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Best way to relaunch a new site that is replacing an old site

by toivo
5 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
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My current web site that's lost almost every bit of traffic was built over 10 years ago. Over those 10 years, it began fizzling based on the HTML5 hierarchy and all the Panda and other updates. It was built using Frontpage2002 which is no longer supported by Microsoft.

My new web site that's going to take it's place which is currently on a temp server will replace the old site, but of course have the same domain name and exact URL It will have over 9,000 different pages and have no inside "reciprocal links" page. It was built using Wordpress.

Question. When I launch new site, should I first delete old site and then launch the new? Or, Launch the new and go in and delete old site? Or does it really matter in the grand scheme of webbery?
#relaunch #replacing #site
  • Profile picture of the author Jeffery Garza
    Anytime I've been in or had a client in a similar situation there are a number of variables to take into consideration such as: will you or a visitor or a search engine bot ever need to access any portion of the old site?

    If so you may want to consider moving the old site to a separate directory such as an 'archive' ie www.yoursite.com/archive/. You could then 301 redirect any inbound links that would normally cause a 404 error to the index of the archive.

    That said, what I'd recommend you do is first be sure to make a backup of the existing site and store that in a safe place. I keep at least 3 backups of mission critical sites in separate locations (ie) web-server, dropbox, physical hard drive at an offsite location such as safety deposit box.

    Next delete the old site and then push the Wordpress from your dev server to your primary host. There are a number of different methodologies regarding this and no one clearcut answer.

    Hope this helps. If you need further assistance would love to lend a helping hand.
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  • Profile picture of the author toivo
    Thanks for your input, much appreciated. My current site's been hosted the last decade on a server in Canada. New site I am building that's on a temp server will host it on a completely different server. Previously I installed a "redirect" plugin for the new wordpress site and have all those old URL's to new URL's stored in that plus will keep my old Frontpage-built site on my hard drive.
    I would like to know before hand what is entailed around "backing up" existing site a bit more....dropbox, what is that? I've heard of it but know nothing about it. Thanks again!
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    • Profile picture of the author RobinInTexas
      I would suggest taking a look at WordPress › Redirection « WordPress Plugins

      I plugin that will track all the 404s and allow you to make sure you can create 301s for the old traffic.
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      Robin



      ...Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just set there.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jeffery Garza
      Originally Posted by toivo View Post

      Thanks for your input, much appreciated. My current site's been hosted the last decade on a server in Canada. New site I am building that's on a temp server will host it on a completely different server. Previously I installed a "redirect" plugin for the new wordpress site and have all those old URL's to new URL's stored in that plus will keep my old Frontpage-built site on my hard drive.
      I would like to know before hand what is entailed around "backing up" existing site a bit more....dropbox, what is that? I've heard of it but know nothing about it. Thanks again!
      The easiest 'manual' way of doing backups is to use your FTP software to transfer the entire directory in which the site is located from your server to your computer.

      Next Compress the entire directory with either zip or tar. Then upload that compressed directory to dropbox - which "is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily."

      You could just as easily store the compressed archive on your computers hard drive or on a flash drive or other removable media but the reason I recommend Dropbox is twofold.

      1. It's free.
      2. It's cloud based storage so you can access the file from any computer anywhere in the world. It's also 'offsite' in the case of a disaster to computer.

      You can sign-up for dropbox here: http://www.dropbox.com


      Cheers!
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  • Profile picture of the author toivo
    yes Robin....that is the plugin I installed!
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