Welcome to InMotion Hosting! We're happy you've chosen us for your web hosting needs. We want to you to be successful with your website, so we're more than happy to help you with what can at times be an overwhelming process: creating a new site or moving a site to our servers.

If your domain was just registered and is not fully activated or you're moving your website from another host and haven't pointed the domain to our Nameservers, we recommend using your temporary url to test your site. The temporary url will be in the form of:

http://biz##.inmotionhosting.com/~userna5
- biz##.inmotionhosting.com is the name of the server your account is on.
- userna5 is your cPanel username

Please see Testing your website using your Temporary URL for more information.

If the temporary url is not a good method for testing your website (content management system restrictions, etc.) you can do a Hosts File modification instead.

Building a new site?

There are so many options available these days for building a site. Whether you are still deciding how to create your new site, or know how you wish to build it and just need some more information, we're happy to help.

If you are undecided on how to build your site, we recommend WordPress.

Other options for building your site you may want to look into are:

Premium Website Builder
Joomla
Drupal

E-Commerce Solutions:
OsCommerce
ZenCart
Cube Cart

These are just a few of the software applications available through Softaculous in your cPanel (Control Panel). Feel free to explore and test different software to find the right one for your new website!

If you're interested in learning HTML and more in depth information on web design, we have our Web Design Education Channel you can explore.

While we are not experts in all third party software, we are always happy to help as much as we can and least give you suggestions to help you along the way.

Now, there may be some people reading this article who already know how they want to build their site and just need some basic information to start with. Here are some technical details to get you started:

Document root (where you should upload your files): public_html
FTP Username: cPanel username
FTP Password: cPanel password (usually the same as Account Management Panel password)

Please see our FTP Getting Started Guide for more details on FTP.

Transferring a site?

If your previous host uses cPanel, see our article on migrating your website from another host that uses cPanel to InMotion Hosting.

If your coming to us from a host that doesn't use cPanel, we have a instructions for making a website move without cPanel too.

We assist our customers with moving websites all the time, so we're comfortable with the process. We understand that some websites are simple to move but others can be more complex. We also know that the process can be frustrating at times. Please be sure to contact us if you have questions or need assistance. We're happy to help and we're available by phone, LiveChat or email 24/7!

Important Info

Backups 

We cannot stress enough the importance of site backups. With the cPanel Backup Wizard, it's a very easy process. A site backup will be your best friend if something is accidentally changed or deleted in your site and you need to roll back to a working version of your site.

Keep in mind too, it's not just about potential errors. If companies like You Tube, Nokia, and other large companies can be hacked; the truth is any website could potentially fall victim to an attack. Good backups are your safety net in the event your site is compromised.

Please see our article on Backing Up your Cpanel for more information on the importance of, and how easy it is to create a backup of your account.

PHP and MySQL Databases 

Do you use PHP on your website? Most customers will need to update configuration settings and may need to update PHP settings after a website move. We have helpful guides on updating your local PHP settings and working with MySQL databases.

Setting up SSL

If you're transmitting any confidential information through your website, such as credit card details or social security numbers, you'll want to secure this data while it passes through the internet by using an SSL certificate. For information on SSL (shared or dedicated), please see our article on obtaining an SSL certificate.

cPanel and Account Management Panel 

You will see articles that refer to AMP and/or cPanel. To make sure you understand the difference, please see our article on AMP vs. cPanel.

DNS Records 

Some of our more advanced customers may need to update DNS records. Please see our article on making custom DNS records for more information.

Unmetered Data Transfer

For Shared Hosting customers, bandwidth is unlimited for all customers. But if you are on a VPS or dedicated server, we do not offer unmetered bandwidth. If you would like to learn more, read about unmetered VPS hosting.