I work with WordPress more than any other type of website so of course, I often have to move WordPress websites because I am redesigning a clients website. Anyone who has worked with WordPress knows you cannot just move WordPress to a different folder and expect it all to work correctly. It isn’t recommended to move a WordPress website and it is incredibly difficult to do so, never mind extremely stressful.
If I get a new client who has never had a website before, it’s really easy. I install a WordPress plugin called underConstruction by Jeremy Massel, put up a splash page and work in the ‘background’. This plugin is handy because only users logged in see the live site.
Recently I realised you can use this plugin even if the client has a current website. Basically, you install WordPress in the root of their website and install and activate the plugin. You then take their entire homepage code (Doctype, head tags, everything) and paste it into the Under Construction field where you’d usually put your splash page code. You should also take all classes and styles of the page (you can take an entire style sheet – trust me, it works).
What this basically does is keep their old page as the ‘under construction’ page – in other words, the page visitors will see if they go to their website and it will work just like their old homepage and click through to other pages. The only difference is when you log in to the WordPress you see the new live version. You can also set the plugin to stop Google crawling any of the new pages before you put it live properly.
Such a handy WordPress plugin! Don’t ever move a WordPress website again. Please feel free to contact me or post a comment if you have any questions.
