Move WordPress from the Temporary URL to Your Domain

While your domain is still pointing elsewhere, you may have built your WordPress site on the temporary preview address, which ends in stackstaging.com. When you are ready to go live, WordPress needs to be told its real address.

Before you start

• Make sure your domain is added to the hosting package and points to FimuroHost (nameservers ns1.stackdns.com and ns2.stackdns.com).
• Take a backup of the site and database.
• Enable free SSL for the domain so you can use https:// straight away.

Change the address in StackCP

1. Log in to your FimuroHost client area, go to Services, select your hosting plan and click Login to Control Panel / StackCP.
2. Open the WordPress management area for the package and find the Site URL and Home fields. They currently show the preview address, for example https://example-com.stackstaging.com.
3. Replace both with your live domain, for example https://example.com.
4. Click Save Settings.

Watch the dots. In the preview address the dots of your domain are replaced by hyphens (example-com). When you type the live address, use the normal dots again (example.com), otherwise the site will not load.

Alternative: change it inside WordPress

You can also go to Settings → General in wp-admin and update WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL). You will be logged out and need to log in again on the new domain.

Fix old links in your content

Changing Site URL and Home does not rewrite links already saved in pages, menus and image paths. To update those, run a search and replace with WP-CLI:

wp search-replace 'https://example-com.stackstaging.com' 'https://example.com' --dry-run
wp search-replace 'https://example-com.stackstaging.com' 'https://example.com'

                        
                    

A search-and-replace plugin such as Better Search Replace does the same job from the dashboard.

Common problems

• Redirect loop or site not found: check for hyphens left in the domain part of the URL.
• Browser shows "Not secure": the SSL certificate may still be issuing, or some images still use http://. Re-run search and replace for http://example.com to https://example.com.
• Still seeing the old site: DNS changes can take a few hours to spread. Clear your browser cache and the CDN cache (Edge Caching → Purge Everything).

Need help?

If anything here does not work as described, our team is happy to take a look. Open a support ticket from your FimuroHost client area or message us on WhatsApp at 01818160926.