After adding second domain to Deluxe hosting, URL still says "Coming soon"

[greentara451]

I used the cPanel "Addon Domains" feature to add a second domain name to my existing Deluxe hosting account. The second domain was created in a root directory beginning with "public_html/..." After adding the second domain, I installed Wordpress in that directory and began to create a site. However, when I type the second domain name into my browser (as the URL), I'm taken to a default "Coming soon" page.

I chatted with a GoDaddy support person who redirected my "public_html/domainname" to the folder "public_html/domainname." I'm not sure they understood the problem. I'm still unable to reach the addon domain by typing the domain name into my browser.

Am I missing something? I've been troubleshooting for hours. I've been creating and maintaining websites since 1997, and I've never had this much trouble getting set up.

[PL281]

@greentara451 

Everything you are saying makes sense - one thing I can think of is sometimes there is a default.shtml file in the folder and that is getting preference over the WordPress site - If you can post a screen capture of the domain screen in cpanel and the file manager I can confirm / make any other suggestions

[greentara451]

I don't see a default.shtml file, but there is a 404.shtml file in my
public_html folder, and when I type in my primary domain followed by my
second domain (i.e., "primary.com/secondary.com"), I get a 404 page not
found, except that it uses the Wordpress theme for my secondary domain.

I'm attaching screenshots. I appreciate your help!

[PL281]

@greentara451 

Ok - so I believe you need to remove public_html/ from the root of the domain settings - if you look to the right side you'll see it shows as redirecting to http://public_html/impactillustrated.com

Which is exactly what I'm seeing..... the HOME-ICON/ is the public_html folder

[greentara451]

Thank you for the suggestion! I removed "public_html" from the domain root and removed the redirect. Seems like it should have worked, but I still get a "Coming soon" page when I type in the second domain, and a 404 error page still appears when I type primary-domain.com/second-domain.com into the browser. I got the same result when the redirect was still in place (as public_html/second-domain.com).

My files for the second domain are still in the "public_html" folder (in File Manager). Should I move them up and out of the public_html folder?

Could the problem be associated with the name server for my second domain? (It's set to default in GoDaddy.)

Thank you again for your insights!

I'm not sure if it's relevant, but this is the content of my index.php file in my second-domain.com folder:

<?php
/**
 * Front to the WordPress application. This file doesn't do anything, but loads
 * wp-blog-header.php which does and tells WordPress to load the theme.
 *
 * @package WordPress
 */

/**
 * Tells WordPress to load the WordPress theme and output it.
 *
 * @var bool
 */
define( 'WP_USE_THEMES', true );

/** Loads the WordPress Environment and Template */
require( dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/wp-blog-header.php' );

[PL281]

@greentara451 

Ok so you had both the path and a redirect setup??? I didn't realize that - so let's put the path back - but don't do a redirect.... by setting the path you are pointing the domain directly to that folder

[greentara451]

The redirect was set up by a GoDaddy customer support person after about 20 minutes of chatting. They thought it would correct the problem, but it made no difference. I tried removing it and keeping the public_html/second-domain.com path, but I get the same result.

[PL281]

@greentara451 

Ok - Now I'm getting 403 / forbidden - I would double check the permission settings on the subfolder public_html/impact..... to make sure they are set to 755

also I noticed from your screen captures that you have some delete.me files - I would use a security plugin to do a scan of the primary site and make sure you don't have any compromised plugins / themes

[greentara451]

I just uninstalled Wordpress, deleted the folder, and tried again. Reinstalled Wordpress using GoDaddy's "Installatron" from the My Hosting page. Basically started over from scratch. Still the same issue.

Thank you so much for all your help! I'm giving up for now. Been at this for eight hours. This is by far the most trouble I've had getting set up in twenty years of web design.

[TLH · Accepted solution]

Hi @greentara451,

When you introduce an Add-on Domain to your cPanel hosting plan, here's what it should look like, and here are the instructions for taking that action. If I understand correctly, both the primary and the add-on domain are using WordPress for you to create the website.

Your primary domain and main WordPress application should be installed in the "public_html" folder. That's where your main website should reside. 

When you want to add a domain to this hosting (and it must be Deluxe plan and above), you'll go to "Addon Domains" in the cPanel Admin. In the resulting screen, you can follow the instructions linked in the paragraph above. In your case, impactillustrated.com will be added, then by creating the folder name, this folder will be added BELOW(into) the "public_html" directory. You can name this folder anything you want, but most people use the domain name - or some abbreviation of it - so it's easily recognizable. Let's call it "impactillustrated". The system will know from your addition where to find the website, no matter what you call it. 

When you want to install a new WordPress application for this second domain, make sure to assign it to the new folder you just created (impactillustrated). It will have its own WordPress login to work on this website. 

Of course, you'll need to be sure the new domain has the same A Record as the main hosting plan. The nameservers may not be the same, but if you set them to "default", you'll be OK. 

I hope this helps to clarify the organization within the account.