to File Manager.
2. Once you’re in the public_html directory, select the Upload Files icon from the upper-right menu.
3. Select the website archive file on your computer and Upload it to our server.
4. Right-click on the uploaded file and Extract the archived files to the public_html directory.

Using FileZilla

Before we begin, make sure to extract the archive to your local computer as FileZilla doesn’t have an Extract feature.

1. Connect your account to FileZilla.
2. Navigate to Remote Site panel and click on the public_html folder.
3. Head to the Local Site panel and locate the extracted files.
4. Select the files, and right-click to Upload them to the public_html directory.

That’s it! By following the above steps, you can transfer all files to public_html without doing any extra work. Otherwise, you’ll need to connect via SSH and extract the archive manually.

4. Move the Website Files to the Main Root Directory

In some cases, an additional directory will be created when you upload website files. As a result, visitors will be directed to yourdomain.com/subfolder instead of the default yourdomain.com.

To prevent that from happening, you need to make sure all the files are located in the root directory of your domain, which is public_html.

You can use the File Manager to move your website files. All you need to do is right-click on the subfolder, select the Move option, and set public_html as the destination. Use this tutorial for more detailed guidance.

5. Import Your Database

If your website uses a database, you’ll also need to import it along with your website files:

1. Create a new MySQL database and user.
2. Access your newly created database via phpMyAdmin.
3. Use the Import section to upload the backup file of your database.
4. Update the MySQL database connection details (database name, host, user, password) in its configuration files.

For more detailed steps, check out our guide on how to restore a database using phpMyAdmin. Skip this part if you don’t use any database.

6. Check If the Website Works

Once the website files are uploaded, it’s time for a final check!

If your domain name is already pointed to your web host, enter the domain name into your browser and see if it directs you to your website.

Keep in mind that DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to fully propagate worldwide. As such, if you just pointed your domain to the web host’s name servers, you might need to wait for a while.

Use an online tool like whatsmydns.net to check the state of your DNS propagation. Just enter your domain name and the tool will check the DNS records against multiple name servers.

Should you follow all the instructions correctly, your website will appear just fine. However, if you run into an issue, ask your hosting provider for assistance.

And if you’re a Hostinger client, contact us via the live chat and one of our customer success agents will be ready to help you!

Conclusion

Designing a beautiful website will mean nothing if you don’t publish it. Don’t leave it untouched on your computer and let people appreciate your artwork!

To recap, here are the steps to upload your website:

1. Pick the right hosting provider.
2. Choose the tool and method to upload your website.
3. Upload your website files.
4. Move the website files to the main root folder.
5. Import your database.
6. Check if your website works worldwide.

That’s it! It may sound a bit complicated at first, but if you follow all the steps carefully, you’ll get your website running in no time. Good luck!