New URL of existing linode/wordpress site still pointing to old url
I have had a linode/wordpress site up and running for years. My client shut his business down so I am repurposing that site with my own GoDaddy URL, which I updated last Thursday (over 72 hours ago)
When I type in the new address, it goes to the old URL and returns "This site cannot be reached" (same with manually typing in the IP address)
I'm wondering:
What is the best practice for changing the URL of a site?
Where should I look for my issue, is it possible the old Godaddy URL is still active (I may no longer have access to disable this)? Is the fact that the old URL is coded into the wordpress site and or the Linode server set up files and I need to change them somehow? Would I be better off deleting the server and starting fresh at this point?
Thanks for the help.
Here is what I think is the relevant tracert:
14 47 ms 45 ms 55 ms fourhundredge-0-0-0-3.4079.core1.ashb.net.internet2.edu [163.253.1.122]
15 46 ms 46 ms 46 ms fourhundredge-0-0-0-1.4079.core1.newy32aoa.net.internet2.edu [163.253.1.117]
16 44 ms 46 ms 45 ms fourhundredge-0-0-0-21.4079.core2.newy32aoa.net.internet2.edu [163.253.1.45]
17 45 ms 45 ms 45 ms ipv4.de-cix.nyc.us.as63949.linode.com [206.82.104.96]
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 44 ms 45 ms 45 ms li1287-134.members.linode.com [45.79.188.134]
At this point, the address bar is pointing to the old URL.
3 Replies
One of the huge design flaws of WP is that it embeds the URL in many places in the database. Thus you have to use a utility that will search the database for the old URL and replace it with the new one. We use this utility but there are others:
https://interconnectit.com/search-and-replace-for-wordpress-databases/
With this one, you need to FTP into the server and upload this program to the WP root and then just run it from the browser and change old-doman-name.com to new-domain-name.com .
It is pretty simple.
Acanton,
Thanks, I will try that and update if that solves it.
I also remember coding the URL into the server somewhere while setting up Apache etc, but hopefully, the WP fix will be enough.
I think I have access to the FTP, but I'm not sure that I will be able to run anything from the browser if it is still redirecting away internally.