You can build and test a site here while the live one carries on elsewhere. This is the single best way to move a site without downtime.
The method
Your computer checks its own hosts file before asking DNS. Adding an entry there sends your machine to our server for that domain, while the rest of the world continues to the old one.
The full instructions are in Accessing a website by changing your local hosts file. You need your server's IP address, which is in your welcome email and in cPanel.
Why this beats the alternatives
Using a temporary address or a subdomain means the site is built with the wrong address recorded in its settings and its database. When you then move it to the real domain, links and images break. Previewing with a hosts file means the site is configured with its real address the whole time, so nothing changes when you go live.
What to check while previewing
- The home page and several inner pages
- The admin login
- Any form, and any checkout
- Images and stylesheets loading
Remember to remove it
Take the hosts entry out once the domain is pointed here. Otherwise, months later when the site moves again, your machine will be the only one still going to the old server – and it is genuinely baffling until you remember.
The certificate warning
While previewing this way you may see a certificate warning, because the certificate for the domain cannot be issued until the domain genuinely points here. That is expected and resolves itself after you switch.
