Forum Moderators: mack
I am a complete newbie at web development and to webmaster world - so please bear with me.
Ok here is my issue.
I have an existing html static website that I want to convert to wordpress format. My goal is to rebuild my existing website in wordpress format but avoid any downtime on my existing site and just simply switch over by redirecting the domain name to the new site.
I signed up with one of the recommended webhosts and I completed my details using my existing domain name. So far so good
I used the fantastico de luxe to install Wordpress - the only option I had to use as a domain was the domain of my existing website. This is where the problems started.
ok so the wordpress created. Now when I click the link to my wordpress Admin tool I get an error message from my existing hosting provider saying page does not exist.
I emailed the support guys who were helpful but I don't think I explained myself correctly. They said that I need to to ask my existing host to switch nameservers. I didn't do this as I thought I only needed to do this once I had completed the new build.
Anyway I'm stuck in a situation where I'm not sure what I need to do to be able to create the wordpress site on the new hosting server while maintaining my existing site and the switch over the domain.
When it comes to domains and subdomains I'll be honest in that I haven't much of a clue.
any help whatsoever would be greatly appreciated.
cheers
Lennytec
The problem is, that your WordPress installation already thinks that you have pointed your domainname to WordPress, but it is still pointing to your old living site. You don't have a WordPress admin directory there and that generates the error.
Let's assume that your domain is called example.com, and that your new hosting company with the wordpress installation is called hosting.com. Many hosting companies allow access to websites through an alternative name, for example examplecom.hosting.com. You should check this out with your hosting company. It is probably somewhere in their documentation or in the welcome email you received when you signed up. They do this specifically to allow installations and preparations of websites before they go live.
Now reinstall Wordpress and use examplecom.hosting.com (or whatever is appropriate in your situation) as the install domain for WordPress. You can now access WordPress and prepare your site under that name.
If you think the new site is ready to go life, change the domain to point to your new WordPress installation. You have to tell Wordpress at this moment that it isn't called examplecom.hosting.com anymore, but example.com. You can do this in the Wordpress administration panel under the tab Options. In the General options, you will find two URI's where you see a domainname mentioned. If you change these two to your new domainname and save the settings, Wordpress will now work under your new domainname.
