Using a temporary domain to preview a website

[VincentChiofal1]

I'm building a ecommerce website for my client. We would like to preview the website, and click all the links, view all the products, and get a user experience, so we can polish up the user experience, before we launch the site live on thier domain. 

I have this idea, and I want to know if you recommend this, or a better solution. My idea is to register a temporary domain, something like "testwebsite1.com" for example. We could connect that domain name now, and use it throughout the development of the website. Then, when the web site is ready, we can disconnect the temporary domain, and connect the permanent domain that the client owns. What do you think? Is this a good way to go? And if so, please provide instructions so I will know, how to disconnect the temp domain, so that I can connect the permanent domain.  

[Adam7]

That would work, @VinciChiofalo, although you could do this using a free subdomain so you don't need to spend any extra money. If you type in a full Weebly subdomain as the site address, e.g. "testingecomwebsite.weebly.com", it should show that as an option to choose for the site.

[VincentChiofal1]

Thanks for the tip to use a subdomain to save money.

So I think what you're saying is,  I could create "myclientsname.vincentchiofalo.com" on my domain registrar (godaddy), and connect that URL to the weebly website we are working on for my client. Is that correct?

I am confused by: "If you type in a full Weebly subdomain as the site address, e.g. "testingecomwebsite.weebly.com", it should show that as an option to choose for the site."

        Can you please clarify what you mean here?

[Bernadette3]

Hi there. If you click Settings>Site Address, are you able to search for a domain name? 

[VincentChiofal1]

Yes. How do I proceed?

[Adam7]

In that field, enter a Weebly subdomain (e.g. testingforclient123.weebly.com) - this will have it search to see if that free Weebly subdomain is available. If it is, then a link will show on the bottom of the popup to use that. To answer your other question, you could definitely use a subdomain of your own custom domain if you wanted as long as you point that subdomain to us.

[VincentChiofal1]

Thank you! Worked like a charm, after I clicked "Publish" for the first time.  

[Adam7]

That's great!