Migrating WP websites is fairly trivial. I see Mike has posted a link to a good guide.
These are the steps I usually go through - they actually looks a bit less unwieldy than the techniques outlined on codex.wordpress.org.
Step 1.
Make a careful note of the URL from which the website is served from, e.g.
"
www.mywebsite.com/beta".
Step 2.
Back-up files - there should be a facility within your hosts control panel to do this. If you are given a choice about what folders to backup, exclude any log folders. Most hosts actually give you a folder called htdocs which is the root folder of the website. It's really just the root folder you need to backup.
Step 3.
Back-up the database. Your host probably has a link to something called PHPMyAdmin which you can use for this. It's fairly point and click. The option you are looking for is 'Export' and you can probably just
Step 4.
Carefully delete the contents of the web folder from the old site. Or move it into a new obviously named sub folder. You should be able to do this via the hosts control panel or via an FTP client.
Step 5.
Copy the contents of your beta folder to the root folder of your website, as discussed in step 2 it might be called htdocs.
Step 6.
Download the zip file from the bottom of this page, after reading the whole page carefully. Unzip it and transfer the resultant .php file to your website root folder
Step 7.
Visit "
www.mywebsite.com/theNameOfTheScript.php" in a browser and carefully follow the instructions. It should be able to connect to the database using your wp-config.php file. All you need to give it is the old url that the website was on, as noted in step 1 and the new url. Wait for the script to complete, and when it's finished delete it from the wwwroot.
Step 8.
Test the website.
I've used this method over a dozen times without a hitch. If it does go wrong, then that's what the backups we took in Step 2 and Step 3 are for.
It's good to try and regularly backup your site, ideally through an automated process. Your web host may offer that. If not, then you should periodically do steps 2 and 3, download the backups and keep them somewhere safe.
I tend to take fresh back-ups before making any major changes to my WordPress sites too - although I'll probably have the automated soon.
Just break the instructions down and do them one step at a time. Print them off if you prefer to, so you can cross out the steps you have done and go for a tea break in between.
If something goes wrong, just post back here to get some further assistance.
Good luck.
