SiteGround’s Managed WordPress Hosting GrowBig and GoGeek plans allow you to host unlimited websites.
We recently added two new WordPress sites to our plan, one as a domain and one as a subdomain, configured them as we did this site, and immediately encountered error messages when trying to add our first media, page, or post:
When adding media, this error message was displayed:
Non-existent changes UUIDWhen adding a page or post, this error message was displayed:
Publishing failed. Error message: The response is not a valid JSON response.After fumbling around for a hour in the SiteGround cPanel and WordPress, and googling various support forums to no avail, we contacted SiteGround support. They quickly identified the problem, and we were up and running.
Let’s walk through how we set up the sites, where the issue arose, and how to fix it.
The first site created with our SiteGround account is designated the Primary Domain by SiteGround. We can then add additional Domains (called AddOn Domains) or Subdomains. Tools to create these are under cPanel > Domains.
Note that when we create an Addon Domain, in addition to creating the domain (e.g. www.addon.com), SiteGround also creates a Subdomain with the same name under our Primary Domain (i.e. www.addon.primary.com).
To keep our SiteGround directory organized, we put each site in its own subdirectory, and put each WordPress instance in its own subdirectory under its site subdirectory.
Under WordPress Settings > General Settings for each site, we set the WordPress Address (URL) and the Site Address (URL). For our primary domain, here is what works.
| Site Address (URL) | https://www.primary.com |
| WordPress path | public_html/primary/primaryWP |
| WordPress Address (URL) | https://www.primary.com/primary/primaryWP |
We would therefore expect something similar to work for our new addon domain and subdomain. But the below WordPress Address (URL)s did not work for our addon domain:
https://www.primary.com/addon/addonWP [results in the two errors described initially above]
https://www.addon.primary.com/addon/addonWP [results in "(browser) Can't Find the Server"]
https://www.addon.com/addon/addonWP [Results in "It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for."]So what is the solution? Simple. Set the WordPress Address (URL) to the Site Address (URL).
Here are the Site Address (URL), WordPress path, and WordPress Address (URL) for each of three such sites:
| Site Address (URL) | https://www.primary.com |
| WordPress path | public_html/primary/primaryWP |
| WordPress Address (URL) | https://www.primary.com/primary/primaryWP |
| Site Address (URL) | https://www.addon.com |
| WordPress path | public_html/addon/addonWP |
| WordPress Address (URL) | https://www.addon.com |
| Site Address (URL) | http://www.subdomain.addon.com |
| WordPress path | public_html/subdomain/subdomainWP |
| WordPress Address (URL) | http://www.subdomain.addon.com |
Not really a genealogy post, but it keeps the train running.