We sometimes put a website into a sub directory to work on it i.e. carryout the updates and maintenance.
When working on a new website we can put the site into a www.website.com/folder/ so the site is not visible to visitors and will not get picked up by search engines.
Once the updates and new site are ready to go live follow these quick and easy steps.
1. Make sure you have all the back ups i.e. files and database.
You will find Jetpack in cPanel with all the backups you will need but check they are there before proceeding.
You will need to login to cPanel to carryout this task so you will need login details.
2. Remove all files and folders from the root directory.
Ensure the root directory is empty. Compress the files in there and download them if you want to keep them.
2. Login to WordPress and go to settings > General and change the url from the sub directory to root.
WordPress Address (URL) http://website.com/wp (no trailing slash)
Site Address (URL) http://website.com (no trailing slash)
4. Move files to root folder.
Go to File Manager and select all the files and folders in the sub directory and move them to the root. You can drag and drop.
5. Log back into WordPress.
Now log back into WordPress using the domain i.e. https://www.website.com/wp-admin/
6. Set Permalinks
Select permalinks to update the .htaccess file.
Settings > Permalinks click save changes. This action will update the .htaccess file.
7. Update urls
Update the urls throughout the site with a plugin i.e. Search and replace.
https://www.website.com/folder
https://www.website.com (no slash)
7. Go through all the links on the site to check for broken links.
The plugin may miss links, so go through the whole site and double check the links to images, videos, pages etc
You can also use broken link checker plugin that may pick up broken links.
Manually update Revolution Slider links.
7. Set up a redirect
If you don’t want to lose your credit score then add a redirect from the old url to the new url.
You can add this code to the .htacccess file
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST) ^website.com/folder$ [or]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.website.com/folder$
RewriteRule (.*)$ http://www.website.com/$1 [R=301, L]
Summary
This is a simple way to move a website to live rather than downloading and re-uploading the whole thing, which takes time and can lead to issues.
This is why we use the sub directory to create new websites and carryout maintenance.
If you need any help with this then please contact me.