Blogging is fun though! But not all websites need to be up and running forever, sometimes we just want to get rid of them. If you are the one who is looking for a way out of how to delete a WordPress Blog then you may read this article till the end. This article will walk you through the entire steps as to how to delete your WordPress blog easily and safely and what precautions you should follow while deleting your WordPress Blog.
Before deleting your WordPress Blog, you should know that there are two types of WordPress blogs. The first and the most common one is the self-hosted WordPress.org website, whereas the second type is blogs hosted on WordPress.com.
Table of Contents
How to delete a WordPress.org Blog?
Step 1: Backing up your data
No matter how much you are about deleting your WordPress.org Blog, you should always take a backup before deleting your Blog.
It would be a great help, if you ever want to restore your website, in the future. Though, in WordPress.com you have to back up your data manually. So pay close attention to how you can back up your site data.
To manually backup your WordPress.org site, you need to go to your dashboard in the Tools » Export section and then select “All content” to export all of your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, terms, navigation menus, and custom posts.
When you click the button below which says, “Download Export File”, WordPress will create an XML file on your computer. This format is called “WordPress eXtended RSS” or “WXR”, which will contain all your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags.
You need to save the file and can use the Import function in another WordPress installation to import the content from this site.
Step 2: Delete Blog
To delete the blog, you need to log in to your hosting account’s cPanel dashboard and locate the file manager.
In the file manager, go to the root directory of your website and then delete all files and folders.
That’s it! You have successfully deleted your self-hosted WordPress.org site.
The next and the last step is simply to cancel your hosting subscription, and you are done.
How to delete a WordPress.com Blog?
If you have a blog hosted at WordPress.com, you can’t well access its cPanel. Though you can use the available tools that WordPress provides, it’s a bit complex but not a difficult process.
Step 1: Backing up your data
It’s always good to perform a backup like we mentioned earlier in this article. Many people’s minds changed once they delete their site and then they look to recall their deleted data files.
To have a backup makes things easier and capable of restoring the blog. Since the website doesn’t take a great deal of hard drive space, you should consider backing up the data before deleting a WordPress.com Blog.
The installations of WordPress.com come with an export feature. Go to “Tools” and select “Export” from the list. WordPress will ask you about the files that you wish to export. The by default settings, “All content” already selected, if it is not, make sure you select the “All content” option and then press the “Download Export File” button.
PS: Through this method, you are unable to download pictures and other media files. So, to keep your images, videos, and other media files, you need to go to Media and manually download them.
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