WP2Static with Yoast SEO and a page builder

WP Static Site Generators WP2Static
#1

Hello @leonstafford and everyone,
I just bought the bundle and this is my first time using the plugin.
I’ve read the docs and searched here in the forum, I didn’t see my questions asked or answered here - maybe I missed them.

My computer is used for other things and maxed out in RAM all the time, so I’m not going to use the local development solution Lokl. I’m using a standard host, which uses Softaculous and allows WordPress with staging site for development.

Having never once used the WP2Static plugin, I wanted to make sure I had the right idea of how to begin. When I create a new WordPress installation at my host, do I need to do so using a domain other than the one that I will use for the final static site, to keep them separate? This seems obvious, but I didn’t want to install WordPress and WP2Static, only to find out that I did it wrong and have to do it all over again.

And also, I was wondering if I use YoastSEO plugin, will WP2Static transfer any of that data to the static site? I’m not talking about redirects, I mean the meta descriptions that become the Google search result snippets. Is there any other kinds of YoastSEO information that’s transferred to the static site?

Will WP2Static recreate my pages just as they are created in WordPress, even if I am using a landing page builder SeedProd?

Finally, does it matter what kinds of content image formats I use with WP2Static, png jpg svg html?

Thank you all for your input

#2

Hi @Simplify88,

Thanks for trying it out! In case it doesn’t work for you, just let me know and happy to refund!

Sounds like your intended use will be fine, ie Yoast meta, page builder produced content, will be fine.

Re setting up your domains, this is a bit old, but hopefully helps: WP2Static: WordPress Static Site Generator | Safely going static

Please give that a try and in some other docs there, I recommend doing a test deploy to a new Netlify site for free, before changing any DNS with your existing domains. That should give you a pressure-free way to try things out and get comfortable with it all.

Let me know any questions that pop up as you go.

Cheers,

Leon

#3

Hi @leonstafford! Thank you for the quick reply and all the info.

Yes I did read your link .Safely going static’. I wanted to dive into that, for some clarification. Firstly, I do have plenty of spare, unused domains to work with. In there you wrote out a diagram, and used the words ‘staging site’ and ‘dev site’. I use these words interchangeably. To use them separately, adds an additional step I hadn’t thought of. Would you please tell me the difference you intended. Also just to be clear, I would like to know where the WordPress site and the static site host locations are within your diagram, and using main or spare domains. Please help me to conceptualize this, I’ve added [comments] to your diagram:

Example using remote server [this is my situation]

Live site example.com [as WordPress] --> clone [as WordPress] --> Dev site dev.example.com [as what? is this the static site now, and is this using a spare domain?]

Dev site [?] --> deploy -> Staging site staging.example.com [?] 

As I have spare domains, I can do this any way you suggest.  I didn't want to use Netlify, as that is unfamiliar to me and more to set up.  My host is standard, CPanel Softaculous WordPress WordPress staging, and I use FileZilla for FTP.  

I was conceptualizing this as:
Original WordPress Live site at preferred domain --> WordPress clone at different domain/same host with WP2Static plugin --> generate and deploy WP2Static static site using original WordPress Live site domain and deleting original WordPress Live site --> keeping the WordPress clone for future development environment and as a backup that can be used to deploy a WordPress site if ever needed. 

or/
WordPress development site at spare domain with WP2Static plugin --> generate and deploy WP2Static static site using preferred live domain --> keeping the WordPress development site for future development environment and as a backup that can be used to deploy a WordPress site if ever needed. 

Thank you!
#4

Those bottom 2 structures look fine to me.

Development for me, is your WordPress site, with WP2Static installed, hidden from the public, only for you and your team. It can be anywhere, even on your local computer, if you’re the only one working on it (see https://lokl.dev - my project for easy local WP dev sites).

Staging, in this case, should be a static site host, where you can test publish to before going live.

If not for your live/production site, at least I’d suggest using Netlify for the initial staging before you switch over your live domain to wherever you choose to host it. Whilst it is new and unfamiliar, I dare to say it is easy, when using the drag and drop in their website to create/deploy new static sites and worth trying out. I’m proficient at setting up web servers, but still prefer to quickly test a static site deployment on Netlify as it’s so simple.

(There are more compelling reasons why you should use Netlify or another globally distributed CDN for your live site, else you will misss out on a lot of the benefits of going static, for performance and also security vs putting it on a cPanel setup, but that’s different conversation!).

You may only need this staging server during your initial transition from current live WP to new dev server + live server setup. It’s personal preference as to whether to bother with an extra staging site deploy each time you’re going to publish from dev server to live site. (It seems to be more common in non-WordPress development workflows)

If you choose to do everything on the cPanel hosting, you can just use subdomains vs separate domains.

Not sure if I’ve helped clear anything up there, please continue to ask questions for anything unclear!

#5

@leonstafford

That’s fantastic, thank you!