How to Make a WordPress Website on a New Server with an Existing Site
There is a wide variety of reasons why you might want to relocate your website to a new server, or have already done so. Maybe you’re looking to improve the overall performance of your site, or maybe you’re just tired of being limited by the hosting service your current provider offers.
Regardless of the reason behind the move, when you’re faced with the task of starting from scratch you might be tempted to just copy and paste your old website onto the new server. Although this might work out for the first few pages, eventually you’re going to run into issues caused by conflicting codes, broken links, and a whole host of other problems.
To save you the time and stress of recreating the entire site from scratch, we’ve compiled a guide on how to create a new WordPress website on a new server with an existing site. This method involves migrating your website data from your old server to the new one while maintaining the same URLs, so that when someone clicks a link on your old site they are automatically transported to the corresponding page on your new website.
Migrate Your Website Data
The first step in establishing a new WordPress website is to migrate your existing website data. Depending on your experience level, this might seem a tedious process, but it’s essential that you don’t skip any steps. If you want your blog to perform at its best, you should take the time to properly import all of the posts, themes, and other data.
To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of the basic items you should try to import:
- posts
- pages
- photos
- custom backgrounds
- widgets
- theme options
- plugin settings
- comments
- author information
- trackbacks
- custom header images
- custom footer images
- custom styles
- contact forms
- custom membership pages
- statistics
To migrate your posts, use a tool like WPEasyMigration or WordPress Data Transfer to download and import your old content into your new blog. The best thing about these tools is that they make the process very smooth and hassle-free.
Create a New Blog From Scratch
If you’re looking to create a new blog for your website, the first thing you need to do is choose a name for the new blog. Ideally, you want to choose a name that is both memorable and appropriate. For example, if you are relocating your blog from [link] to [link], you might want to name the new blog [link] or [link].
Once you’ve chosen a name for your blog, you can move onto the next step. From here you should create a new [blog platform] from scratch using a tool like WordPress.
WordPress is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) that allows you to create and publish content on your website. It was originally created in 2007 as a fork of the classic CMS, [drupal]. Since then, it’s been downloaded more than 300 million times and is available in more than 200 countries.
If you’ve ever used WordPress before, you’ll know that it is very popular amongst bloggers and people who love to write. For that reason, we recommend that you use WordPress for the creation of your new blog.
Configure Your Blog With These Tools
Once you’ve created your new blog using WordPress, you should confirm its settings and adjust the appearance of the blog to your liking. To do this, use a tool like the Jetpack configurator within WordPress.com or the WordPress dashboard on your own site. You can also get a head start with these tools by trying out the demo version of WordPress.
One of the first things you might want to do is to create a user account for your blog. By doing this, you will be able to easily manage and edit posts in the future. In addition to creating an account, you should also register for a new domain for your blog. We recommend using a tool like [Amazon AMS] to get started with an SLD (sales, legal, and distribution) compliant domain name. With a domain name you can easily create sub-directories on your site (e.g., blog, case studies, etc.). So, for example, yourblog.com can become yourblog.com/blog or yourblog.com/case-studies.
Importing Your Existing Site Into WordPress
Once you have your new blog configured, you can begin the process of importing your existing site into WordPress. To do this, use a tool like WPEasyMigration or WordPress Data Transfer to download and import your old content into your new blog. These tools make the process of importing content very easy and straightforward.
One of the best things about these tools is that they allow you to effortlessly import content from multiple sources (e.g., Google Analytics, MailChimp, etc.). In addition, the import process will automatically update your links and metadata (e.g., authors, titles, etc.).
If you’re using WPEasyMigration, you can click the button below to get started importing your content.
If you’re using WordPress Data Transfer, click the button below to get started.
Once you’ve imported your content, you should visit your blogs dashboard to confirm the status of the import process. If all is well, you’ll see a message at the top of the dashboard confirming your new posts’ presence.
Configure Your Email Marketing With Mailchimp
If you’re looking to grow your blog’s audience, one way of doing so is through email marketing. To get started with email marketing, you can use a tool like Mailchimp. With Mailchimp you can create customizable email campaigns that will automatically send messages to your subscribers when new content is published.
To create an email campaign, visit the Mailchimp Dashboard and then click the Create a Plan button (orange button). You can select the plan that best suits your needs and then click the Next button to continue to the next screen. Here you can enter the email list you want to use for the campaign (e.g., example@domain.com) and the subject line for the messages (e.g., How to Make a WordPress Website).
On the next screen you can enter messages for the campaign and then click the Create button to create the campaign.
Once you’ve created the email marketing campaign, you can segment your list according to the demographics, interests, or behaviors of your website’s audience. You can do this by clicking the Lists button and creating a new list called “Interests” or “Demographics.” You can then enter the specific interests or demographics you’re targeting and create sub-lists for these.
For example, if you’re targeting women between the ages of 18 and 24, you can create a new list called “18 to 24” and enter that as the topic for your list. You can then segment your content by topic and send targeted messages to the right people.
Make Sure Your Website Loads Fast
If you’re reading this blog post on a mobile device, you should know that most websites aren’t built with mobile users in mind. These websites often load complex web fonts and large graphics that cause the site to load slowly on mobile devices. To solve this, you can use a mobile-friendly web font such as Roboto, Open Sans, or Cambria. In addition, you can use tools like [Google Page Speed Insights] to find and fix critical issues with the site’s speed.
Track Your Progress
To keep track of your progress throughout this process, you could use a tool like Hootsuite to monitor your Twitter account. With Hootsuite, you can set up notifications so that you’re always aware of when new content is published to your blog. In addition, you can track the number of times your content is shared and reach out to journalists to see if they’re interested in writing about your story.
Once you’ve set up your Twitter account, you can click the settings icon () in the upper right corner of the dashboard to bring up your account settings.
In the General Settings section you can change your settings, click the Privacy button (orange button), and select the type of content you’re willing to share on your Twitter account.