Moving Your Joomla Website

So, how do you move your Joomla site from one host to another, or from one location to another... easily?
We've found the best success once again, using the free tool www.akeebabackup.com

There is full documentation on the process here,  as well as video tutorials here.
However, we're going to provide you a 'quick and dirty' below which should work for most people.

1. Download and install on your Joomla site the component AkeebaBackup, be sure to use the correct version: www.akeebabackup.com
2. Using the AkeebaBackup component in the administrator interface of your Joomla site, perform a full backup.
3. Download this backup to you local machine. (Advanced users may choose to use SCP instead to copy this to the new location)
4. Copy this full backup file to the new location of your destination Joomla site. (for many people, this will be into your public_html folder)
5. Download and upload the kickstart.php file from www.akeebabackup.com
6. Point your browser to this file. ie mydomain.com/kickstart.php
7. You will need to have the details of a valid mysql database that you have created for us in this new location. You may need to create it from your hosting control panel. Be sure to also create a database user and grant them permissions on the database. In many cases this database name, as well as database user will be prefixed by your cpanel username. ie cpaneusername_databasename and cpanelusername_databaseusername. For support with this aspect, you will need to talk to your Joomla Hosting provider.
8. AkeebaBackup should do the rest for you, and in these few steps you will have migrated/moved your entire Joomla website.

Following this simple procedure will make the process of moving your Joomla Website simple. All the hard work is done for you.