Replacing a site while still running old

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1

I want to replace a couple of sites i have with wordpress based sites. 1 is a Vbulletin and the other is a CSS site. I would like to set up the wordpress site and be able to switch back and forth while working on the new set up. So i want to keep the ULR as I do this. I know I can put the new site in another directory or subdirectory but i am wondering what would be the best approach to keep the ULR the same for book marks and SEO indexes. Maybe I am over thinking this and a simple redirect would work that i could turn on and off as I work on the new and old setup. I do not want to lose traffic as I do this. I figured it might pay to ask what others thought about the best way to do this.

Thanks
Wayne

2

You would do a htaccess redirect 1 to 1. You just need to keep the directory the same - and the file names. I have no idea how you would do that with Wordpress unless you have complete control over the file names. If not you can just redirect to the home page of the new site. But that’s lets than perfect for seo and users

3

Thanks, yeah i do not think changing file names is an option and I was concerned a redirect would mess with users and SEO Well maybe someone has some other thoughts. Thanks for the input

4

well I had duuhh moment and realized I could just change the directory name. Example if the ULR takes a user to mysite/forum I can create a directory named mysite/forumnew and when I want to switch I just change the new site to mysite/forum, and change the old site to mysite/forumold. I can switch back and forth just by renaming directories. I may have to change the opening file name but that would be it I hope

5

That sounds like a way to go. On a small scale, I sometimes do that too. But it might be more efficient on a larger site to build the new version elsewhere (on a sub domain or on your local computer, for example) and then replace the old with the new when the new version is ready to go.

6

Well. if you want to setup wordpress website then you can redirect all your old website URL with 301 redirects. Here i have given a link where you can get complete details about how to redirect your old website URL to new Wordpress website. http://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/301-redirects