[ad_1]
Hi everyone.
I am new to web development and I have a client who wants an upgrade on their existing site. It needs a complete overhaul. I want to start fresh on a new hosting provider. I would like to ask if it is possible to do this while the old website is still live and what is the correct way to go about it?
Thanks 🙏
[ad_2]
You can use a subdomain on the same host and do a fresh WordPress install, but I would highly suggest you put basic authentication in front of it.
Something like “Local” from WpEngine can be used for a completely local set up to work in so you won’t need to host it elsewhere.
Yes, you can do it localy or on staging website. Depending of the hosting you can have easy staging creation option or you can just duplicate old one on the subdomain manually or with some migraition plugin.
FlyWheel and Kinsta have great option for local and staging development.
Be careful to disable robots.txt and indexing so it’s not indexed. Also password protection or maintenance page is handy too, to keep it off the public.
Make a copy
All sound too much work, here’s a better idea for you, do it after midnight, thats what i used to do when i just started 🙃
Install everything on the new server like you would when you spin up the site for the first time (SSL certificates as well), override the DNS resolution in the [hosts file](https://docs.rackspace.com/docs/modify-your-hosts-file) and after you are ready with the new features and testing, you can just update the REAL DNS record so it points to the new server’s IP address.
Respectfully: if you’re asking this question, you might want to do some research before you build anything for a client. I’d highly recommend the Local WP software that others have mentioned, though.
As others have mentioned, there are several ways to do this depending on what your preference is:
– Local which is a desktop app owned by WPEngine, it’s free, but since its on your computer you can’t really share a link for someone else to see the site
– Your existing hosting, you could create a subdomain with your hosting if your plan with them includes it, this is also free
– You can use a free service like ZipWP that lets you create WordPress websites for development
I have used all three over the years.