Ah, the web designer’s dilemma: when to declare a site is finished and ready to go live! With a straight HTML site, this is easy…you move the files to the live server (from your testing server) and your site is live. With a WordPress site, it’s a bit more complicated to transfer files from a test server to the live server (it’s not TOO complicated, just a bit more complicated). So sometimes, especially when I’m transferring a site from one host to another and/or I’m not the only one working on building the site, I choose to use the live server as my test server and not transfer the DNS from the current live site until the new WordPress site is looking and working beautifully.
Of course, there’s a trick to doing that successfully. You can edit your computer’s HOSTS file or you can edit your WordPress installation’s URL settings. When I’m not the only one building a site, I choose to update the WordPress settings to keep everything straight at the source.
The best step-by-step explanation I found for doing this is at Koza Communications. Works like a charm and doesn’t require backing up databases or moving files. You change WordPress to your hosting server’s temporary URL while you are building the site. When you are finished and the site is ready to be live, you change WordPress back to the real URL.