Before we take a website live we need to know the customer’s domain name and determine how the email is being handled. This is the process of taking a customer’s website live.
- Create a new hosting account on our server using the customer’s domain name.
- Determine how the email is being handled.
- If we are hosting their email – set the correct MX / SPF / DKIM records and add email accounts.
- If the email is remote – we specify that the email is remote and adjust the SPF record and authentication so our server can send emails on behalf of the domain name.
- If we are only directing www traffic and not handling email – we specify that email is remote and adjust the SPF record and authentication so our server can send emails on behalf of the domain name.
- Log into the DEV site and backup all files and databases.
- Login to the newly created host account and upload all DEV files and databases.
- Change local hosts file so we can emulate the domain on our server as a live site in order to test the site’s functionality before the DNS is switched to make the site visible on the web.
- Once everything looks to be correct on the site, update the DNS to point to the new hosting account. If we are not hosting the email then add an authoritative record (A record).