Opening a WordPress site after Apache port change returns HTTP 404 error (Not Found). This is a common issue with  WordPress users who have installed WordPress on local machine, then had to change the Apache HTTP port since other programs took over the HTTP port 80.

Here is a scenario for the issue:

1. XAMPP installed and configured. Apache web page is opening on http://localhost (default port 80)
2. Sites have been developed and placed under /htdocs including say, Drupal and WordPress sites.
3. Drupal and WordPress sites are working fine, and can be accessed on http://localhost/sitename

Now, suppose I needed IIS on the same machine for ASP developments. IIS is installed and it takes over the HTTP port 80. Or even Skype for that matter. Then the Apache HTTP port is changed.

4. Apache HTTP listen port is changed from 80 to 8080 in Apache's httpd.conf file. (See here: How to run Apache and IIS on the same computer)

5. Checked Apache service is starting with no issues using 8080 in the XAMPP Control Panel and the Apache default page opens, now at http://localhost:8080
6. Tested each site one by one - whether they are accessible using the new port 8080.

In my case, all other sites including Drupal sites, seems to embrace the port change well. They can be opened on the new port 8080 by accessing from the URL http://localhost:8080/sitename but not WordPress sites. After the port change, accessing WordPress sites using the url http://localhost:8080/sitename redirects to http://localhost/sitename. The browser returns HTTP 404 (Not found) error..

How to make WordPress sites work after changing Apache's HTTP port?

I haven't really dug in to see why WordPress will not work after the port change, but since the WordPress sites were working fine on port 80, but not on the new port 8080, I apply the same steps like I do when moving WordPress sites from local development having port 8080 to live server, that is, localhost URL edits.

The below steps are also required when moving WordPress site from local machine to live server, if local machine is using port 8080 for Apache.

1. Access phpMyAdmin: http://localhost:8080/phpmyadmin. Log in.
2. Click on the particular WordPress site's database.
3. Export it as SQL
4. Open the exported SQL file in a note editor (such as Notepad ++)
5. Do a Find & Replace:
Find = localhost
Replace = localhost:8080

6. Replace All
7. Save as: Save the file as a new SQL file
8. Back in phpMyAdmin:
phpMyAdmin > structure > select all the tables and drop
[If the edited SQL backup taken earlier is imported without dropping the tables, we get duplicate primary key error due to existing content.]

9. Import the edited SQL backup file
10. Check the WordPress site is accessible from the url http://localhost:8080/sitename
The WordPress site should now be accessible.

**Create Some Fantastic Content

The first thing you MUST do is create and publish some excellent content. Without this there is absolutely no point in driving traffic to your website.



**Open a Google Reader Account

Google Reader allows you to get all of the latest posts from all the best websites and blogs in your niche. If you actively monitor what these sites are publishing you can jump in with comments quickly.
Have a look at this article to learn about setting up a free Google Reader account - http://www.subhub.com/articles/google-reader-how-to-use


**Create some Squidoo and Hubpages

Squidoo (www.squidoo.com) and HubPages (www.hubpages.com) are sites where you can create pages about your area of expertise. Then link from these pages back to your website.


**Links from other Sites

If possible, try to get as many links to our blogs, sites or hubs as possible. Remember that every link that link back to our sites will be the road for visitors to visit your sites.

So, try to get links for your sites by exchanging links. The more links you exchange with other sites, the higher the possibility to get more traffic.

**Social Bookmarking sites

You can get more traffic by using social bookmarking sites too. Social bookmarking sites are sites that we use to keep our bookmarks online and share it with all the people in our social bookmarking network.

We can make new friends and find our friends using social bookmarking sites and then we share our bookmarks amongst each other.

Social bookmarking sites are a good place to share your bookmarks and of course, you can use it to share your sites or hubs too.

**Social Networking

You could you social network sites to get traffic too. I am sure that you are a member of social network sites.Examples of social network sites are:

These are the place to help you drive traffic to your site. You could place the links to your site at these social network sites and try to inform your friends to visit your site. This will be a good way to promote your site.

**Article Submission

You might hear a lot about articles submission. Articles submission means that you submit your articles to sites that receive articles and help you publish your articles on their sites.

The best part about article submission is that you can publish your articles on much more popular sites to help you spread your knowledge. You could place some links on the articles that will directly link to your site. This way the traffic at those article submission sites will come to your site and of course, this way will help you get more audience and make more money too.


Some articles submission sites

**Add Posts to Forums

Generally comments on blogs generate more traffic than forum posts because they remain in place and are relevant for much longer. A post on a very active forum may only stay on page one for a couple of hours.However using forums you can generate traffic very quickly without much effort.Example: Warriorforum

I have created a cool website last months, it has lot of good quality content and very informative. But I got very few visitors in 2012, traffic was very low on my website. It require lot of hard work to create such site, it will become disappointing when there is no traffic. After some time I realized that having great website is of no use if you don’t have good amount of viewers or traffic on your site. Then I started searching on internet, ways to increase traffic on website. I came across lot of useful ways and tips. I applied those to my website and came up with positive result, traffic to my website started increasing. I am sharing some of ways to increase traffic to website with you.

Different ways to increase traffic to website are mentioned below:

1. Update the site daily: Post something daily to your website as people are looking for new and latest stuff on internet. Strong keyword which attracts visitors: Do some research and come up with list of keywords which people are searching in internet. Use those keywords on your site in articles.

2. Post site link (signature) in forums: Post your website link in forums which are related to your website. Make sure that the post in forum should be informative and helpful for others then only they will visit your website.

3. Backlinks: Backlinks, also known as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links, are incoming links to a website or web page. In basic link terminology, a backline is any link received by a web node (web page, directory, website, or top level domain) from another web node.

4. Directory submissions: Online directory submission is a process which includes identification of proper category and filing the website or webpage detail in particular related category and get it approved by directory editor.

5. Article submissions: Write some article related to your website and submit it to any article directories.

6. Classified ads: Advertise your website using advertising services, there are many free classifieds out there where you can specify your website and get some traffic from them.

7. Forum commenting: Put website links as your signature in forums and start commenting for posts. Your post will content your signature website link. If people are satisfied with your link then people may visit your website also.

8. Guest posting: Write a guest post on a blog which has higher SEO juice so that your post gets good traffic and in turn your blog gets some traffic via link which will be added in authors bio.

9. SEO technique: There are lot of Search engine optimization techniques available you need to search those and apply it to your site.

10. Share story in social networking sites: Share your thoughts or how you came up with this site or any interesting moment of past.

11. Yahoo answers: Join yahoo answers and answer questions related to your interest and also related to your website and give your website as source.

12. Make site interactive with forums, polls and surveys: Try to make your website interactive. Put some survey or poll which makes visitors to interact more with the website and traffic will increase.

13. Business cards: Add your website link to your business card and give the cards to all your friends and relatives and tell them to share those cards with their friends.

14. Sitemaps: Add sitemap to your website this helps website user to quickly go through all the pages and it will increase website.

15. Bookmarking: Join social bookmarking sites and bookmark your websites, put some useful keywords as tags. There are log of bookmarking sites available such as Stumbleupon, Digg, Reddit, twitter, etc.