Question about moving a wordpress site

This depends on what you mean by "building a site".

You didn't say if you are going to be replacing the existing site with WordPress?

If it means just designing a WordPress theme with no content then either one is just as easy moving the theme around. I usually customize a clients WP theme on a test blog on one of my sites and then when they approve it collect the rest of the fee and upload it to their site.

If you are going to put content on it then it would probably be easier to install WP in a directory on the clients site (clientsite.com/XXX) then when its ready move the WP install to the main domain if needed. This way you will not need to export/import the database.

Remember the actual files only holds the theme('s), and uploaded plugins and images, but the database holds the settings and content. The settings in the DB include what plugins are active and their settings.

I would do the theme on my site and the rest on theirs.

Thanks for the response.

The clients current site is html.

I will be replacing it with WordPress.

I have been tweeking the theme thus far and now I'm at the point where I want to start migrating the content and I didn't want to have to do double work.

So you're saying that I can build it in a subdirectory on his server and then move it to the main directory without any hassle?

The database does not care where the files are, you can safely set it up in a separate sub folder then right b4 you move it go to the wordpress admin / general settings and update the blog location to the main url and save.. then move everything over. and it will work fine.