The single most useful thing to understand about your hosting file structure is a folder called public_html. Confusingly, it has nothing to do with "going public" — it's simply where your website lives on the server.
What is public_html?
When someone visits your domain, the server looks inside your public_html folder to find your site's files. It's often called the document root. Everything inside it is publicly accessible on the internet; anything outside it is private to your account.
What belongs in it
- Your website's main files:
index.php,index.html, etc. - Your entire WordPress installation (folders like
wp-admin,wp-content). - Style sheets, images, scripts and other site assets.
If your site is WordPress, the WordPress core files live here and visitors see it directly. If you point a subdomain at a subfolder, that subfolder has its own public_html-like root.
What does NOT go in it
- Anything private — backup ZIPs with database dumps or passwords.
- Random documents you don't want public.
public_html itself. Its name is a convention — creating a new empty folder with the same name won't restore your site, it just empties it.How the server uses it
Your account has other system folders (like mail, logs, etc) that hold email, logs and configuration. Those aren't meant to be served to visitors. Only public_html and its subfolders are shown online. That separation is why web hosting is organised this way.
Finding it in practice
Open File Manager and double-click public_html. Upload your files here. For large sites use the ZIP-and-extract method described in How to Upload Large Websites.