Replacing a Site That Is Already Live
Archive the current site, rehearse the move, and keep a one-click way back.
Rebuilding a site rather than editing one means two sites exist: the one serving your domain, and the new one on staging. At some point the domain has to move.
Webby treats that as a deliberate operation with a way back. The site being replaced is archived before anything else happens, and you can put it back with one click for 30 days.
Before You Begin
- The new site finished and checked
- The domain already pointing at Zyntro, since it is serving the current site
Steps
Start from the new site
Open Go Live on the site you want to put live — the new one, not the one currently serving.
Enter the domain. The check reports that it is in use and names what is using it.
Run the rehearsal first
Test this first runs every check and changes nothing. It is the single most useful button on the screen.
What comes back is not a pass or fail but a list: each step the real run would take, with the actual detail of what it would do. Read it. You are checking that the thing it proposes to archive is the thing you expect.
Replace the site
Replace the current site does it. The existing site is archived, your new site takes over the domain, and a certificate is issued if needed.
If something fails partway, the previous site is put back automatically — it keeps serving and nothing is lost. The failure mode is designed to leave you where you started rather than halfway.
Check the live domain straight away
Open your domain in a new tab — ideally in a private window, so you are not looking at a cached version of the old site.
Click through the main pages and check the header, the footer and your forms. This is the moment to find a problem, while the restore is one click away.
Restore the previous site if you need to
For 30 days, the replaced site's card offers Restore this site, and the new site's card shows the date the window closes.
Restoring puts the previous site back on the domain and returns the new one to staging. It is the same operation in reverse, and it is there precisely so that going live is not a leap.
Understand what retired means
The replaced site's status becomes retired. Its pages are readable and its settings are inspectable, but nothing can be published and no links to it are offered.
That is deliberate: its old domain now serves a different site, so a link would send you to somebody else's pages.
Result
The domain serves the new site. The previous one is archived, readable, and restorable for 30 days.
