How to Easily Clone Your WordPress Site

When we plan to redesign a website, the first step is usually to make a copy of it in a staging area or on a local server. This allows us to work on the site freely without affecting the live version that visitors see. Moreover, if you are a website owner who is not very technical, you might be frustrated when your changes cause unexpected problems. 

You may want to clone your WordPress site to test things safely, but you are worried it might be too complicated. With the WPVivid plugin, cloning your WordPress site is easy, and in this article, we will show you how to clone a fully functional WordPress website. 

What Does “Cloning Your Website” Mean?

Cloning your website means making an exact copy of your current website. Some users get confused between cloning and migrating a WordPress site because the processes are almost identical, but the main difference lies in their purpose:

• Migrating is used when moving your website from one host to another.
• Cloning, on the other hand, is for testing changes safely, without affecting your live site.

There are several reasons to create a duplicate WordPress website. For example, you might want to experiment with major design changes, share a version with developers to troubleshoot issues, or safely test theme and plugin updates. In all these cases, you can create a clone WordPress website and work in a safe, controlled environment without affecting your live site.

Why Clone a WordPress Website?

Cloning a WordPress website means making an exact copy of your existing site. It includes all your content, plugins, settings, and design, just like the original website. Duplicating a WordPress website is helpful in many situations, including testing changes without risk, redesigning without interrupting your site, etc.

Let’s look at the most common reasons to clone a website, starting with the most important:

1. Testing Changes Without Risk

You can create a clone of your website if you want to test new plugins, update themes, or test custom features. This way, you can avoid crashing or breaking your live site by working on a separate copy (called a staging site).

2. Redesign Without Interrupting Your Site

You can clone a site if it needs a fresh look, but you want to keep all your current content. You can redesign the clone while your main site stays online. Once the new design is ready, you can replace the original.

3. Moving to a New Hosting Provider

If you are switching to another hosting company like Ultahost, cloning your website helps avoid downtime. You can test the cloned version on the new host before shutting down your old account. If anything goes wrong, you still have the original site safe.

4. Publishing a Site Built Locally

Many developers build WordPress websites on their local machines (localhost). Once the site is ready, they copy it to a live server. Cloning makes this transfer quick and smooth, while the local version remains for future changes or testing.

5. Creating a Copy on a Different Domain

Sometimes, you might want to launch a similar website on another domain. Instead of manually recreating everything, you can simply clone the original and make updates or remove the unnecessary content. After this, you can run both sites independently.

How to Clone a WordPress Website

Cloning a WordPress website means creating an exact copy of your site. It is useful in many cases, such as moving to a new host, changing your domain, developing locally for a client, or testing updates on a staging site. It saves time, prevents errors, and makes migrations or changes much easier.

Let’s go through the following simple steps to clone your WordPress website easily:

Step 1: Install Clone WordPress Plugin

The WPVivid plugin is simple and effective for backups, migrations, and cloning. To begin cloning, head over to your WordPress dashboard. Then navigate to Plugins > Add Plugin and search for “WPVivid”:

Look for “Migration, Backup, Staging – WPVivid” and click on the Install Now button to begin installation. Once installed, click on the Activate button to activate it:

WPVivid should now load up, and this is what the interface looks like:

Step 2: Back Up Your Website

Let’s start by creating a backup. To do this, click on the Backup Now button:

On the left side, you can choose the “Database + Files (recommended)”, “Only Files”, or “Only Database” to backup. We’ll stick with the default: Database and Files option. On the right side, you can also choose where to save your backup, like “Local storage (default)” or remote storage like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. For now, we’ll leave it set to Local and click Backup Now.

Once it finishes, scroll down to the Backups section. You will see your newly created backup, along with details like “Creation date”, “Storage location”, and “Download & restore buttons”. Now, click Download to prepare the backup file:

Once it’s ready, click Download again to save it to your computer:

Step 3: Restore the Backup on Another Site

Now we can restore the backed-up website on a different site to create an exact copy of the original.

To restore the backup, go to your second WordPress installation. Make sure WPVivid is installed on that website as well. Now go to “Backup & Restore” in the plugin menu:

Scroll down and click the Upload tab. Click the “Select Files” button and upload the backup file you downloaded earlier:

Once uploaded, scroll down and you’ll see the backup listed under the Backups tab. Now click Restore, then confirm by clicking OK:

Once the restore process completes, you will be notified with a message “Restore completed successfully”. Click the OK button to proceed:

Once the restore completes, you may be logged out because the new site now has the same settings and users as your original site. Use the login credentials from the first site to log back in:

Once you’re logged in, check the front end of the site by clicking Visit Site. And there it is! Your second website now looks exactly like the first one!

Final Thoughts

Cloning your WordPress website is a good practice, especially when you want to test updates, try a new design, or move to a new host without taking risks. With the WPVivid plugin, the cloning process has become simple even for beginners. You can create a full copy of your site and work safely in a separate environment. To do this, first, install a WordPress backup plugin like WPVivid, take a backup of your original site, and restore the backup on another site to create an exact clone without affecting your live website.

In this article, we explained how you can easily clone your WordPress site with a few simple steps. Also, we explored when and why you should clone your WordPress website.

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