In a previous article I explained how to transfer an active weebly subscription from one website to another and I mentioned that the only reason I usually do this is when redesigning a website that’s already live.
In this article, I’m going to explain how you can redesign your current weebly website without taking it offline or still have a live version of it during the redesign process.
METHOD 1: Make changes to current website and publish the changes
For some people, it’s easier to just work on the back-end (weebly editor) and make the changes they need and publish the website when everything’s set. I particularly don’t like this method mostly because when designing or redesigning a website I like to publish changes I make and see how the website looks or will look to visitors and what adjustments I need to make.
Also and perhaps even more important, I have had situations where changes I make to weebly editor becomes visible on live website before I publish the changes myself. This is not good.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with this method if you’re making minor changes. But if you’re planning a full-scale or large enough redesign with major changes you don’t want visible until you’re ready to make them visible, then this method isn’t a good idea.
METHOD 2: Make a copy of current website
Let’s say you want to redesign WEBSITE A to look better but because website A is already live and receiving visitors, you don’t want to completely take it offline for a redesign process that might take days or weeks.
This method requires that you make a copy of (backup) your current website then redesign the copied version of the website while your current website remains live and unaltered. Website A is your current website that you wish to redesign, you can make a copy of website A and name the copied website as WEBSITE B.
Now you have two websites with the same contents. You don’t have to touch website A but proceed to carryout the redesign process on website B so that after you’re done and have everything as needed, you can simply redirect the domain of website A to the newly redesigned website (WEBSITE B). In the same way, if Website A already has a subscription (weebly plan), you can transfer the subscription to website B which must have been a free website.
Once you have the domain pointing to website B and the subscription also transferred to website B, you can now go ahead and publish website B to take the place of website A. In this way, even if you have visitors currently on your website, they will see the new design as they click on a page or refresh current page.
METHOD 3: Make a copy of current website and set it live.
Method 3 is almost the same as method 2 except instead of redesigning website B, you’ll be redesigning website A and make website B online.
The reason for this “craziness” is because copying a weebly website doesn’t copy blog posts so if you have blog posts on website A (which is currently live) then making a copy of website A will copy every information without those blog posts which means after redesigning website B (as explained above), you will have to recreate those posts all over again. This might be tedious and to me practically unnecessary.
This is why under such situations, I propose method 3. What happens with method 3 is basically the same as method 2, except after you make a copy of website A and now have two versions: WEBSITE A (current) and WEBSITE B (copy), you now make website B which doesn’t have blog posts live and start redesign work on website A which has blog posts.
The idea is that depending on the duration of your website redesign, your website could go a few days without those blog posts and once you’re done with redesigning website A, you can transfer all its details (domain and subscription) back to it and set it live with its blog posts.
IMPORTANT!!! – Change the theme.
If you’re using method 2 or 3, and your redesign process involves making changes to theme files then you should switch the theme because both the current website and the copied website share the same theme so whatever changes you make to that theme will reflect on both websites; live one and the one being redesigned.
If you’re using one of our weebly themes, all you have to do is import the theme to weebly and choose it for the website you wish to redesign. In this way, because the live website isn’t using this new theme, it won’t be affected by changes you make.
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