Web Hosting Reviews & Ratings

July 06, 2010

Navigating to Your Site's Directory in an FTP Client

The key to a successful website is constant updates. By keeping your site updated with useful content at all times you give your visitors an incentive to return which keeps your sites traffic levels consistent, thus improving your site's Alexa and search engine ranking. However, updating your site with content can be a tedious task if you are uploading the files manually one at a time through your control panel. Instead you will need to use an FTP client to upload files to your site and automate the process of downloading and uploading content from your web server. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. An FTP client is essentially a program that lets you connect your hard drive to your web server for quick and simple integration.

Understanding the FTP Client

If you don't have an FTP client then I would recommend that you download FileZilla. It is one of the most popular FTP clients because it is free and easy to use. Once you have opened FileZilla (or the FTP client of your choice) you will notice that the user interface is split into four quadrants. Each quadrant represents an area of your hard drive or web server. The left side of the screen is devoted to your hard drive, while the right side of the screen is devoted to your web server. The bottom of the screen is devoted to files, while the top is devoted to folders. So if you click on a folder in one of the top quadrants, then the files in that folder will appear in the quadrant directly below it. I recommend that explore your FTP client a little bit to see how it works since you will be using it frequently.

Connecting to Your Web Server

To connect to your web server you will need to setup an FTP account in your hosting account by finding the appropriate section in your site's control panel. Once the FTP account is created you will receive the login information which you can input at the top of your FTP client. Once you are logged in you will see the files form your web server appear on the right side of your screen. This is the part where most people get confused.

Finding Your Site's Directory and Uploading/ Downloading Files

Your site's directory is usually in the public_HTML folder in your FTP client. Simply click on that folder and you should see your site's files. If you are hosting several sites on the same hosting account then your sites directory will be within another folder inside of the public_HTML folder. Usually the site's directory will have the domain name on it so it is easy to find. Once you find the site's directory you can upload files to it by clicking on the file on the hard drive section of your FTP client, then right click and select upload. To upload several files at once just hold down the CTRL key and select all of the files you want to upload. If you want to maximize your productivity then you will need to learn how to effectively use your FTP client.

Tags: search engine ranking,  content update,  ftp,  FTP client,  file transfer protocol