Digital marketing term
Home Directory
The home directory (or root directory) is the top-level folder on a web server where a site's files — HTML, CMS installation, media, configuration — are stored.
Detailed explanation
Every hosting account has a home (or root) directory — commonly named public_html, www, or htdocs — that serves as the base folder for a domain's files. Everything a browser can reach at yourdomain.com lives inside this folder or its subfolders; anything placed outside it is typically inaccessible from the web, which is intentional for keeping backups, logs, and configuration files away from public access.
In practice, this directory is where you would upload a CMS installation via FTP, place a robots.txt or sitemap.xml file so it is reachable at the domain root, or install an SSL certificate's verification files. Getting the folder structure wrong — for example, nesting a WordPress install one level too deep — is a common cause of “site not found” or broken-path errors after a migration.
For “what is a home directory” or “where do I upload my website files” searches, this entry is a starting point. See FTP for how files get into this directory and CMS for what typically lives inside it.
Frequently asked questions
- What is usually the correct home directory to upload files to?
- It depends on the host, but public_html, www, or htdocs are the most common names; your hosting control panel or welcome email will specify which one applies to your account.
- Why would my site show a 404 error even though files are uploaded?
- A common cause is uploading files into a subfolder inside the home directory instead of directly into it, so the domain root does not find an index file where it expects one.
Related terms
Internal links for the topic cluster — read these concepts together.
- HTMLHTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the standard markup language used to structure content on web pages.
- CSSCSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is the language used to style and lay out HTML documents in the browser.
- JavaScriptJavaScript is the programming language that adds interactivity and dynamic behavior to web pages in the browser.
- DomainA domain is the human-readable address of a website on the internet—for example, dpedijital.com.