WordPress Caching & Migration Troubleshooting

A WordPress website began displaying the wrong homepage design after being migrated from staging to its live domain. While internal pages loaded correctly, the homepage would intermittently display a different template, creating an inconsistent experience for visitors.

The issue appeared after several major changes were made to the site, including removing NitroPack, switching to LiteSpeed Cache, and migrating the website from staging to production through Hostinger.

Challenge

Caching and migration problems can be difficult to diagnose because several layers of a WordPress environment may serve cached or outdated content.

In this case, the symptoms pointed to several possible causes:

• Residual staging URLs or configuration
• WordPress caching conflicts
• CDN or server-level caching
• Improper LiteSpeed Cache configuration
• Leftover data from the previous NitroPack setup
• Migration-related database or configuration issues

Rather than applying a temporary workaround, the goal was to identify what was actually causing the live homepage to behave differently from the rest of the website.

Solution

Reason Hosting performed a structured review of the WordPress installation and hosting environment to isolate the source of the inconsistent behavior.

The troubleshooting process included:

• Reviewing the staging-to-production migration
• Checking the site for staging environment remnants
• Reviewing WordPress URLs and configuration
• Investigating caching behavior across the website
• Reviewing and configuring LiteSpeed Cache
• Checking for conflicts related to the previous NitroPack installation
• Testing the homepage separately from internal pages
• Reviewing additional site and form-related issues discovered during troubleshooting
• Documenting findings with screenshots and clear explanations

This allowed the problem to be approached as a complete WordPress environment issue rather than simply clearing the cache and hoping the problem disappeared.

Results

The caching and migration issues were diagnosed and addressed so the live WordPress website could consistently serve the intended content.

The client also received documentation and screenshots explaining the findings, providing a clearer understanding of what had been reviewed and corrected.

Most importantly, the project focused on identifying the underlying cause of the problem instead of relying on a temporary patch.

WordPress Problems Are Often More Than Plugin Problems

A homepage displaying the wrong design can look like a simple caching issue. In reality, WordPress caching can involve multiple layers, including plugins, hosting infrastructure, CDNs, databases, DNS, and previous staging environments.

Changing plugins or repeatedly clearing caches may temporarily hide the symptoms without correcting the underlying problem.

Reason Hosting troubleshoots the complete WordPress environment to determine why a problem is happening and what needs to be corrected.

Need Help With a WordPress Migration or Caching Problem?

If your WordPress site is displaying outdated content, behaving differently after a migration, or experiencing caching problems that keep returning, Reason Hosting can help identify the cause and get the site working consistently again.

WordPress Troubleshooting • Migrations • Caching • Performance • Hosting