Delete your website and keep only your email

Want your website to go offline but keep your email? Then you have two options: you switch your hosting package to a cheaper email package, or you keep your hosting package and just empty the website folder.

Option 1: switch to an email package yourself

Don't need a website anymore? Then you can switch your hosting package to an email package yourself. Your mailboxes and all your mail stay in place, as do forwarders, autoresponders, spam filters, DNS and SSL. We delete everything related to the website.

1. Log in to My WebOké and go to My Products › Manage next to your hosting package.
2. Scroll to Change hosting package. Below it you'll find Or switch to an email package.
3. Click the email package you want. You'll immediately see whether your mail fits and what it costs.
4. Click Switch to email package. The window shows exactly what will be deleted and what stays.
5. Tick the box to confirm you understand, type your domain name to confirm and click Delete everything and switch.

What does it cost? If the email package is cheaper, you don't pay anything extra and the email package price applies from your next renewal. If it's more expensive, you pay the difference first. Switching usually takes just a few minutes. Only the account owner can switch a package.

When isn't it possible? If you have more mailboxes or more mail than the email package can handle, if your package contains multiple domains (an email package has one) or if your package has its own IP address. You'll then see a message telling you what to do first.

Option 2: keep your hosting package and empty the website folder

Want to keep your hosting package, for example because you'd like a website again later? Then just empty the website folder.

1. Log in to DirectAdmin and open System Info & Files, File Manager.
2. Go to the folder domains/yourdomain.com/public_html.
3. Delete all files and folders in public_html. If the site was installed with Installatron or the Website Manager, it's better to remove it there, so the database is deleted as well.
4. Want to show a message, such as "This website has been discontinued"? Then create a file index.html in public_html containing that text.

Your mailboxes will keep working as usual.

Your old pages in Google

When you take your website down, its pages will remain in the search results for a while. They disappear on their own: a page that returns the error code 404 (not found) or 410 (gone) is removed from the index by Google as soon as it visits the page again. If you put up an index.html with a message, only your homepage remains and the other pages return 404.

Want a page to disappear from the search results faster? Use Removals in Google Search Console. This hides the page temporarily, for about six months. If the page is still reachable after that, it may come back. You can find more information in Keeping a page out of Google: robots.txt or noindex?.

No package yet, or is your domain registered elsewhere?

Only want email on your domain, without a website? Then order an email package (Email Only) via Products › Email Packages. If your domain stays with another provider, read Hosting package for a domain that stays with another provider to learn how to set up the DNS and MX records.

See also in the DirectAdmin manual: Removing an installation and Opening File Manager: the folders in your package.

Detailed explanation with screenshots: Switching your hosting package to an email package in the WebOké manual.

Want to learn more? Take the free course Getting found online, lesson 2.4 The Page indexing report and URL Inspection.