New Site template and maybe New URL

  • 1) I have an existing site that I want to add a new premium template to.

    It will require reworking all the pages and will have lots of new images, some repeat of the existing content.

    I don’t want to take the existing site down before the next one is ready.

    Is there a way to develop/test the site offline and then upload once complete?

    2) AM thinking of changing company name, but don’t want to loose my ranking, I wondered if there was a FAQ to moving over to a new name and redirecting traffic from existing to new URL with minimal penalties?

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  • 1) The best way to do this is to create a development site locally on your local computer.

    If have a MAC then you will want to search the WordPress Codex for “set up a local environment with MAMP”.

    If you have a PC then you will want to search the WordPress Codex for “Set up a local environment with Windows in Xampp.

    When you want to move your local development site to the production server you can use the article Moving WordPress in the Codex.

    If you want to develop on the server just set up a new WordPress site in a subdomain of your client site.

    2. You can use 301 redirects in the .htaccess file in your root folder of your site. This will redirect each page to the new page. There are some plugins that will do this for you easily.

    This is what google says about best practices in moving your site to a new domain name:

    https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/04/best-practices-when-moving-your-site.html

    Thread Starter kingzley

    (@kingzley)

    Thanks. If I setup in a subdomain as you suggest – will google index that site?

    I’m thinking about rewriting, re-titling and spending time of the pages descriptions and hope google will prefer the new pages anyway…

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