Title: Replacing website
Last modified: March 2, 2021

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# Replacing website

 *  [rippert](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rippert/)
 * (@rippert)
 * [5 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/replacing-website/)
 * I run a single WordPress business website hosted at Bluehost. I am ready to overhaul
   my entire site with a whole new theme, using new designing tools (such as Elementor
   or Beaver Builder). I need the old site to remain live while I work on the new
   one; I don’t want to update or change my old site, I want to replace it. I’ve
   looked and found several ways to do this, but I’m not comfortable with any of
   them (I’m a total novice). Bluehost has a ‘staging’ area that they claim will
   work for my purposes, but I don’t trust it as I’ve been working with them all
   afternoon trying to get it to even load correctly. I’ve tried many of the back-
   up/migration plugins, but all fail at some point, mostly where the file size 
   is too big to transfer.
 * My question is this: why couldn’t I just create a whole new WP site on Bluehost,
   using ‘mytestsite.com’ (or some other throwaway domain) and then simply change
   the settings to point it to the old live domain? Can it work that way, or is 
   that too easy? LOL
 * I’m just looking for the easiest way to do this. If anyone can help me understand
   how this works I’d be most appreciative.
 * Rip

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  Moderator [tobifjellner (Tor-Bjorn “Tobi” Fjellner)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobifjellner/)
 * (@tobifjellner)
 * [5 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/replacing-website/#post-14123802)
 * Depending on your hosting provider, you might be able to create a subdomain, 
   say `2021dev.example.com` where you do your development and show it to relevant
   people for feedback. Then you either point your maindomain to this one when you’re
   done, or (probably better) migrate everything (look for [https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/migration/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/migration/))
 * Actually, you could even install WordPress on your local computer for the development.
   Downside: you may experience some hiccups before you get it working and you can’t
   really have shared access to the site. Upside: No need to bother with an FTP 
   client, the files of the site is directly on your own computer and you can just
   edit the php/js/css files directly with your favorite editing tool and then reload
   the page in your browser to see the outcome.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘Replacing website’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Installing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/installation/)
 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [tobifjellner (Tor-Bjorn “Tobi” Fjellner)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobifjellner/)
 * Last activity: [5 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/replacing-website/#post-14123802)
 * Status: not resolved

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