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Static Site Converted To Wordpress. How Exactly?

by JHolness
10 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
Hello all,

I have a client that wants to change over his 5 page website to Wordpress because he is just sick and tired of paying the large bills to his current website designer.

My question is, how easy is it to do?

I have spoken to several web designers who "say" it's "easy", but I wanted to know from someone here who is a expert just how "easy" it really is. Thanks in advance.
#converted #site #static #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author Abledragon
    There's a few things to think about, but the most important thing is to set up permanent re-directs from the current pages to the new pages. This is because the page URL structure on WordPress is different from what it is on the current static site and, without setting up the redirects, all the incoming links will suddenly generate Page Not Found errors.

    This article goes through things in more detail:

    Migrate an HTML Website to WordPress | WealthyDragon

    Cheers,

    Martin.
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    • Profile picture of the author JHolness
      AbleDragon, thank you very much! I know my way around Dreamweaver, and can get most things done in WordPress, but the designers I talk to make this sound just so "push button" easy. Will get to reading right now!
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  • Profile picture of the author Kezz
    You're also going to need a theme for your client's site.

    If they want the site to look the same you can get a theme developer to clone the design but turn it into a functioning WordPress theme.

    Otherwise you can buy a professional theme and integrate your client's branding into it.
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    • Profile picture of the author JHolness
      Thanks Kezz,

      See, these are the little items that my so called "friends" are leaving out! I guess I am going to have to talk to the client now and see which way they want to go.

      I am assuming that using a professional theme is much easier to do than getting a designer to match their current design?
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  • Profile picture of the author Kezz
    Well it will be easier if you are happy to use the theme you choose as is and don't need to customize it. Ideally you would want a theme that allows you to easily add a logo.

    If you do want to have it quite customized to fit your clients branding then getting a designer to do it is actually easier than rejigging an off the shelf theme.

    I do actually have a free theme of my own I can point you to that may do the job you need, but I don't want to shamelessly plug here on an open forum. If you'd like me to I can PM you a link to check it out. It's free and GPL open source.
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    • Profile picture of the author JHolness
      Hi Kezz,

      Unfortunately for me, I do not have enough posts to allow me to PM you, but I do not know if that holds true for you to PM me.

      I would love to check out this theme you have. Basically I want to see how this process would work, but ultimately its not completely up to me. I need to see what my client wants.

      Regardless of which way he goes, I want to learn the change over process, and the steps required.

      Please let me know if you are unable to PM me, but YES! I would love to check out this theme! Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author Kezz
    Okay cool, well it's all free and GPL so it's not too "pluggy" I hope.

    The free theme is called The AAA Starter and you can see a demo here: AAA Starter Theme

    And you can download it from this page: The AAA Starter Professional WordPress Theme | SpiderWeb Press

    It goes hand in hand with a free plugin I created called The Website Weaver. This is a WYSIWYG theme editing plugin. You can use this to change the color scheme, layout, graphics and typography of the theme. You can also use this to upload your client's logo straight into theme, then you can drag it into the right position in the WYSIWYG theme preview.

    You can download the plugin from the WordPress repository here: WordPress › The Website Weaver « WordPress Plugins

    I'm in danger of rambling on about it so I'll keep it to just links. Hopefully the mods don't mind them being posted given it's all totally free.

    I hope that helps you with your client's site!
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    • Profile picture of the author waitstate
      There's 3 main factors:

      1) The look of the site
      2) The functionality of the site
      3) Content

      1) Look. Is mostly done with the theme. If your client can live with a 'rebranding' of the site; then any theme your client likes will do. If your client wants a more exact copy, you'll either have to knock up a custom theme, or find one that's close and edit it to suit.
      Useful tools:
      Artisteer
      Photoshop (to feed graphics into Artisteer)
      Colour picker
      Screen caliper program (to measure (in pixels!) the width of the sheet/height of the header etc

      2) Functionality. You should take a very, very close look at the site before accepting a 'clone into Wordpress' job. To be honest, most site functionality can be emulated by throwing plugins at it; but this is not always the case. Make extremely sure that you *know* you can replicate the functionality before quoting.

      3) Content. This can be easy (albeit boring) copy'n'pasting, but some layouts are harder to get WP to deal with than others.

      Something else to mention is that there will almost certainly be a compromise or two needed...the WP site acts like a WP site and there are certain limitations with that. I've done a few of these now (and am just about to start another one). It is easy. If you're confident in your ability to tweak themes, you should find it easy too.
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  • Profile picture of the author littlephoenix
    this is a hard process if your site has thousands of pages
    if your site is URL friendly, you can somehow use permlink, but still something ive never done.
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  • Profile picture of the author SteveFinch
    I can probably design a wordpress theme close to your clients existing html site. If you fancy going down that route just let me know.

    All the best
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