Upload your new website in about 20 minutes

Before you start

• Your Domains.co.za login: the account that holds beyondict.co.za and its web hosting.
• The zip file from the button above. Save it to your computer and do not unzip it.
• About 20 minutes, ideally after hours. Your domain already points at this hosting, so the new site is live the moment it is unpacked.

Not touched: your email (it runs on Google and keeps working throughout), your domain and its DNS settings. If a screen ever asks you to change nameservers or DNS records, stop. That is not part of this job.

1Open File Manager

1. Log in at domains.co.za.
2. On the left, click Manage Services, then Web Hosting.
3. Click Manage next to beyondict.co.za.
4. Click Login next to Control Panel. cPanel opens in a new tab.
5. Scroll to the Files section and click File Manager.
6. Click Settings (top right), tick Show Hidden Files (dotfiles), and click Save. The new site relies on a hidden file called .htaccess, so you need to be able to see it.
7. In the folder list on the left, click public_html. This is the folder your website lives in.

You should now see the old WordPress files: folders named wp-admin, wp-content, wp-includes and files such as wp-config.php, index.php. If you see a folder named beyondict.co.za instead, open it and use it wherever these steps say public_html.

2Move the old site aside (this is your backup)

The old WordPress files are moved into a folder the public cannot reach. Nothing is deleted, and the WordPress database is not touched, so the old site can be put back exactly as it was (see How to undo).

1. In the folder list on the left, click the house icon at the very top. This is your home folder, one level above public_html.
2. Click + Folder in the top menu, name it old-website, and click Create New Folder.
3. Click public_html again, then click Select All in the top menu.
4. Hold Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac) and click .well-known and cgi-bin to un-select them, if they are there. They belong to the server, and .well-known keeps the site's padlock (SSL) renewing.
5. Click Move in the top menu, type /old-website as the destination, and click Move File(s).

Another website's folder in public_html? If you see a folder named after a different website (for example practiceinabox.co.za), stop before moving anything and WhatsApp Andy. That website may be served from there, and moving it would take it offline.

public_html should now be empty apart from .well-known and cgi-bin. For the next few minutes your website will show an error page. That is expected.

3Upload and unpack the new website

1. With public_html open, click Upload in the top menu. A new tab opens.
2. Drag beyond-ict-website.zip into the box, or click Select File and choose it. Wait for the bar to reach 100% and turn green.
3. Click Go Back to "/home/…/public_html" at the bottom of that page.
4. Right-click beyond-ict-website.zip and choose Extract. Leave the path as /public_html, click Extract File(s), then Close.
5. Click Reload in the top menu. Right-click beyond-ict-website.zip, choose Delete, and confirm. It is no longer needed.

public_html should now hold these, directly inside it and not inside another folder:

Folders

assets, services

Pages

index.html, 404.html, about.html, contact.html, landlords.html, privacy.html, services.html, vacancies.html

Other files

.htaccess, sitemap.xml, robots.txt, plus the small icon files

If you do not see .htaccess, redo the Show Hidden Files step in Step 1. The file is there, just hidden.

4Check it works

Use a private or incognito window, so your browser does not show you a saved copy of the old site. Tick each line as you go.

• https://beyondict.co.za shows the new home page, with the moving video behind the heading.
• About, Services, one service page (for example Hosted PBX) and Contact all open from the menu.
• beyondict.co.za/about-us lands on the new About page, so old links from Google keep working.
• www.beyondict.co.za ends up at https://beyondict.co.za, with the padlock showing.
• On your phone, the green WhatsApp button opens a chat to 083 407 0770, and tapping the phone number starts a call.
• On an iPhone, the video behind the home-page heading plays.
• Send a test enquiry from the Contact page. The first time, FormSubmit emails mark@beyondict.co.za asking you to activate the form: click Activate Form. From then on, every enquiry arrives in your inbox.
• Send yourself a test email at mark@beyondict.co.za. It arrives as normal.

When every line is ticked, let Andy know. We'll then tell Google about your new pages, so they are picked up quickly.

If something looks wrong

• The old WordPress site still shows

  Your browser is showing a saved copy, or an old file was left behind.

  Open a private window. If it still shows, look in public_html for index.php and move it to old-website.
• "Index of /" or "403 Forbidden" on the home page

  The files were unpacked into a sub-folder.

  Open that sub-folder, click Select All, then Move to /public_html.
• The home page works, but About or Services says "Page not found"

  .htaccess is missing.

  Turn on Show Hidden Files (Step 1). If it really is gone, upload and extract the zip again.
• "500 Internal Server Error" or "Too many redirects"

  The server rejected a setting in .htaccess.

  Right-click .htaccess, choose Rename, change it to htaccess-off, and WhatsApp Andy. The home page works without it while we fix it.
• No padlock, or a "Not secure" warning

  The SSL certificate has not renewed yet.

  In cPanel, open SSL/TLS Status and click Run AutoSSL. Allow up to an hour.

For anything else, WhatsApp Andy a screenshot of what you see.

How to undo

The old site comes back in about two minutes, because nothing of it was deleted.

1. In public_html, click Select All, then un-select .well-known, cgi-bin and any other website's folder. Click Delete.
2. Open the old-website folder in your home folder, click Select All, then Move to /public_html.

The WordPress site is then back exactly as it was. Keep old-website for a month after launch, then it can be deleted.

Need a hand?

If anything is unclear, or you would rather do it together on a call, WhatsApp or email Andy.