There may be a time where you want to do a large redesign of your website. If you don’t want visitors to see your website in a ‘half redesigned’ state there a few different options that you can consider.
Option 1 - Start a new trial site & copy the design settings
Best for: Large websites, ecommerce stores or websites with lots of blog posts.
If your website has a lot of blogs or is a large ecommerce site then copying across all of your content to a new website is not practical. In this instance, we recommend you create a new Rocketspark trial site so you can test out different design options without having them applied to your live website.
- Start a new Rocketspark trial. When signing up you will need to use a different email address than what is associated with your first website.
- On your new trial website, explore different design options by changing the edit design and stack specific design settings.
- Once you are happy with the design, choose a time when traffic is low on your website (usually early morning or late at night) and have both your trial site and live site open in front of you.
- Match the ‘edit design’ and ‘stack specific settings’ on your trial site to your existing site until your live website looks the same as your trial site.
Check out how the Finance Marshall went through this process.
Option 2: Design on hidden pages
Best for: Redesigning individual pages of your site
If you want to change the design/layout of key pages of your website (for example refreshing the homepage) then we recommend designing on hidden pages.
In your Rocketspark dashboard, you can set each page of your website as either online or offline. If a page is offline then it is a hidden page and won’t be visible to any website visitors.
- In the Manage pages area of your dashboard create a new page.
- Make sure the new page is offline by checking the online/offline switch.
- Redesign the page until you are happy with the design.
- When you are ready for the new page to go live swap out the pages by turning your new page online and your old page offline.
- Your newly redesigned page will now be visible to visitors to your website.
If you’re heavily redesigning an existing home page but reusing some of the content, you can copy that page as a hidden page so you don’t have to copy the content across.
Option 3: Start a new Rocketspark trial
Best for: Smaller websites with few blog posts
If your website does not contain a lot of content then you can always create a new Rocketspark trial and start afresh.
Once you have the site how you would like, let Rocketspark Support know and we will transfer your domains, emails and billing history across to the new account for you.
Work with a Rocketspark Design Partner
If you would like help redesigning your website then you may want to consider working with a Design Partner. Rocketspark Design Partners are trained in the Rocketspark platform and can help you create a great looking website that stands out from the crowd at a more affordable price than traditional web design companies.
Check out our partner directory to find a designer in your local area.