How to clone a WordPress site with Softaculous

What is Softaculous?

Softaculous is a tool found in many hosting control panels. It installs apps like WordPress with a few clicks. It can also copy, back up and update them. Ask Hostvento support if Softaculous is available on your plan. The screens below may look a little different from yours.

What is cloning?

Cloning means making a copy of your whole site. The copy has the same pages, posts, theme and plugins. People clone a site to test a new plugin or design without risking the real one. A copy used for testing is often called a staging site. You can also clone to move a site to a new address.

Before you start, decide where the copy goes. It can be a new folder, for example yourdomain.com/test, or a different domain or subdomain. A subdomain is a prefix on your domain, like test.yourdomain.com. If you use a subdomain, create it first in your control panel.

Steps

1. Log in to your hosting control panel. You can reach your services from your client area at https://secure.hostvento.com/clientarea.php.
2. Find and open Softaculous Apps Installer. Some panels show a WordPress Manager icon instead.

   

   

   

3. Click All Installations, or look for the list of installed apps.
4. Find the WordPress site you want to copy.
5. Click the Clone icon next to it. It looks like two overlapping squares.
6. Choose the Domain for the copy.
7. In In Directory, type the folder name for the copy, such as test. Warning: if you leave it empty, Softaculous may try to write over the main site folder. Always type a new folder name, or choose an empty location.
8. Optionally, change the database name. A database is where WordPress stores your posts and settings. The default name is fine.
9. Click Install, or Clone Installation.

   

10. Wait until Softaculous says it is done. It then shows the links to the new site and its admin page.

Check the copy

1. Open the new address in your browser.
2. Log in at /wp-admin with the same username and password as the original.
3. Check pages, images and menus.

Keep the test site out of Google

1. In the test site, go to Settings, then Reading.
2. Tick Discourage search engines from indexing this site.
3. Click Save Changes.

This asks search engines to leave the copy out of their results.

Quick recap

• Cloning copies your whole WordPress site.
• In Softaculous, open the installations list and click the Clone icon.

  

• Pick a domain and a new folder. Do not leave the folder blank by mistake.
• Test the copy, and ask search engines to ignore it.