develop test site in subdir then move to root to match original website

Hi Harrisharris,

Why don’t you simply install XAMPP or WAMP on your PC and develop the website there? Such software (assuming you are using Windows) do not require a lot of resources and you can take your time developing it. Once ready you can simply upload the files and the database.

Install in a sub dir and then see Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory.

Thanks for responses.

Johnb81 – Unfortunately I don’t think XAMPP or WAMP are an option as a number of people need to remotely work with me on content and design, and wouldn’t be able to share the development process if I have it locally.

esmi – I’m not clear how this ensures that the search engine indexed pages are in the same location as the old website.

Basically the confusion for me isn’t how to develop the site in a subdirectory, but how to ensure the current website doesn’t lose its search engine ranking due to being in a new unindexed location.

Thanks

Hi Harrisharris,

If you have Xampp you can still publish the website for others to see it.

As regards your query, if you use the same keywords, titles and meta descriptions and keep the same URL structure you should not loose any of the ranking. If you will have different URLs, then you can simply make redirects in a .htaccess file.

E.g. if the file https://www.website1.com/hello.php is now on WordPress as https://www.wordpresssite.com/hello/, you can make a .htaccess file in the root with such a redirection:

Redirect permanent /hello.php https://www.wordpresssite.com/hello/

Not to loose any ranking it is important to:

1. Keep the same titles
2. Keep the same content
3. Keep the same meta keywords and descriptions
4. Same URLs. If you can’t keep the same URLs, then simply make redirects as explained above. Even Google suggests that.

Fantastically useful response Johnb81 – Thank you!
I thought that Xampp was an offline tool – will certainly explore further. Your SEO ranking guideline also much appreciated.
Wishing you a good day.

You are welcome. Just drop us a note if you encounter any issues. XAMPP official website is https://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

Basically, XAMPP is a “stripped” down version of Apache, MySQL and FTP server which run on Windows, which is ideal for testing purposes.