How to Convert Local WordPress Development to Live Site

Developing a website locally is a very practical way to test everything out before going live. If your site happens to be WordPress powered however, there are a few extra steps involved in going live. Here is the quick-list of steps to follow, as well as some handy resources.

First off, a note about local development: To reduce complications with permissions, ensure that your local and remote databases are identically named. Keep in mind that often times your web host will automatically add a prefix to all your databases (e.g. yourusername_databasename). You will also want to create a user on your local install that will be identical to your remote one. This will reduce hassle in changing your wp-config file later, and will make it easier to export/import your database.

1. Backup. Backup. Backup. (Did you catch that? Backup your site.)
2. Export local WordPress database (usually via phpMyAdmin).
3. Upload/FTP local WordPress files to live site.
4. Create MySQL Database on live site.
5. Create a MySQL user and assign them all privileges for that database.
6. On live site, import WordPress database from step 2 (usually via phpMyAdmin).
7. Change the site URL in the wp_options table (under field options_name look for siteurl and home; change the option_value).
8. Update wp-config.php with new database settings, if necessary, from steps 4 & 5.
9. Your site will appear broken. Don’t panic. Login to WordPress admin and save your general settings & permalink settings.
10. Fix everything else, aka image links, via the Velvet Blues Update URLs plugin or this SQL statement in phpMyAdmin:
    UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, ‘localhost/test/’, ‘www.yourlivesite.com’);

References:
WP Beginner Tutorial – http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-move-wordpress-from-local-server-to-live-site/
How-To Article: http://web-kreation.com/tutorials/migrating-a-wordpress-site-ftp-phpmyadmin-and-sql-queries/
WordPress Codex – http://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress
Plugin to update image links (free) – http://wordpress.org/plugins/velvet-blues-update-urls/
Plugin to do everything automatically (free, but currently in beta) – http://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/
Plugin to do everything automatically (premium) – http://ithemes.com/purchase/backupbuddy/