Move Localhost to Live+Add Custom DomainStep by Step

  • Hi, thanks for your time reading this.
    I’m very new to WordPress. Last year I built a website on Wix and used a custom domain purchased from Google.
    An SEO expert recommended I move to WordPress (because cheaper) and start a new website from scratch using templates as my Wix one wasn’t very good XD
    He recommended I develop the new one on a localhost using WAMP and then upload it, bish bash bosh. He made it sound very simple.
    I managed to figure my way through WAMP and now have a mostly ready website on my computer.

    Now I tried to read the various articles about how to upload but I keep getting stuck on the order of things to do.

    – I’ve signed up for a Bluehost account and clicked skip when it asked me to create a domain?
    – Do I follow the steps here:
    https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-move-wordpress-from-local-server-to-live-site/
    and then somehow transfer my Google domain name to the resulting site?
    – Or should I transfer my domain name to the Bluehost site first and then follow the wpbeginner steps?

    I haven’t put in any links into buttons etc on the new website because I wasn’t sure about the URLs they would end up pointing to after the move to live?

    My original website was hosted on Wix, do I need to do anything there? Apart from cancel the account? Will I need to do some sort of redirecting?

    Thanks so much for any help!

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

  • I’m supposing you’ve successfully purchased a hosting account from Bluehost.

    If you’re happy having your domains with Google, you don’t need to MOVE it to Bluehost. In fact, I don’t advice you move it. All you have to do is POINT it to Bluehost’s servers.

    To do this, you’ll first have to go to your Google Domain account and change the name server to Bluehost’s name servers ns1.Bluehost.com and ns2.Bluehost.com.

    After this, and only if you didn’t do this at the time you purchased your Bluehost hosting account, you’ll need to go to your Bluehost account and “Assign” your domain to your Bluehost hosting account.

    Here’s Bluehost’s official documentation: https://www.bluehost.com/help/article/how-to-assign-a-domain

    Note that the above only covers the initial step of getting your domain to work with your Bluehost hosting account, but you need to get this sorted out before proceeding with the WordPress installation and migration.

    Thread Starter morganthecleancask

    (@morganthecleancask)

    Thanks for your reply! Yes, I did manage to create a BlueHost account and it seemed to auto install WordPress as I was logging in. There seem to be website building options there – maybe it would have been easier to just design my website there!! Ah well, it’s done now…

    Ok so I changed the name servers in Google Domains, as you suggested, and followed the Bluehost instructions to Assign the domain, however I’m a little confused by the AddOn, Parked, Unassigned options? If I click AddOn then it asks about a directory?

    Sorry for being such a noob!

    It also mentioned that the changes could take up to 48 hours to take effect, should I wait that time before moving on to the migration step?

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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