Rebuild site on existing domain without losing SEO or 404 errors

You will certainly lose SEO going down that path. Why don’t you want to use a local site for development?

Moved to Fixing WordPress, this is not a Developing with WordPress topic.

As Andrew stated, you will lose SEO going the route you are thinking to go.

Here’s how I would modify the workflow:

My thoughts on workflow are now:
– Backup current website;
– Use backup to create dev site (either locally or on a subdomain somewhere)
– Use plugin to display a maintenance page on dev site
– Choose the “Discourage search engines” option in the WP-Admin under
Settings → Reading
– Install new theme and configure website to look properly
– Setup 301 redirects from dropped pages to homepage (or elsewhere) in live sites HTACCESS. Personally, I do not like using a plugin for 301 redirects unless the server doesn’t support HTACCESS. Turn head and looks at IIS/Windows server.
– Disable “Discourage search engines” option on dev site
– Copy dev site over to live server using a plugin such as https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/duplicator/
– Once site is working as expected on live make sure to re-enable “Discourage search engines” option on dev site or delete the dev site all together.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by Davood Denavi.

Thanks all for the replies!

@anevins: I would rather not use a local site for development because it makes it more difficult more my client to view the work periodically and provide feedback on the design.
Could you specify on why I would be losing the SEO? Or point me to where I can read more on this?

@jdembowski, thanks for moving this! My apologies for picking the wrong forum!

@binarywc, thanks for your modification! Much appreciated! I have a couple of questions:
Could I use a subdomain of the existing domain for development or would this create a whole other set of problems?
When I copy the dev site over to the live site, what happens with the live site? Would I not be overwriting it?

What I would like to avoid is the following (using fictitious example):

Site url: healthcareinpictures.com
When googling ‘healthcare pictures’, Google returns with ‘healthcareinpictures.com’, ‘healthcareinpictures.com/treatment’, ‘healthcareinpictures.com/contact’.
These then point to the live site. Once the dev site is online, I’m assuming that Google will return with the same links. That would be fine, but I want to make sure they redirect to the correct pages and not return a 404 error. So that /contact redirects to the new contact page and /treatment redirects to the new homepage since in the new site that page will be dropped.

Will modifying the HTACCESS of the live site accomplish this and not be overwritten when the dev site is copied to the live server?

Thanks to all for the help!

I have done this many times, actually just finished one yesterday.
The easiest way is to install a second copy of WordPress into a folder on the same server. Set the Settings > Reading option to discourage search engines.
Export the data from the old site to the new one, or whatever process you have for making the new content. Configure everything the way you want the new site to look and act.
Make a list of old URLs that changed. There’s a plugin to Export All URLs.
When you are satisfied and ready to switch, use a plugin like Search Regex (or just do the SQL query in phpMyAdmin) to remove the folder name from the content links (but not from image paths).
Then follow the directions on https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory (which is linked from the Settings page) for the simple change to have the root controlled by the WordPress in the folder.
Remove the old WordPress from the root.
Put your redirects into the .htaccess file.
Set the Settings > Reading option to remove the discourage search engine setting.

Could I use a subdomain of the existing domain for development or would this create a whole other set of problems?

I have been developing and maintaining WordPress websites for ten years and even with that experience nearly any time I manually copy a site over to a development environment I run into problems no matter where the development environment is… localhost or a subdomain. The only times I don’t are when there is a one-click option provided by the host to create a staging/dev site.

When I copy the dev site over to the live site, what happens with the live site? Would I not be overwriting it?
Yes, when you are done developing on the staging/dev version and you copy it over the live site will be overwritten. Always make backups of both versions before doing this to be sure you can get both versions back.