Welcome to InMotion Hosting! We’ve created this page as a starting point for new customers, regardless if you’re transferring a website from another hosting company or you are building your new website from scratch.
Getting Acquainted with your Account Management Panel
Your Account Management Panel, which we refer to as AMP, is used from managing your domains and hosting plans, getting technical support, and providing us with feedback. It’s important to start off with logging into AMP as you’ll need to be able to login before you can do many of the other tasks listed on this page.
To get started, visit your Account Management Panel and setup your password.
After you have successfully logged into AMP:
After you’ve become familiar with your Account Management Panel, your next step is to begin working on your website! To point you in the right directions, please click on the answer below that best describes you:
- I am transferring an existing website from my previous host
- I am building my website from scratch with InMotion Hosting
I am transferring my website from my previous hosting company
If you are following a great guide (such as this one!), transferring your website from another Hosting Company to InMotion Hosting is not too difficult. What makes it even easier is if you have a web designer that is going to be doing the work for you! Will you be transferring your website on your own, or do you have a web designer that plans on doing it for you?
I am transferring my website myself
Does your previous host use cPanel?
Our Systems run the cPanel software, which is very popular among web hosts. If your previous host is using cPanel, this may save you quite a bit of time during the website transfer process.
My previous host uses cPanel
cPanel includes a feature to backup your entire account. This backup contains not only your files, but your email accounts, databases, and much more. This all-in-one backup file can be used to to transfer your website (and email!) to InMotion Hosting. To continue, please see: How to migrate your website from another host that uses cPanel
My previous host does not use cPanel
If your previous host does not use cPanel, you’ll need to migrate your files, emails, and databases separately.
- Download a backup of your Files: In this step, you’ll download a copy of the website files on your current host. The easiest way to do this is to create a “backup” folder on your desktop, connect to your previous host using FTP, and then download a copy of your website files to the backup folder on your desktop. You can find more information on how to do this in our How to create a backup using FTP article.
- Upload your files to your InMotion Hosting account: At this point you should have a copy of all your website files on your computer. Your next step will be to upload those files to your InMotion Hosting account. Just as you used FTP to download a copy of the files, you can use FTP to upload the files to your account. At this time, using FTP, upload all of your website files into your public_html folder.
- If you have any databases, export those databases: After you’ve downloaded a copy of your files, your next step is to download a copy of your databases (commonly referred to as exporting a database). Not all websites use a database. If you’re unsure if you use a database with your website, please contact your previous web host, they should be able to easily scan your account and give you more information. The exact steps for exporting your database vary depending upon which host you. If your previous host uses phpMyAdmin, please see How to Export a Database using phpMyAdmin for further assistance with exporting your databases.
- Import your databases into your InMotion Hosting account: If your website uses MySQL databases, once you’ve exported a copy of your database, you’ll then need to import your database to your InMotion Hosting account. For further assistance with this step, please see our article, How to Import a Database using phpMyAdmin.
- Test your website: After you’ve migrated all of your files and databases from your previous host to your InMotion Hosting account, your next step is to test your website. Depending on the setup of your website, testing can be as simple as Testing your Website using your Temporary URL. Due to the way that some software works, such as WordPress, you may not be able to test your website using your temporary url. In that case, you can use the Editing your Hosts File technique to properly test your website.
- Setup your email accounts: Now that your website has been successfully copied to your InMotion Hosting account, you’ll next want to focus on your email. Setting up your email accounts is very easy. To get started, please see our Email Getting Started Guide.
- Update your DNS and point your Domain Name to your InMotion Hosting Account: After your website and email is setup on your InMotion Hosting account, you’re almost done. In this step, you will be updating your domain’s nameservers and pointing your website traffic from your previous host to your InMotion Hosting account. What you will need to do is contact your domain’s registrar and request that they update your domain’s nameservers so that they point to ns1.inmotionhosting.com and ns2.inmotionhosting.com. Once they make this change, it will take up to 24 hours to fully take effect. After that time, all of your website and email traffic will be routed to your InMotion Hosting account! For more information on this step, please see our DNS and Nameserver Changes guide.
- Test your website and email for the last time: When you’ve reached this step, you are just about done! Once you’ve updated your domain’s nameservers and allowed 24 hours for the change to take full effect, your very last step is to test your website. Be sure that you do a thorough review. For example, if your website has a contact form, submit the form and check that you receive the email. If you have an online store, purchase an item and double check each process along the way.
My web designer will be transferring my website for me
If you have a web designer that will be transferring your website for you, you’ll need to send them all of the details they’ll need. For more help on how to get all the needed details to your designer, please see: Helping your Designer Transfer your Website
I am building a new website from scratch with InMotion Hosting
Building a website from the ground up can be quite an exciting task with very good benefits for your website. Before we continue, please let us know which description best describes your scenario:
I have a Web Designer building my website for me
If you have a web designer that will be creating your website, you’ll need to send them all of the details they’ll need. For more help on how to get all the needed details to your designer, please see: Helping your Designer Transfer your Website
I will be building my website myself
For most people, building their own website comes with a great sense of pride when the final product is launched! There are may different tools you can use to build a website, each with their own distinct advantages. How will you be building your website?
I am building my website using: WordPress
Using WordPress to build your website has been a very popular choice among our customers. Not only is WordPress free software and is used by millions of websites across the internet. WordPress also has a large library of available plugins which you can easily install that will add new functionality to your site. If you’re already familiar with the software, you can use Fantastico to install WordPress and get started right away! If you’ve never used WordPress or need a little help in getting started, take a few minutes to review our WordPress Education Channel.
I am building my website using: Desktop Software
What most desktop web building software have in common is that they use FTP to upload the files you’ve created to your web server. After you’ve built your website, generally you select the option to “Publish” your website. When publishing, you need to enter your FTP details so that your software knows where to upload your files to. The most common settings are:
- FTP Username and Password: This will be your cPanel username and password.
- FTP Host: Your FTP host (or ftp address) will by your actual domain name.
- Publishing Directory: Once your software has connected to the server, it needs to know which folder to upload files to. You should set your publishing directory to “public_html” (without the quotes).
I am building my website using: Web-based App
The first step in getting started with web base software (such as Joomla or Drupal) is to actually install the software onto your InMotion Hosting account. The majority of web base software follows the same set of installation steps:
- Your program is going to use a database, so you will need to create one first. The easiest way to do this is to log into your cPanel and use the “MySQL Database Wizard“. Please be sure to write down your database username and password as you will need it later.
- After you have created a database, you’ll need to download the software you’re using (such as Joomla from joomla.org) to your computer. After you have a copy of the software, you need to upload it your account and into your public_html directory. If it is a compressed file (such as .zip .tar .tar.gz), you’ll then need to uncompress the file.
- After uncompressing the files, you’ll need to run the install script. If you visit your domain in your browser, it should automatically redirect you to the install script. Follow the directions your software provides when you are at the installation page. Keep in mind that the database information you created and wrote down in step one will be used at some point during this step. When asked for a database host, enter “localhost” (without the quotes).
If you need any further assistance with installing your software, please see our Manual Installation of PHP Software article.
