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Redesigning website with minimal impact on traffic

by mrjosco
2 replies
I currently have a website that is getting pretty good traffic and conversions (at least IMO). The site's design leaves something to be desired and I think investing in a premium WP theme and improving the design and layout can increase conversions by lowering my bounce rate.

Currently my bounce rate is at 37% with about 20k visitors a month. In theory, if I can reduce my bounce in half I can increase my sales by about $100 a month.

The only problem is that a redesign will take a lot of man hours. Installing the theme is simple, but setting up new custom graphics and tweaking the layout can take a long time. I don't want my website to be down for a day or two while I make the changes. Is there a way I can set up a clone site, tweak the design and then transfer it over?

I know this might be a silly/simple question with a "DUH" solution, but I just don't know it!

Thanks for your help.
#impact #minimal #redesigning #traffic #website
  • Profile picture of the author markjob
    Im looking for this very same question? Not as many visitors as you mrjosco but for the last six months its been building nicely.

    Im using the striking theme to do the redesign but not sure if i can transfer it over and all its content. The content is the same but the site layout is different. Maybe a 301 redirect? I dunno?
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  • Profile picture of the author Sillysoft
    Well, what type of hosting plan do you have? Some hosting plans like Godaddy allows you to create sub domains. If so I would create a subdomain and set up your site there, once you feel comfortable with the new site then simply backup your original site, then upload your new site. Make sure your robots.txt has it set to not index any files while under the subdomain, you dont want Google sniffing around indexing your pages on the sub domain, trust me it sucks!
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