Converting HTML to WordPress | How to Ace it
You have a HTML website, but you want to switch over to the most popular CMS on the web today – WordPress. Honestly, this is doable and not even very hard if you know how a little bit about WordPress and follow these instructions. We can get started right away.
Use a back-end folder to install WordPress
This is not only good for converting HTML to WordPress, but good for your site security too. Remember that any hacker that goes through your site will expect it to be in the public_html folder. Use a cryptic name so no one can guess it right away, something along the lines of www.yourwebsitename.com/D8NK. You do not have to worry about the name of the folder making sense, only you and any possible writers/staff members are going to have to worry about remembering this URL when logging in.
Separate the sections
If you want to use an HTML template to make a WordPress theme, the first thing you need to do is separate the template sections. These include the main content area, sidebar, footer, and header. Each of these will have their own file in your directory.
Create your website
You now have WordPress installed, running in the background. This means that you can design and customize any way you like. You can go into your HTML site and copy the content from there into the WordPress text editor. You can copy and paste any information from your sidebar and copy that information into your sidebar widget in WordPress.
Rename your old index page
The main page in HTML is normally named index.htm or index.html. When you have completed transferring all your WordPress information, you want to rename this existing file. Perhaps rename it to index-old.htm or index-old.html. This way, you can easily find it again if you decide that the WordPress conversion did not go as planned. That way you do not have to worry about downtime.
Change the URL in your WordPress settings
You can have all your website files in one folder with WordPress. Here is how you can do that:
- In your WordPress dashboard, go to ‘Settings’ > ‘General’.
- Change the site address (URL) to the main domain. For us this would be www.yourwebsitename.com. Also change the WordPress address (URL) for us this would be www.yourwebsitename.com/D8NK
- Next click the blue link “to be different from the directory” and follow the directions that say “Using a pre-existing subdirectory install”.
While this may be a bit more technical than some understand, intermediate to advanced WordPress users should have no issue with it. Novice users would do well to read up on what makes WordPress works before continuing onto the next step. After that, you have completed your HTML to WordPress conversion.
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