If you wish to move your website from a subdomain to the root domain (subdomain.domain.tld → domain.tld), follow the steps below 👇
First, make sure the root domain is added to your hosting plan – it should be visible in the Websites section of hPanel 💡
Step 1 – Copy Files From the Subdomain to the Root Domain
1. In the Websites section, click on Manage next to your website that's connected to the subdomain.
2. In the left sidebar, search for File Manager and access all the files within your hosting plan:
3. Open the domains folder, then open the folder of your website (e.g., subdomain.domain.tld), and then open the public_html folder within:
3. Select all the files, and copy them to the root domain (make sure its folder is empty):
To choose the correct destination folder (e.g., domain.tld), click on the .. icon to go to the parent folder as many times as you need. Learn more: Basic Actions in the File Manager 💡
Step 2 – Connect the Database
There are two options to choose from:
Option 1
If you wish for the subdomain to remain active, duplicate the database and connect the new database to your website:
Download a backup of your original website's database
Create a new database for your new website (that's on the root domain)
Import the database backup to the new website
Update the database details (name, username, password) in the wp-config.php file
Option 2
If you don't want to keep the subdomain active, you can leave the previous database connected.
Step 3 – Fix URLs
Finally, update your website's URLs by replacing the subdomain with the root domain. There are a couple of ways to do that:
Define the URL by editing the wp-config.php file as described here: Changing the Site URL
Use a plugin, e.g., Better Search Replace
And that's how you move your website from a subdomain to the root domain 😊