How to Redirect to Your New WordPress Site While Building It – A Step-By-Step Guide
When developing a new WordPress site, you’ll eventually want to redirect back to your original site once the new project is completed and launched. You can use a tool like WordPress redirects to make this process easy. In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps to create a simple, effective redirect.
Step 1: Create A New WordPress Site
The first step in developing a new WordPress site is to create it. You’ll find a link to the free WordPress tool under the Services heading on the WordPress website. Once you click it, you’ll be taken to the website where you can download and install the latest version of WordPress to start developing.
Step 2: Login To Your New WordPress Site
When you log in to your new WordPress site, you’ll see a screen similar to the one below:
Step 3: Configure Your New WordPress Site
You can use the WordPress dashboard to configure your new WordPress site. When you click on the Settings icon in the upper right-hand corner of the WordPress dashboard, you’ll see a screen like this:
Step 4: Add A New Domain To Your WordPress Configuration
If you already have a domain name and want to use it to access your new WordPress site, you can add it to your configuration. For example, if your domain name is myblog.com and you install WordPress at myblog.com/blog/, you’ll be able to log in to your new site and use the familiar myblog.com address to refer to it. You can add this domain to your WordPress configuration by clicking on the “Actions” icon in the upper right-hand corner of the dashboard and selecting the “Add New Domain…” option:
Step 5: Test Redirections
Once you’ve added your domain name to your WordPress configuration, you can test the redirections that you’ve set up. You can do this by clicking on the Settings icon in the upper right-hand corner of the dashboard and selecting the “Reading” option:
Step 6: Launch!
When you’re ready to launch your new WordPress site, log in to your dashboard and select the “Publish” option from the top menu. You’ll see a page like this:
Bonus Step: View Your Redirections From Anywhere
If you’d like to check on the status of your redirections from anywhere, you can use a tool like WP Redirects. With this plugin, you can set up automated redirects from your old site to your new site. Once you’ve installed and configured the plugin, you’ll see a screen like this when you log in to your WordPress dashboard:
That’s it
That’s pretty much all there is to creating a simple, automated redirect from your original site to your new site. As you can see, there’s not a whole lot going on here. Nevertheless, setting up a simple redirect with this tool is pretty straightforward.
To set up your first redirect, click on the “New redirect” button and give it a test name like “Old site to new site”. Once you’ve entered a description for the redirect, you can choose the URL that you’d like to use for it. Make sure that you use your original site’s URL, as this is the address that your audience will recognize. When you’ve entered this information, click on the “Create redirect” button and you’ll see a confirmation screen like this:
Congratulations!
When you launch your new WordPress site, you’ll see a confirmation screen like this:
Step 7: Back To Your Old Site!
As we mentioned before, when you complete a new WordPress site and want to launch it, you’ll eventually want to redirect back to your old site. You can use a tool like WordPress redirects to make this process easy. When you log in to your WordPress dashboard, you’ll see a screen like this:
Step 8: Choose The Settings You Need
As with most other aspects of WordPress, there are several options that you can choose from when configuring your redirect. You can choose to redirect to any URL that you like, set up redirects for various types of users or site visitors, and so much more. In our next article, we’ll discuss how to set up automated redirects from your old site to your new site.