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Note: Please contact us if you wish to add information to this article. Thank you!
This information is for people familiar with FTP and comfortable with uploading web sites. If you are not comfortable with this, please contact your web site developer for assistance.
Note: A site not visible can present an error of if the site contents are in the wrong location:
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.More information
In order for your web site to be visible, you must place your web site content with a standard default home page at the public_html or www level of your account. All related files and directories/folders also need to be in the public_html or www location too. If you place your files anywhere else, your web site will not work. This issue happens a lot by some folks who upload their CSS or include folders to the wrong location too. Once the folder is moved to the proper location - things just work like a charm!
Outside of the public web site folder are other folders. Your site CANNOT see this. A simplistic example of a folder in the wrong location if required to be viewed by web site visitors:
\access-logs
\public_html
\public_html\test <--CORRECT
\test <--INCORRECTNotice the root \test directory is not inside the public_html folder above. That test folder is NOT accessible! We can help point this out to customers, but please be sure all of your web site content is contained within your public_html or www folder. (www is just an alias of public_html by the way.)
The cPanel file manager is a wonderful tool - so you can "move" or copy files to and from locations on the server with ease! Use it if you feel you uploaded incorrectly.
NOTE: As always, when in doubt, please contact your professional web designer as this is typically more of a coding/design issue more than a server problem. If you really, absolutely need us to move stuff around for you - we'd be glad to do that, but at a modest fee if we have to hire a developer to assist you. :)
For more information about the file structure visit: Directory Structure
For a list of home page names you can use please visit: Acceptable default home page names
TIP: An advanced way to avoid this problem is to create a NEW FTP user that defaults to the www or public_html folder as a home directory. That way you are not using your primary administrative account all the time. (which if compromised can be a security issue as they have access to far more than your web site! a hacker can FTP to your email, logs, and other important files!)
Content Manager in Wrong Location
Sometimes people install things like WordPress into a place like /wordpress. So what happens is the site does not work with just your domain, but the domain/wordpress works. That just means you have to re-install wordpress into the / or "root" directory instead. This can be tricky to move, so sometimes it is best to re-install. But if re-installing is not an option, you may have to seek help from the maker of the product or an expert on the product to see if simply moving the entire structure from the directory you placed it in first into the root. It may work. Just be aware of that moving things around can make such complicated products stop working. In the case of WordPress (since its popular here) one can export the data at the very least. Reinstall, then import the data back in. Widgets and other add ons like themes will have to be reinstalled of course.
Related/Advanced Topics
Secure FTP Access (FTP over SSL) Information
Important: Please do not delete the public_html or www folders as they are essential folders for your account.
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