updating site before loading

• 

  webmasteralma · Member · Aug 28, 2018 at 1:06 am

  • Copy link
  • Add topic to favorites

  I have a site up which I want to be accessible while I redesign it offline. Is there a way to do this?

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

• 

  gemmacevans · Member · Aug 28, 2018 at 9:31 am

  • Copy link

  Hi webmasteralma,

  Can you send a link to the site you would like to redesign offline?

  Just let me know and we can go from there.

• 

  webmasteralma · Member · Aug 28, 2018 at 2:43 pm

  • Copy link

  Great! Can I send that privately? If so, how?

• 

  brookedot · Member · Aug 28, 2018 at 8:54 pm

  • Copy link

  Hi there,

  If you’d like to keep your site online while you do a redesign I would recommend creating a new site then import your content from the live site. The disadvantage of this is that your domain will need to be changed. However, if you upgrade to a paid plan, which includes private support, you’ll be able to move the domain between sites.

  Here are the steps to do this without purchasing a plan.

  1) Create a new site
  2) Export content from your old site
  3) Import content to your new site
  4) Redesign the site, then post to the live site your new domain

  If you want to keep the same domain but redesign the site you will need to make the changes to your live site. One way would be to make the site private, then redesign it while it’s offline and then make it public again when the changes are live.

• 

  webmasteralma · Member · Aug 28, 2018 at 9:22 pm

  • Copy link

  Thanks. I guess the last suggestion will be the most appropriate for our case then. We have a live site that is already on a purchased plan, but it was designed by another designer and the coding is out of control. So, I’ll make it private, delete everything and start from square one.

  Thanks so much for your advice.

• 

  supernovia · Staff · Aug 28, 2018 at 9:29 pm

  • Copy link

  @webmasteralma if the site is a WordPress.com site with a paid private domain, no need to delete the site first.

  You only need to edit the live site if you’re using a free WordPress.com address instead of a custom domain.

• 

  webmasteralma · Member · Aug 28, 2018 at 9:40 pm

  • Copy link

  Hm.

  Alma d’Arte

• 

  brookedot · Member · Aug 29, 2018 at 4:27 am

  • Copy link

  Thanks for the link, the site almadarte.org is using the WordPress software from WordPress.org and is being hosted at HostGator not here at WordPress.com which means that you do not need to follow the steps I previously outlined.

  In this case, it’s best to check with HostGator to see if they have options for you or reach out to the wider WordPress community at https://wordpress.org/support for support for a self-hosted WordPress site.

  If you do wish to move the site over to WordPress.com simply start building the site on our platform and when you’re ready, add a plan and move the domain. We have a guide on moving your site at:
  https://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-from-self-hosted-wordpress-to-wordpress-com/

  You’ll find more on the difference between WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress sites at:

  WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org

• 

  webmasteralma · Member · Aug 29, 2018 at 8:05 pm

  • Copy link

  This helps a lot. Thanks!