Revamp an old website with new theme

  • I recently took over a website and just found out that the theme installed is not up to date. WordPress installed is also not up to date (WordPress 3.1). The person who created the website made it clear that the theme he used is not compatible with WordPress 3.9 and some features may not work if ever I decide to update.

    I would like to revamp the entire website. I will not use any of the content in the old website. I recently purchased a theme at themeforest. Now, I want to create a test site using a subdomain and do all the tweakings there and then later on take it live in the same domain as the old website. This is my first time I am going to do this. So I am a bit scared that this might mess up the live site. If I am going to install the wordpress 3.9 in the test site, will it affect the live site? or will it require me to update the wordpress 3.1 currently installed in the old website to wordpress 3.9?

    Please note that I am a total newbie in this, I only know basic CSS, so please bear with my stupid questions. :p

    Thank you.

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  • Installing multiple versions of WordPress on subdomains is not a problem. In fact, it’s how a lot of developers run live test sites.

    If you like, you can even use the same database for all installs. Just make sure you change the table prefix to something unique – do not leave it as the default, which is wp_, but rather use something unique like wpabc_. That way there won’t be any chance of conflicting tables.

    In your case however, I would recommend using a new database, especially if you don’t plan on using anything from the old site. That way you won’t have any redundant content saved in the database taking up space.

    It can be a little tricky when it comes time to move the site to the top level. However, I personally use BackupBuddy from iThemes as it makes moving WP sites a breeze.

    Thread Starter xxtiara

    (@xxtiara)

    Thank you for your reply ViscoDesign. I managed to create my test site and now I’m tweaking the child theme. ??

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