New WordPress Site, how to use existing domain

Is your earlier site in wp? You can always customise the theme to match your standard. If you can do it with your knowledge its great otherwise you can hire a wp expert.

Depends on your hosting account. You’ll want to contact 1&1, let them know what you’re doing and ask whether you have a hosting plan that will accomodate wordpress. Then you’ll need to ask if they have a one-click wordpress install and if so, where you can access instructions on how to do it. Good luck!

I think maybe secondnature is asking if you have hosting set up but just replace your old site (HTML??) with a WP site, in the same directory (?), will it the URL/domain start to show the new WP site.

They’d have to do a full WP install in the root directory. Will that then display the new site right away, or are there other steps to switch from an index.html to an index.php?

Same question as @straitanswers. With a full install in the root directory, how best to continue to display the current html site while building out he WP site that will replace it? Maybe the .htaccess file?

i am also trying to use this domain but i dont understand how to use…..

As per the Forum Welcome, please post your own topic. Posting in an existing topic prevents us from being able to track issues by topic. Added to which, your problem – despite any similarity in symptoms – is likely to be completely different.

So on the topic of “How to use existing domain?”:
I see a lot of posts requesting help for “…I moved my WP web site that I built to a different folder on my hosting service and now it doesn’t work”. One approach is to not move the folder, rather to build it in place and then point the DNS to that directory. If I’m already using my root directory for my (crappy) html web site, can I build the WP site (less crappy) in that root directory then, when it’s ready to make public, how can I turn the new WP site on (then disable the old HTML site by removing the content).

Is the trick in the dashboard setting for making the site public/private? or is it that we need to modify the .htaccess file, or is it that we hide the index.php landing page on WP until it’s working?

By understanding the best practice for replacing HTML with WP on an existing domain maybe we will struggle less. Maybe.

Thnx.

@secondnature asked:

Will it be an easy transition to replace the old site with my new WP site? Is it something I can do myself, w/limited experience? Thank you

Install WP in a sub-folder, then when you ready to launch the new site on root, see Giving WordPress Its Own Directory.

This is the best way that I have found. Install in a sub-folder of your existing domain. Call the folder whatever you like. /Wordpress. It will change later. You will use the admin control panel login as normal: domain.com/wordpress/wp_admin. Configure your site. Review progress. Show to clients. Manipulate the code in pages via FTP. When you are ready to go live, archive your HTML site living in the root directory to a folder or remove the index.html file. Follow the instructions in the link above. Essentially you are COPYING NOT MOVING, the index.php and the .htaccess file from the WordPress sub-folder to the root directory. Follow the instructions for changing the settings in the .htacces file as well as the global URL change form within the WordPress admin, as well as the permalinks control settings.

I have been round and round this issue. I do not see any clean way to install in the root while building out and redirect to the existing HTML site. You would be affecting DNS settings and therebye not be able to login to edit WordPress. Something will not resolve correctly.

Good luck.

J

@jimbo41

Great helpful response! I’ve come to the same conclusion as I’ve been trial-and-erroring my way through a transition to WP. Your solution helps confirm what I _thought_ I got out of the support/tutorials. Will figure out the rest.

Seems like a lot of problems I’m seeing on this forum come from this very issue as new users want to test and build before replacing HTML, or don’t realize that WP imbeds directory/path strings in various ways that don’t just update the folder hierarchies when you move to different folder/directory or even renaming the directory after the install (which is what I did).

Thanks
Strait

@Strait

The key is to do nothing! ?? I mean do not move any files or rename directories. It just doesn’t work like html pages. I keep coming across .htaccess as a means to accomplish many solutions. I’m going to have learn more. Anyway, the link I posted is straight forward enough.
Glad to have helped in my small way. It’s a big application!

J