Description
I have an old WordPress website that I want to bring back online, but I do not plan to modify or actively maintain the site. The goal is to preserve the old website as-is, while making it as secure as reasonably possible. The site is an old WordPress installation with an old theme/plugins and a MySQL database backup. I understand that older WordPress installs can have inherent vulnerabilities, so I am looking for someone who can help me choose the safest deployment method. The preferred option may be to restore the old WordPress site privately, crawl/export it to static HTML, and publish only the static files. In plain English, I want the public website to be: HTML / CSS / JavaScript / images only No public WordPress admin No wp-login.php No wp-admin No xmlrpc.php No public database connection No old PHP plugins running publicly The idea is that visitors would still see the old site, map, images, text, and JavaScript behavior, but the public site would not be a live WordPress install. Preferred Option: Static Site Export I would like you to evaluate whether this site can be made static. The workflow would likely be: 1. Restore the old WordPress site on a private staging VM or private staging URL. 2. Lock the staging site behind Basic Auth, VPN, or IP restriction. 3. Confirm the old site displays correctly. 4. Crawl/export the site into static HTML/CSS/JS/images. 5. Publish only the static files to the live website. 6. Keep the old WordPress version private/offline as the sour