There comes a time in every blogger’s life when they need to clone someone else’s wordpress site. Whether it be an upgrade or a replacement of their site they want to re-use the hard work that someone else has already done. this article will cover how to clone a wordpress site in 7 easy steps and get up and running fast.
Step 1: Create New WP Install
Creating a new WordPress install is as easy as logging into your cPanel and creating a new directory. You can then upload WordPress into that directory. to create a fresh install of WordPress, log into your hosting account’s control panel and create a new directory. In most cases, you’ll want to use an existing folder from within your root directory, so you can keep all of your files organized. to do so, navigate to your web host’s file manager, usually located under File Manager or File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Manager. From there, click on Upload Files. This will open up a dialogue box where you can choose which file(s) you wish to upload.
Step 2: Upload/Import Files
Once you’ve downloaded and installed WordPress, it’s time to get your data into WordPress. With any web hosting provider that supports WordPress, you can upload/import files right from their Control Panel. If your web host doesn’t offer an import tool and some don’t, you can always opt for FTP instead. To do so, follow these instructions:
1) Create a new file in a text editor.
2) Enter all of your website information including Site Title, Username, Password, and Database Name.
3) Save as wp-config.php
4) Upload via FTP
5) Go back to your WordPress admin page and enter all of those details in Step #1 of the Import Wizard.
Step 3: Duplicate Pages
This is where a lot of people get stuck. we are going to show you how it’s easy and fast. Before you start, open up another browser window and have your original WordPress website open as well. Copy all of your pages from your original site into notepad or something similar so that you can paste them in later. Now go to All Pages in your new WordPress install and click Duplicate Page next to any page that looks like it will be an exact duplicate of what is already live on your other site.
Step 4: Prepare Plugins
Before you start to clone someone else’s wordpress site, It is recommended that you backup your WordPress site. Once your WordPress site has been backed up and you’re sure that everything is safe, you can go back and find all of the plugins installed in your original WordPress installation. Backing up these plugins will ensure that they get transferred over to your cloned website as well. To do so, navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins in your dashboard and click Export. This will export a ZIP file containing all of your plugins.
Step 5: Re-name the old site
One of the most time-consuming parts of any migration is all of those little details. You’ll need to go through and make sure that old URLs for your pages now point over to their new homes, you’ll have a boatload of post redirects set up, etc., etc. Trust me, re-naming your old site will save you tons of time.
Step 6: Setup Redirects
Once your site is cloned and you are 100% sure it works, you can set up permanent redirects. In cPanel, click Redirects. Type in your new URL into both of these fields Destination and Location. Save changes when done. Step 7: Test everything: Now that you have redirected all of your old URLs to their new counterparts, test everything again from start to finish before turning off your staging server.
Step 7: Add Google Analytics Code
For you to track your traffic, sign-ups, and sales, you will need to add Google Analytics code. It’s a bit of code that gets embedded into your website. This can be done easily by using either a plugin or simply adding it in manually. The easiest way is to use a plugin called Google Analytics Dashboard for WP which allows you to quickly and easily insert your tracking code with just one click.
Conclusion
WordPress is a famous open-source blogging tool and website development framework. It’s also one of the most popular blogging platforms on earth with thousands of plugins and themes available for any type of use or design. The great thing about WordPress is that it is highly customizable, which means there’s a lot you can do with it when it comes to making your site.
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