How to Assist a Local Food Bank with Domain Redirection and WordPress Deployment
Supporting a community organization with your web development skills is both commendable and impactful. Recently, I’ve been helping a local food bank recover from a troubling situation involving domain management and website setup. Although my technical expertise is primarily in design, I have a basic understanding of domains, DNS settings, and hosting — and I’d like to share some insights that might help others facing similar challenges.
The Situation
The food bank owns two domains: one registered through WordPress and another through a third-party provider, landingsite.ai. Their goal is to direct the landingsite.ai URL to their new WordPress website and eventually discontinue their existing landing page, partly to reduce unnecessary expenses.
Challenges include:
– Limited access to the domain provider linked to landingsite.ai, which is managed via an interface indicating it was purchased through a third-party registrar (possibly GoDaddy), but without direct login credentials.
– The interface allows DNS editing but does not support URL redirects directly.
– Existing files for a previous WordPress setup need to be uploaded to a new host without disrupting the current live site.
– There is a concern about the compatibility of themes and plugins, as the existing site seems outdated.
Key Considerations and Potential Solutions
- Redirecting a Domain Without Direct Registrar Access
Since the domain is managed through a third-party interface with limited options, and DNS editing is available, one approach is to set up a DNS redirect or forwarding if supported. If not, it might be necessary to contact the registrar’s support team directly or gain access through the client. Alternatively:
– Use DNS records (such as A or CNAME records) to point the domain to the new hosting server. This method involves changing the DNS settings to direct the domain traffic to the new WordPress site IP address.
– After the DNS propagation, configure the web server to handle URL routing if redirects aren’t natively supported by the DNS host.
- Setting Up and Uploading the WordPress Site
For deploying the offline WordPress files:
– Choose a reliable hosting provider that supports WordPress.
– Use an FTP client or the hosting control panel to securely upload the site files.
– Import the database if applicable, ensuring that site URLs are updated to match the new domain.
– To preview the site without affecting the live version
