Alternatively, yes, you can run WAMP/XAMPP/MAMP on your own system and afterwards migrate everything. It’s not totally trivial, but quite doable. There are plenty of articles out there, describing that process in detail.
]]>I should have pointed out that I am a novice. So, I didn’t follow everything you said. For example, I don’t know what it meant when you said: “lower the TTL on the name server, so that when you point it towards the new server…” If you can dumb that down a bit, I’d appreciate it! Also, that running WAMP/XAMPP/MAMP on my own system isn’t trivial kind of scares me. So, I would lean towards buying another domain address, building the new site there and then moving the new site to my old domain IP address. Is that a safe thing to do and not risk losing my established SEO rankings? How would you word a search that I should use in Google to find articles on that process? Thanks!
]]>If you move to a new URL, if you set up the right type of forwarding (so called 301-Moved permanently), then you shouldn’t be punished too much by google for this. Especially if you manage to forward each single page to the corresponding page on the new address.
But ideal, of course, would be to just “magically” switch over the same address to the new system, once everything is up and working.
The easiest solution would be to set up a staging domain with a different name. Here you build everything exactly the way you want it to be. Then you might simply have someone help you to migrate all of this to the target server and re-point DNS towards the new location.
(TTL is a parameter a DNS server will send together with its response, indicating how long it is ok to reuse the address without checking back with the DNS server. If it’s not very important that the whole world switches over to the new server within the hour, then you don’t need to bother about this…)
]]>When you say “If you move to a new URL,” I just want to be sure you understand that I intend to leave my web site at its current URL (I just want to change it to a WordPress platform). Do you think I can handle these “301-Moved permanently’s” myself, (remember, I’m an idiot) or should I just find a local pro to handle the whole migration (and I think I know one)? I don’t mind paying a few hundred dollars if it improves the odds of getting it done properly.
]]>That will allow you to design your site inside your own computer. Just remember: in order to work with your WordPress site, you always need to remember that XAMPP must be running and Apache and MySQL need to be active (i.e. green light). The other parts of XAMPP you won’t need.
But when it’s time to migrate this stuff, then it’s good to get help from someone who knows about migrating a WordPress installation, pointing your domain to a new server, activating SSL (i.e. httpS). That will substantially shorten downtime and lower the risk for bigger problems.
]]>Well, unless you have anything to add (or talk me out of), I think I’m good. I really appreciate your help! Tack s? hemskt mycket!
]]>