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I want to update my old website with WordPress but I got some problems... Is it possible to create a website without domain name (before publish) and replace it with my old website domain name as soon as i finish building the new one? Basically, I want to keep my old website (not built by WordPress) while I am working on the new web. Then use the domain name that I have for the old web to replace it with the new web that I will build in WordPress.

First I start building a new "free WordPress.com" but it's not in admin site, so i ran into lots of difficulties when I used it. So i want to start over and do it on admin site but I got problem with the domain now :(

Thank you!

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    Use a local test installation. There are plenty of tutorials handling this online. I personally use XAMMP for Windows on my computer to develop and test off line :-)
    – Pieter Goosen
    Commented Jul 24, 2015 at 4:24
  • Another option is to create a directory on your web server titled 'development', for example. Copy your site (files, DB, update URL) make your updates and edits. Copy back to root where live site sits now.
    – jdm2112
    Commented Jul 24, 2015 at 5:01

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Of course you can. First you need to install a local server. Here are some choices:

After you create your website all you have to do is to transfer it to your new domain name. There are numerous backup plugins that can do the job. Here is an article that cover some of them. Of course you can migrate it yourself. Here is an article from the codex that covers this option.

If you start using WordPress.com you'll encounter many issues. Don't misunderstand me WordPress.com is a great service but won't help you with your specific task.

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Local development is an option, as others have pointed out. However, I personally prefer working online, so that I can immediately test real use cases.

If your budget permits, you can set up a staging domain name. Here you can build the site as if you intended it to be live on that address. Using a combination of WordPress' privacy settings and a robots.txt file in the root directory of your website, you can hide the site from search engines while you are building it.

When the time comes to migrate, all you need to do is pick up your files and a copy of your database, change the domain name in the database copy and then install them on your live site. Don't forget to change your WordPress privacy settings and robots.txt to allow search engines indexing the site.

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