How to Clone any Website

It seems that we get this question on a weekly basis: “I want to copy my website to a new domain or different folder, but I’m not sure of the best way to do this. How is it done?”
It used to be that the best way to do this was to simply download all the files to your computer via FTP, then remove them from the server and upload them to the new location. With the common use of databases now, this doesn’t entirely take care of the problem; in many cases entries in the database reference the old domain, making it a long and messy process to complete. It looks like this:

1. Download your files
2. Edit your configuration file to reference the new domain and path
3. Upload the files to the new location
4. Export your database
5. Edit the database by finding all references to the old domain/path and replace them with the new ones
6. Import the database again

Lengthy, cumbersome and often technical; this is not an easy approach. But don’t worry! It turns out there is an easier way. Just be sure that you’re using one of the apps in our web application installer (e.g.: WordPress, Joomla, ImpressPages, and dozens more!)

1. Add your new domain in Plesk
2. Go to the 1-click web apps utility and find the web app in the list that runs your site
3. Press the Clone button and select the new domain and/or path
4. Click Clone or Continue to proceed with the clone.

That’s it! It will automatically update all configuration files and paths in the database for you as well as copy over all files. The only exception to this rule is any paths / files that you may have custom created outside of the application itself. Be sure to copy those over manually after the clone is complete.
If you then wish to point the old domain to the new one, you could ask me by commenting, once you’re happy with the new domain, remove the old one in Plesk, then add it as a domain alias to the new domain.