Hi guys, before I get crucified a small disclaimer. I’m relatively new to WordPress and have only built 2 websites and both have been from scratch on my chosen hosted server. My dads current business website look really crummy and I want to redo it for him (it’s so bad it just looks like a scam). But I don’t have a clue what coding language the previous developer used (definitely wasn’t WordPress).
I want to rebuild the website for him but I’m very unfamiliar with the hosted server and the control panel, I would prefer to either move the entire domain to my hosted server or point it at my hosted server, my only issue is I don’t want to mess up his mails so I would prefer to do the least risky method.
I was wondering his current nameservers are being pointed at cloudflare, if I just redirected and deleted that and pointed it to my hosted servers would it effect his mails ? Will any of them be deleted or will his mailbox stop working?
I just want to know the correct way of redoing a website using WordPress if the website wasn’t originally built with wordpresss. I don’t know if I just install WordPress and start building his website will it break something and not work ? I don’t need any assets or anything from the existing website because it’s so doggy doodoo I would literally prefer to rebuild from scratch.
The previous developer moved to a different country and has changed all his contact details so I cannot get a hold of him for assistance.
Sorry I know there was a lot of rambling in this post but I just want to give all the information and ask all the questions I’ve been thinking about so I can get the most helpful answers from everyone. Any advice ?
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If you dont know what A records and cnames are, then don’t touch the DNS. Leave it on CloudFlare. You should be using that anyway. If you have control of the account, just leave it there. If not, create an account and move the domain to your account. It’s pretty easy to do. Just follow the instructions CloudFlare provides.
It really doesn’t matter what the current site is built on. Build a new site. I don’t know what hosting you’re using, but I would recommend switching to high quality hosting like WPEngine or Cloudways. Especially if you plan to host your dad’s business site.
Find out where your dad is getting email. It it comes with whatever hosting he currently has, I’d recommend switching to a good email provider like Google Suite or Office 365. You should never run email on your web server.
Once the new site is built, you’ll need to update the DNS, there are numerous subs that can walk you through it when you’re ready.
WordPress isn’t a coding language. He likely just coded it in PHP, and used WordPress template hierarchy to structure it.
You’d likely have more luck building the site locally, then move it online once finished so that your dad has a website while you’re working on the new one, even if it’s dodoo.
Cloudflare is great, I use it for more than 300 sites. If you have access to the cloudflare account export all DNS records as a backup. Then you can just point the domain A record to your VPS IP to load your new WP site and create a cname record for www if one does not exist.
If you do not mess with mx records (including dkim, spf, dmarc) his mail should not be interrupted.
You can update other DNS records in cloudflare as needed.
Add the Wappalyzer extension to your browser. Or, other website tech insight extension you like.
Go to the current site and see what it reports. The ext I mentioned is usually very good at deciphering a site’s tech stack. This is just to satisfy your curiosity.
Before you go thinking about hosting your Dad’s site, check out his analytics (if he has that set up) and see if your server can handle the traffic. If not, there are plenty of affordable, reputable and supportive wp hosts to look into.
If your server is a good match, and you feel that’s the best solution for your Pop’s business site: secure, well-configured, backups, performant, etc. go for it. It’s worth a try, right?
You said DNS is managed through CF. If you have access to that account, check your DNS records and see if his mail is hosted as part of his site hosting.
Best practice is to not do that. Use Google, Microsoft 365, or other mail hosting so they are mutually exclusive.
If mail is tied to his host, you can either keep it there, just point the site domain elsewhere via DNS record, as changing name servers will decimate his email access.
Or, you can look into migrating his email accounts to a 3rd party mail host ( a solid move ).
CloudFlare should be kept in play. If you cannot access the current account, start a new one without linking it. It should pull all relevant DNS records to the new account.
I recommend you build your dad a brand new site. Scrape the content from the front end, organize it and map out a new site map with modern, design features and architecture. You care about the project, you love your Dad and you’ll learn more. Dev is all about building.
It’s like a birdhouse from wood shop.