Title: 404 Error
Last modified: August 22, 2016

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# 404 Error

 *  [calvinlechner](https://wordpress.org/support/users/calvinlechner/)
 * (@calvinlechner)
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/404-error-166/)
 * Hi all,
 * Let me start by saying that I’m an UBER newbie, so apologies for my ignorance.
   I spend a lot of time in wordpress backends at work, and navigate fairly easily,
   but this is my first attempt at a full site. My friend asked me to make him a
   website and I said “sure” (my first mistake).
 * The registered the domain and purchased hosting from Plesk (via godaddy). I installed
   wordpress and purchased a theme from themeforest.
 * I immediately started having issues loading the website; I was getting 404 messages,
   without any explanation, though the page title said ‘maintenance’.
 * I found a fix inputting the following text into the wp-config.php file:
 * define(‘WP_SITEURL’, ‘[http://simonnagelmusic.com/wordpress&#8217](http://simonnagelmusic.com/wordpress&#8217););
   
   define(‘WP_HOME’, ‘[http://simonnagelmusic.com/wordpress&#8217](http://simonnagelmusic.com/wordpress&#8217););
 * The page works okay, BUT…
 * I want to import the theme designer’s placeholder content. When I go to import
   the data from the ‘Tools’ menu, I get the following warning:
 * Internal Server Error
 * The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to
   complete your request.
    Please contact the server administrator to inform of 
   the time the error occurred and of anything you might have done that may have
   caused the error.
 * More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
 * Web Server at simonnagelmusic.com
 * Can anybody help?

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  Moderator [Jose Castaneda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jcastaneda/)
 * (@jcastaneda)
 * THEME COFFEE MONKEY
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/404-error-166/#post-5459217)
 * Have you tried to contact your hosting company?
 *  [ccarfi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ccarfi/)
 * (@ccarfi)
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/404-error-166/#post-5459235)
 * Hi. A couple of ideas. First is, you shouldn’t need to edit the wp-config file.
   If you’re just starting out and haven’t gone too far down the path, I’d suggest
   trying a couple of things.
 * 1) You might want to first try to get a clean install of WP going. If you’re 
   using Plesk, instructions for doing that are here. [How to install WordPress on your hosting account](https://support.godaddy.com/help/article/834/installing-wordpress-on-your-hosting-account)
 * Clean slate is the best place to start, if you have the option to do that. (That
   said, would also encourage you to check out the P.S. below.)
 * 2) Once that’s up and running using one of the pre-installed themes, then install
   your Themeforest theme. Make sure that’s running. Again, you should be able to
   do pretty much everything through the various UIs, and shouldn’t need to muck
   with the wp-config file at this stage.
 * 3) If you then want to modify the Themeforest theme, I STRONGLY recommend doing
   it via a child theme. It’ll save you hours and hours of hassle down the line.
   [Here’s how to make a child theme](https://garage.godaddy.com/webpro/wordpress/sweet-child-theme-o-mine-creating-first-wordpress-child-theme/?isc=ccarfi).
 * Hope this helps a bit.
 * -Chris
 * P.S. Is there a reason you chose Plesk? There are Managed WordPress options available
   that can handle a whole bunch of things (e.g. staging sites, automatic backups,
   automatic upgrades, etc.) automagically for you.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘404 Error’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [godaddy](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/godaddy/)
 * [Plesk](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/plesk/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 2 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [ccarfi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ccarfi/)
 * Last activity: [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/404-error-166/#post-5459235)
 * Status: not resolved

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