How to Export a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog

When you create a new blog post in WordPress, that post is added to a database that contains all of the content of your website including your posts, pages, categories, tags, and readers' comments. When a reader searches your website or displays a post, WordPress fetches the appropriate information from the database and displays it. One of the benefits of a database-driven website is that you can quickly export your content to a file. With an exported WordPress file, you can bring all of your content from one website to another and protect your website with a backup that you can use if the server suffers an outage.

Instructions

1. Navigate to the dashboard for your WordPress website, entering the user name "admin" and your personal administrator password to proceed to the main menu.

2. Click the arrow next to "Tools" on the right side of the page to expand the menu, and then click "Export."

3. Click the "All Content" radio button under "Choose what to export." This selection creates a backup file containing all of the posts, pages, comments, custom fields, comments and navigation menus associated with your WordPress website. Alternatively, you can create a backup file containing only the website's posts or pages.

4. Click the "Download Export File" button. The Web browser displays a file download window.

5. Save the file to the location of your choice.

References

• WordPress.org: Tools Export Screen