How To Delete Site From WordPress

If you have a WordPress website or blog that you no longer need, it’s important to delete it properly. To delete WordPress site may seem like a straightforward process, but there are a few steps you need to take to make sure you don’t lose any important data or accidentally delete the wrong site.

In this blog, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of deleting a site from WordPress. We’ll cover what you need to do before deleting the site, how to backup your site, and how to delete site from WordPress account permanently.

Whether you want to delete wordpress site and start over or simply want to clean up your WordPress dashboard, this guide will provide you with the information you need on how to delete wordpress site safely and efficiently.

Steps to delete any wordpress site

If somehow you accidentally delete a site and want to reverse the process, you are in luck. Or if you delete and change your mind, WordPress offers to reverse the deletion process but within 30 days. Remember this is only possible within 30 days of deletion.

Here are the steps you can follow for deletion:

1. Log in to your WordPress account and go to the dashboard of the site you want to delete.

Open your web browser and go to the WordPress login page. The URL is typically https://yourdomain.com/wp-login.php, where “yourdomain.com” is the domain name of your website.

Enter your WordPress username or email address in the “Username or Email” field.

Type your password in the “Password” field.

Click on the “Log In” button to access your WordPress account.

2. Click on “Tools” from the left-hand menu and then select “Delete Site”.

In the WordPress dashboard, look for the left-hand menu and click on the “Settings” option.

A drop-down menu will appear, and you should select the “Delete Site” option.

Note: Deleting a site is a permanent action and cannot be undone. Before you proceed with this action, make sure you have a backup of your website if you want to keep any data or content. Also, please be aware that these steps may vary depending on the version of WordPress you are using and the specific theme or plugins installed on your site.

3. You will be taken to a page where you need to enter your WordPress account password to confirm that you want to delete the site. Or wordpress can ask to enter the domain of the website you want to delete

You will be taken to a page where you need to confirm that you want to delete the site. On this page, you will see a field to enter your WordPress website you want to delete.

Enter your WordPress website domain into the field provided.

4. After entering your password or Confirming your website domain address, click on the “Delete Site” button to proceed.

5. WordPress will then delete your site, which may take a few moments to complete.

WordPress will begin the process of deleting your site. This process may take a few moments to complete, depending on the size of your site and the amount of content you have.

During this process, WordPress will delete all of the data associated with your site, including posts, pages, media, and comments. It will also delete any themes and plugins that you have installed and deactivate any active plugins.

6. Once the site is deleted, you will be redirected to a confirmation page.

Once the deletion process is complete, you will receive a confirmation message. Please note that once you have deleted your site, it cannot be recovered, so make sure that you have a backup of your website if you want to keep any data or content.

These steps cover the basic process of deleting a site from WordPress. However, depending on your site and hosting provider, you may have to go through additional steps or considerations.

For example, if you have a premium theme or plugins installed on your site, you may need to cancel any subscriptions or licenses associated with them before deleting the site. Additionally, if you have any backups or important data stored on the site, you’ll want to make sure to download and save those files before proceeding with the deletion process.

Important Note!

Please be careful when deleting a site as it will permanently delete all the content, media, and data associated with it. It’s recommended to take a backup of your site before deleting it, in case you want to restore it in the future.

How to Delete a WordPress Site with Upgrades

The steps for deleting your wordpress site, mentioned above, work just fine for the sites that do not have any upgrades.

Like if you have purchased additional storage space, a domain name, or are using a bought theme for your wordpress site then the above mentioned steps are not for you. Because, if you try to delete the site as it is, you will receive an error to cancel all subscriptions and remove the  upgrades.

Now, to proceed further with deleting your site, follow these steps:

1. From the pop-up window informing cancel subscriptions click Manage purchases 
2. You will be redirected to the relevant page, from there cancel all purchases and remove all upgrades
3. Now follow the basics steps to delete a wordpress site mentioned above

What about your WordPress account?

Deleting your wordpress account and wordpress site are two different things. One might have to delete their wordpress account as well. 

On that note, deleting your account means you delete every wordpress website and hosting related to it. 

Just like deleting the website. Within 30 days of deleting the wordpress account it can also be recovered. Now lets see how you can delete you account:

1. Open WordPress dashboard
2. Click your avatar to display your profile
3. Then click “Account Settings”
4. Scroll to the bottom and click on Close your account permanently.

You don’t need to be tech savvy, or a developer to understand how to delete wordpress site. But make sure you know what you are doing, do your research and be sure that this is the right step and solution to your problem. For problems like changing username or removing site contents, there is no need to delete the site.

What about Self-Hosted sites?

According to the hosting every website is running on, little details might differ when trying to delete the website. So, if you do not see the exactly what is mentioned in this post, do not worry and go with the most relevant one. For instance, if you cannot see “permanently remove your account” you might see “delete your account permanently” so go with that option. 

Following are the steps for deleting a self-hosted wordpress website. But before you do that, make sure you have a backup copy.

1. Delete all the files from backend
2. Go to the database and delete that as well
3. Block search engines from crawling 
4. Remove website’s content from search engines
5. Use the Wayback Machine (just in case)

Let us have a look on how to perform these steps

Delete all the files from backend

Most hostings provide you with File Manager for management. To access file manager, 

1. Go to hosting dashboard
2. Find and select File Manager 
3. Fill required credentials
4. Select all files with Ctrl+A and then delete them

If you do not have access to a File Manager, then FTP is your best friend or you can even use SFTP client. However, the experience and UI could be intimidating especially for less-experienced ones. 

To access your FTP, search the first email(or few after that) from your web host. There you will find hostname, username, and FTP password for logging in. If you cannot find that contact your hosting provider.

No need to pay extra for any file transfer software, just use the ones available to you. Filezilla is one of the most well-known free and safe from others. You can use other softwares like auto-installers like Softaculous too. 

On how to delete wordpress sites with Softaculous follow these steps:

1. Go to your hosting dashboard
2. Search for the Softaculous
3. Click on it and choose WordPress
4. Go to Current installations and select site you want to delete
5. Click Remove from “Options” 
6. From drop-down select “Remove Completely”

Go to the database and delete that as well

After learning how to delete sites on wordpress now you have to also delete your website’s database. Follow these steps to delete the database 

• Go to your hosting dashboard
• Locate and click on cPanel
• Locate your website’s Databases from the list of databases and select it
• Select the database of the site that you have already deleted the files from.
• Delete the database.

Next, you should delete the WordPress accounts created on your site. Go to MySQL Databases > Users and delete all of them.

Block search engines from crawling

Search engines have complex website crawling algorithms and after deleting the website crawlers take some time to quit crawling the website. But still it is better to block the search spiders. The process is really simple and easy. Create a robots.txt, upload it to your site’s root directory and save it there. In the file add these two lines of code

User-agent: *
Disallow

Remove website’s content from search engines

Even after deleting your wordpress website, your website could still show up in the search results. This is because it takes search engine crawlers some time to go to your website and know that it is down, until then it will show up in the results. 

To prevent your deleted website from showing up the results, you have to request them. Here is how.

Google

In Google Search Console confirm you are the verified site owner and then proceed to ask for a removal request. For that type in the website’s URL, that you have deleted.

Bing

Go to the Bing site locate Webmasters Tools and Feature then select Remove Broken Links and Outdated Cache Pages 

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Here you will find all the details about removing your content from Bing. Go directly to Bing’s content removal tool if you don’t have the time to read the documentation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, deleting a WordPress site can be a quick and easy process when you know the right steps to take. Whether you’re looking to delete a site you no longer need or want to start over from scratch, following these simple steps can help you accomplish your goals. Remember to always backup your site before deleting it to avoid losing any important data.

If you’re looking to start over with a new site, take advantage of the opportunity to rethink your design and content strategy. Consider what worked well with your old site and what you can do differently this time around to make your new site even better.

By using these steps to delete your WordPress site, you can have a fresh start and ensure that your site is optimized for success. So, don’t hesitate to take action and delete your site if it’s no longer serving your needs. With a little bit of effort, you can create a new and improved WordPress site that better aligns with your goals and objectives.