Easiest way to work on WP site without going live

Hey guys, so I’m working on a site for a client and using a WordPress theme from TF. The client currently has a coming soon page up, but it’s just HTML and CSS. I’m looking for the best and easiest way to work on this WordPress site without officially going live. The only options I can think of would be:

A.) Use MAMP to install WordPress locally
B.) Create a test folder on my clients hosting
C.) Create a subdomain and work on the theme there

Things to note: I don’t have experience transferring database files, etc. Also, if working on this via test folder or subdomain…I’d like it to not be searchable.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone!

You can use any one of a number of maintenance mode / coming soon plugins that will display ‘coming soon’ text to visitors but allow you as an admin to continue building the site behind the scenes.

So - get the database / wp install set up. Install and configure the plugin and then you’re free to install the theme and get working on it. Check the ‘not visible to search engines’ box until you are ready to disable the plugin and put the site live.

Could I still show my client the progress of the site via a url or anything? or would they have to be in front of my computer?

sethgoochdesigns said

Could I still show my client the progress of the site via a url or anything? or would they have to be in front of my computer?

Make another user for them. Logged users see real site. I’ve used Underconstruction plugin many times, it’s pretty useful and flexible.

EDIT: what i meant is, keep their current site on server, point to it on the plugin config settings.