Install WordPress but don't use it yet

Question

I'm looking into redoing a website for a friend, as the main site is currently using Flash with a hastily built mobile version that uses a subdomain. I'm looking into WordPress, but I don't want it to use the WordPress site until it's completed.

The site is hosted by WebHostingBuzz and managed through cPanel, which also has Softaculous. So I can install WordPress very easily, but I don't want the main site to use it's content until it's finished. How do I go about doing that? Or will it not use the install right away? I don't want to install it just to have to figure out how to revert back.

Answer 1

The easiet option is to create a subdomain e.g. new.example.com in its own directory and install Wordpress in there.

Once the site is finished, either change the domain's document root to point it to the wordpress directory or copy the entire wordpress install to the document root. Once you are satisfied it is working, you can then delete the subdomain and the contents of the development directory.

One word of caution: be sure to use relative links otherwise you may have to do a bunch of editing when you do the move.

There is one other option to consider - warning: expert mode. If the current site is not using PHP, i.e. its home page is index.html or welcome.html (and not index.php) you may be able to simply install WP in the existing working directory.

You would need to make sure that the index.php has a lower priority than index.html. See this article https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7873634/why-does-index-html-have-priority-over-index-php. But you really need to know what you are doing with this method as it might get confusing and messy with the mix of files.