How to Export a WordPress Site Quickly and Efficiently

There are many reasons you may need to export your WordPress site.

Maybe you’re moving your site to a new host, need a WordPress backup, or want a staging site. 

You might wonder: can you export your site without breaking it?

Exporting a site can seem tough. Do you need a developer’s help? What if things go wrong? It’s normal to worry about losing your site’s data when exporting.

The good news is that exporting can be easy with the right tools. You don’t have to be an expert. 

With our help, you’ll learn how to make an exact replica of your site. That way, any time you move it anywhere else, it looks exactly the same.

TL;DR: Whatever your reason for exporting a WordPress site, BlogVault has got your back. Export your site in minutes with the best WordPress backup plugin. Then go on to test changes, move to another server, or maintain a safe archive.

Why export a WordPress site

Exporting a WordPress site can be very useful. It involves creating a copy of your site for various needs. Let’s dive into why you might need a site export.

• Site redesign: Trial a new theme or redesign, without committing to it fully. 
• Test any major site changes: Make mistakes in a sandbox. Your live site remains safe while you test, test, test on the exported version.
• Migrating your site to another host: Transfer everything with a complete export of your site; without losing any data.
• Design template: To reuse an existing design, export it to another site as a template. 
• Exporting a site as an archive: Backing up your website is super important. If something goes wrong, you can restore it instantly.

Understanding WordPress exports

Before we talk about the different methods to export a site, let’s take a minute to understand what we are exporting and in what formats. 

What to export

There are 2 parts of a WordPress site: 

1. Files contain all the code used to run your site successfully, right from the core WordPress software powering your site, to the plugins and themes you install to extend its functionality. 
2. The database contains, unsurprisingly, all the data on your site. The data could be anything, right from user account data like logins and passwords, to user-generated content like pages, posts, comments, and so on. 

WordPress uses the database to store content, like pages and posts. Even users and plugin settings are often stored in the database. These are important things in your database that you may want to export.

• Pages are the building blocks of your site. It displays content and can be made up of text, images, videos, etc. 
• Posts are time specific pieces of content like blogs and company news. 
• Media library is where you can manage all the images, videos, documents and audio used on your site. 

Export formats

Depending on your requirements, different parts of a site export to different formats. 

• Site files are typically compressed into a folder. If you use FTP, you’ll see your export as a zip. 
• Databases export in an SQL format. This is the universal language used by databases.
• The built-in WordPress export tool gives you the option to export data in an XML format as well. 

Exporting to an HTML file is easiest with a plugin like Export WP Page to Static HTML/CSS. This is especially helpful for websites that are simple.

Export a WordPress site as a backup

WordPress backup plugins are your best bet to get a complete export of your site. 

It is the easiest method, and the one least prone to errors. 

As a bonus, both your database and files can be exported at once. 

1. Install and activate BlogVault.
2. Once your site has synced, click Details in the Backup section of your site dashboard. Then click the download button. 
3. BlogVault selects the entire site to export by default. This exports your site to a zip folder.

Export a site for testing

Using a staging plugin to export a WordPress site simplifies the process considerably, compared to doing it manually. Plugins save you both time and effort.

We’ll use BlogVault here. It doesn’t require FTP access. With BlogVault’s staging feature, you can create an export in no time.

There’s no need to set up a subdomain or incur costs for extra hosting for the test site. BlogVault handles it all on its own servers.

Follow these steps:

1. Install and activate BlogVault. Let the sync complete. 
2. Go to the dashboard, and click on Staging. Choose the configuration you require. 
3. Wait a few minutes, and your test site is set up. No messy manual exports, and trying to get the site to work exactly like the live version. 
4. Use the credentials to log into the site. 

Why do we recommend BlogVault?

Wasn’t that easy? BlogVault is the best way to export a WordPress site. Beyond the quick and easy process, here are some other reasons to choose BlogVault every time:

• It automatically prevents search engines from indexing the exported site. Avoid SEO issues from duplicate content.
• There’s no need to pay for extra hosting. BlogVault hosts the exported site on its powerful cloud-based servers.
• It offers SSL support for the exported site.
• Your exported site is password-protected with HTTP authentication.
• For sites with transactional or event-based emails, BlogVault blocks them from being sent, preventing accidental emails to site users or customers.
• Every exported site includes SFTP access for secure file transfer.
• The exported site also gets phpMyAdmin support, making database operations easy.

Export a site to another host

This method is the easiest and most efficient way to move a WordPress site to another host. It needs minimal technical skills and has a low risk of errors.

1. Set up BlogVault on your site. Wait for it to sync. 
2. Go to the backup section, and choose Migrate. 
3. Add the destination URL and other connection details to complete the process.

Export from wp-admin

WordPress has an export feature in the wp-admin dashboard. You may be wondering if this will suffice for your needs. 

As with anything in life, the answer depends. 

The built-in export tool can only export the posts, pages, and media. As you can see, this leaves out a lot of critical site information. A lot of articles will claim that this is sufficient, because it appears to export WordPress’ database. 

However, that is not accurate. There are plenty of other things that are stored in the database, like users, plugin settings, license keys, and so on. 

If you need an export that replicates your site exactly, this is not the method to use. 

However, if you are looking for a guide on how to export a page in WordPress, for example, here are the steps: 

1. Open the Export Page: Hover over Tools in the sidebar and click Export.

2. Select what to export: You can either choose to export all WordPress files or choose between posts, pages, and media. 

• Posts: You can specify which authors, which category, which status, and what time period of posts.
• Pages: You can customize which authors, which category, which status, and what time period of posts.
• Media: You can pick what time period to export.  

3. Export files: Once you’re done, click Download Export File to get a zipped folder of the export.

You can export your site to an XML file using this method. XML is well structured and can be formatted easily. It is specifically designed to transport data easily.

Export your site from WordPress.com

The methods above will not help if you are looking to migrate out of WordPress.com. WordPress.com is not the same as a WordPress site; it is a web host.

In this section, we show you how to export a WordPress.com site.

For this, you can use the inbuilt export tool. Follow the steps given below to do so: 

1. Hover over Tools and click Export. 
2. Click Export All at the top. 
3. Once you’re notified that it’s ready to download, click Download.  
4. This will download a zipped folder to your computer. 

On your newly created WordPress.org site (presumably on another host), import the zipped folder. 

We can’t guarantee everything will be exactly the same, because ultimately the sites can have different configurations. The only reliable way to clone a site perfectly from one host to another, is to use a migration plugin.

Export a WordPress site without a plugin 

We don’t recommend exporting a WordPress site manually, ever, because it is incredibly time consuming. You are taking a manual backup of your site; the steps are the same.

Additionally, it is tedious to manage as both your database and files have to be exported separately. Save them together in a clearly labelled folder, so you can find them easily later on.

Step 1: Export WordPress files

Manually exporting files with cPanel might be the easiest way because all you need to do is connect to your host dashboard and download the files. 

However, not all web hosts have cPanel, so you may have to use an alternative method in those cases. For our tutorial, we used a site hosted on Bluehost, however the steps will be similar in most cases.  

1. Access your cPanel: Log into cPanel, or click on the link on your host’s dashboard. Once you’ve signed in, go to My Sites. Go to Advanced Settings. 
2. Compress files: Open File Manager and right click on public_html. Click Compress and select Zip Archive. 
3. Download Files: Once the files have been compressed, download the zip file. This might take a few minutes depending on the size of the website.

If you do not have access to cPanel, you can use FTP to access WordPress files. There is also SSH via the command line. 

Step 2: Export WordPress database

In this section, we have the steps to take a backup of your site’s database.

1. Access your phpMyAdmin: This can also be accessed by your site’s web host, in the database section. Much like cPanel, not every web host has a phpMyAdmin. Cloudways, for example, has its own database manager that you can access on your Access Details section.  
2. Locate the right database: Click the Database tab. Select the database you need to export. 
   
   Note: To find out which database to export, look for the database name in the wp_config.php file. 

3. Export the database: Select all the files and click Export.

Plugin vs manual export

We can’t tell you enough that a plugin is the way to go. You might think we’re biased but here are some reasons why manual backups are a bad idea: 

1. Partial exports: When you export WordPress site files with an FTP, for example, you need to connect to your server, Any disruptions in this connection can result in incomplete export. This can deem the export useless. With BlogVault, you can be sure to have a full site export. 
2. Higher server load: Manual backups can be very resource intensive and heavy for your server. This raises the chances of downtime or timeouts. Thankfully BlogVault takes a copy of your site in increments. 
3. Storage: Storing an export can take up a lot of space on your computer, especially with larger sites. If you’re taking an export for archival reasons, we recommend you use BlogVault. It’s stored on Amazon S3 servers that don’t affect your computer.  

What to do after you export a WordPress site?

Depending on what you intended to use your exported files for, the next thing you do will obviously differ. 

1. Restore: Most commonly, you want to restore the backup that you’ve just created.
2. Migrating to a new host or server: Alternatively, you’re looking to migrate your site to a new host or server.
3. Storing a backup: We recommend you create a copy of the files you just exported and store it externally using a cloud service like Dropbox or Google Drive.  
4. Test the export: Create a staging site using BlogVault and try to import the export you’ve just created. This will help you make sure you have a usable export. You’ll see in the next section that when you try to manually export WordPress site, you can run into some trouble.

Final thoughts

When thinking about exporting your site to your local computer, the question isn’t: “Is it possible?” The better question is which is the best way to do it. 

Plugins take away the hassle, and turn the operation into a simple process. 

BlogVault, for example, can take a backup and store it on multiple servers, automatically. MigrateGuru, another BlogVault product, can migrate your site in just a few clicks. So, ditch the trouble, pick BlogVault. 

FAQ

How do I download an entire WordPress site?

The easiest way to download an entire WordPress site is to create a backup using BlogVault and export the entire backup. Here are the steps to do so. 

What is the best way to migrate your site?

The best way to migrate your site is to use MigrateGuru because it helps you to migrate to a new host or server and does it all with no downtime. Here’s an article that walks you through the process.

Is WordPress export a backup?

Yes. They are the same thing. Exporting your WordPress site essentially means creating a copy of your site and downloading it to your local computer. You can store this copy in a safe location as a backup, or use it to migrate your site to a new host or server.

How do I export my WordPress site to local?

To export your WordPress site to local, using a staging plugin like BlogVault can make the process straightforward. BlogVault creates a complete backup of your site, which you can then use to set up locally. It ensures all your data, including the database and files, are copied accurately. 

How do I transfer my entire WordPress site?

Transferring your entire WordPress site is simple with the right tools. A plugin like BlogVault helps you create an exact replica of your site, allowing for a smooth transfer to another host. Plus, it requires no extra hosting fees and includes features like SFTP access and database management through phpMyAdmin.