How to Use the Temporary URL for your WordPress Site

A very common request for people using WordPress on their InMotion Accounts, is “how do I use the temporary URL for my WordPress site?”

This is done because of a variety reasons, but basically, the domain name is not yet ready to be assigned to the website created on your InMotion Hosting account.

What does using the temporary URL for my WordPress site do?

It allows you to use a DIFFERENT domain name to access the site and see it function. This is often done during development and testing phases of creating your website. We will show you how to quickly and easily add the code necessary for the temporary URL to be used within your WordPress site.


You will first need to determine you temporary URL. To do this:
Login to your Account Management Panel (AMP)
Find your Account Technical Information then look for and copy the Temp URL. It will look something like this: http://ecbiz123.inmotionhosting.com/~...


Next you will need to add it into your WP-CONFIG.PHP file of your WordPress installation. Here are the directions on using cPanel File Manager to access and edit it.


Login to the cPanel
Scroll to the File Manager and click on it to open it. Select the location that matches with where your website has been installed. If you’re not sure, then go to the Home Directory, click on “show hidden files”, then and then click on GO.

Go to your WordPress Installation directory. Look for the the WP-CONFIG.PHP file. Select it, then click on EDIT at the top of the File Manager. You can also right-click on it and then select an edit option. You can normally ignore the “Disable Encoding Check” or character encoding options. Click on EDIT to proceed.

When you are editing the WP-CONFIG.PHP file, you will need to add the following code:

define('WP_HOME','http://ecbiz107.inmotionhosting.com/~...
define(‘WP_SITEURL','http://ecbiz107.inmotionhosting.com/~...

You can add it after the first comments in file

Save your changes by clicking SAVE CHANGES in the top right corner.

Now you can check it by typing in the temporary URL in a browser. If you have used your WordPress site in a different location, then make sure that you reset the permalinks for your site. This will re-write the URLs that are saved in your database.

When you are finished with the temp URL and you’re ready to switch to the domain name that you will use for the WordPress site, then go back into the WP-CONFIG.PHP file and delete the code that was added in the steps above. Finally, reset the permalinks for your WordPress site.

Read our full guide on Installing WordPress Using Your Temporary URL
▶︎ https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/wordpress/installing-wordpress-using-your-temporary-url/

InMotion Hosting was founded in 2001 and provides personal and business web hosting for everyone! For more information about InMotion Hosting and the services we provide see here:
▶︎ https://www.inmotionhosting.com/wordpress-hosting