Re-designing website

  • Unknown's avatar
    patrici143 · Member ·

    I currently have a self hosted wordpress eCommerce website, designed by a company for me. If I want to buy a theme am I limited to which ones I can use? Will I have problems moving everything over to it?
    Or would it be better to migrate my site to wordpress.com, then choose a new theme? Will I have more choice and help?

    I have a very small business, do most things myself but don’t know about coding! So one that I could build myself this time would be perfect.

    I am finding it all very confusing and not sure how to proceed so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

  • staff-doublebassd · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    If you are wanting to migrate over an eCommerce site, the plan I would encourage you to purchase is the Business Plan:

    http://wordpress.com/business

    This will allow you access to plugins such as WooCommerce which you will need in order to integrate eCommerce functionality.

    That plan also allows you to access all Premium Themes at no additional charge and it allows you to install any custom third party theme of your choice. So, in this instance, you would not be limited in the themes you can choose from.

    With the Business Plan, you also have access to support 24/7 from our Happiness Engineers via live chat. So, if you have any questions or help while building your site, we’ll be here.

    Please let me know if you have any questions.

    Thanks!

  • Unknown's avatar
    patrici143 · Member ·

    Thank you!

    I was considering moving to wordpress.com/business as an option, thinking it would be easier for me to have control over my site. At the moment, I can change products/prices/text but to change anything else I have to ask my developer.

    What happens to my current site if I change over? I understand I can keep my current hosting and probably will as I’ve been with them for decades! The ecommerce is operated by Romancart and I think I will have to move that part to Woocommerce?

    I suspect there is a logical sequence of events? And I rather like the sound of 24/7 support from ‘Happiness Engineers’!

  • staff-zinnia · Staff ·

    Hi –

    Yes :) This is a very common question. Go ahead and build your new site on WordPress.com. Import your content, customize the theme, get it all ready to launch.

    Keeping the new site private will help prevent any SEO confusion since you’re going to have the same content on two different addresses.
    https://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/privacy-settings/

    Once ready, the domain can get connected with one of our plans. https://wordpress.com/pricing/ and pick the business option.

    There’s 2 ways to connect the domain. Either will work fine.

    1. Mapping: https://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/map-existing-domain/
    2. Transfer: https://en.support.wordpress.com/incoming-domain-transfer/

    Our team will help you learn and answer your questions. Plus, there’s a lot of documentation available.

    Write back with more questions :)

  • Unknown's avatar
    patrici143 · Member ·

    You make it sound so easy! Thank you! I think, dealt with in stages is the solution….

    So, I don’t have to sign up to the business plan before downloading a theme, then?
    Or, do I sign up, then pick a theme and start to work on it? Keeping it private, of course.

    Will my current website still operate as normal? Even though I will effectively have 2 accounts? Incidentally, I suspect it will take me quite a few weeks to create a new site!

    Also, I am a very small ‘handmade’ business, designing and making all my own products. Specialist clothes. Is there a way to choose a theme from the 000’s out there? I just want a minimalist theme that I can change around as necessary. In fact, I still like my current website but it’s looking dated now (I’m wary of publishing it publicly). So many themes have too many choices/options that I find difficult to choose between them! I’m happy to pay for a premium one.

  • staff-zinnia · Staff ·

    1. You can use a free site with a free theme and not need to purchase anything. If you’d like to use a third party or a custom theme that’s not found in our showcase, then you’d need the upgrade to unlock that capability. The showcase is at https://wordpress.com/themes/

    2. Yes, the current site will operate normally until you connect the domain over to the new site on WordPress.com.

    3. We have some very simple options in the showcase at https://wordpress.com/themes/ I think something like this could work well for your project: https://wordpress.com/theme/stow

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