Building New Site on WordPress & Changing Hosts but Keeping Domain – How to

Hi,

I’m building a new site design AND moving hosts at the same time, but keeping the domain name the same…what are the best steps to accomplish this, including 301s so as not to lose domain authority?

To make it fun, I don’t have much faith in the old host to cooperate during the transition. I also don’t think I have the ability to move the site to the new host, to avoid moving the domain and the site at the same time. (Any suggestions on this welcome.)

I was thinking about:
– building the new website on wordpress on the new hosting account before changing anything with the current site.
– then when the site is ready, I’m at a loss where to start to ensure the old pages are redirected to the new site and host, and at what point I redirect the nameservers. I’d also like to change the site over in sections to test the redirects gradually if possible!

Any suggestions?

Thanks!