Migrating a site to Wordpress
-
I've recently been converting our old website to a wordpress based website and been working on the new version of the site on a subdomain.
Now at the stage when I am getting ready to let the site go live and just wondering exactly how to do this so I have minimal downtime?
Looking in the wordpress control panel there is the setting to enter the address of the site if you want it to be different from the directory it has been installed within - is this a good idea (i.e. is it stable if I do this? good for seo, bad for seo or makes no difference?)?
or should I manually install everything in the root myself (if I do this is there a way to direct people to the temp version of the site on the subdomain?
Any tips, do and don't s would be appreciated as I want to do this right!
-
Cheers Dan,
Once it's live I will be double, triple, quadruple checking everything! Paranoid I will miss something or do something wrong!
Planning on doing it when I've a lot of time to spare just to be on safe side in case things go wrong!
I shall give the plugin a go as well I think.
Thanks
Ted
-
Hey There
Paul's right, it's going to be impossible to suggest exactly how to do this, since there's several nuanced steps that could be involved.
This is by far the best resource to follow if you're doing it by hand.
There are some plugins and third party sites like Manage WP (which I used once with success) that can help too.
Once the WordPress site is up and live, you'll want to crawl it to look for broken links. The biggest thing is making sure all the old URLs redirect to the new ones.
Hope that helps!
-Dan
-
Thanks both, I'll probably try the redirecting of a folder but I shall test it all first on a new folder just to be on the safe side - to be honest the testing on a different folder never even crossed my mind (why did I not think of that!)
Thank you!
Ted
-
If your unfamiliar with your hosting console you may want to test the process before you actually follow through with it. Or plan to do it super early or super late in the day to minimize downtime if you hit a snag. There are so many different hosting consoles and possibilities that are impossible to cover here.
I'm going to make the assumption that your host will allow you to redirect a domain to a different folder.
so: www.example.com -points to -> /htdocs
and dev.example.com -points to -> /dev
In the past I typically just use the wordpress console to make the change under the general settings to the correct domain(note this will break the wordpress for the moment on the development domain dev.example.com). I then redirect my primary URL(www.example.com) to the folder I'm using for the development domain.
IF your host doesn't allow this, there are other options besides changing the data at the database level within PHPmyadmin. If your comfortable with PHPMyAdmin then go for it. Either way it wouldn't hurt to setup dev2.example.com and follow thru the process just to test things out and know the steps before you break anything.
Good Luck!
-
Okay so let say this:
You have installed your new site at:
- Open phpmyadmin (or any other MySql editor) and locate the link above inside the option table. IMGHERE
- Edit that row to match your domain (installation folder EX: www.example.com)
- Copy all the content how is to the new location (root)
- Go to THIS LINK and learn how to edit your wp-config file
- And you are done
Depending how fast you can act and how fast your server is, this steps can be made under 30 seconds.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
I am looking to build an informational site that consists of a few landing pages. What kind of platform would you recommend?
The site would consist of an initial homepage, about us page, products & services page, sub-category pages that consist of the products and services in greater detail, and a contact us page. What platform would you recommend building this site on? I currently use Miva Merchant for an ecommerce platform, however this new site will not require the customization that Miva provides, and will also not need to have ecommerce capabilities. This will strictly be an informational site for prospective and current clients.
Web Design | | djlittman0 -
Major URL changes in new site launch
Hey Guys - we recently launched a new website for a client. Prior, all of their URLs were dynamic via an old-school Cold Fusion CMS. We basically had to rewrite 90% of the sites URLs (site is like 300 pages). The new URLs are SEO friendly and the on-page SEO is strong; but the page rank/authority is starting from scratch from these pages and placement has decreased more most of the new pages with competitive keywords. We set up all of the 301 redirects properly and are actively monitoring in Google Webmaster Tools. **Anything else I can do to lessen the pain and get these pages higher page rank/authority sooner rather than later?**Thanks for all of your help.
Web Design | | NobleStudios0 -
Does anyone know if the YOAST SEO plugin works 100% on a responsive wordpress template?
Hi, Does anyone know if the YOAST SEO plugin works 100% on responsive wordpress template? In other words, when you configure the custom title and metadescription is it also configured for the tablet and cellphone views as well? Thanks Carla
Web Design | | Carla_Dawson0 -
On site SEO opinions
Hi all, I have been testing different configurations for my on-site SEO for a while now and I think I am pretty much there. However it is always nice to know what other SEO's think about my keyword density and usage. My site is http://www.tomlondonmagic.com I am curious as to what you think regarding landing page content, whether you need lots or text or little text? I have just removed links in the text as I feel I want to keep as much juice on my landing page as possible. Thanks all!
Web Design | | TomLondon0 -
HTML vs WordPress
Which website gets better SEO results? I was told that HTML is crawled better than WordPress. Which is a more expensive website to design? What are the pros and cons of each?
Web Design | | CapitolShine0 -
Google Analtyics Conversion Tracking for Wordpress Life Coaching Site
Hello, How do I do conversion tracking for Google Analytics for this site: debidonner(dot)com She has a 'Thank You' page after you return from Paypal Thanks!
Web Design | | BobGW0 -
I have a question about converting a flash site to word press
We're changing one of our site to word press from flash and the old site had no content, so everything is going to be different. Should we try to match the page names and small amount of content and large amount of meta tags for now and slowly change them, or is it alright to change everything right now? The site has good ranking and I don't want to mess it up.
Web Design | | allstatetransmission0 -
Wordpress template design
Hi everyone, I know its not really an SEO question, but I'd thought i'd ask here to see if anyone can help. Does anyone know any awesome wordpress template designers? I've been looking for a while, but i've not been able to find anyone awesome. I know it's going to cost, to get someone good.
Web Design | | PeterM220