Editing live review sites reachable only through a VPN

Two Spanish-language review sites you couldn't even reach from a normal connection, edited while they were live and earning. At the client's request I hid the markup I removed rather than deleting it.

The objective

The sites were only reachable through one specific VPN on a dedicated address, and that went for the admin screens as much as the public pages. Without the VPN there was nothing to log into.

Both sites were live and earning, and the client told me so plainly before anything started.

Even getting file-level access took the hosting company issuing a single-use link that expired after seven days.

What I did

I asked for file access instead of working through the site's own editor. A file-level change on a live site can be put back if it's wrong; an editor change often can't.

I kept that access to the content folder rather than the whole account, which was also less for the client to arrange with their host.

I made the change on one site first and had the client confirm it before I touched the second.

The markup I removed, I left in place but hidden, exactly as the client asked, so they can bring the text back later without paying a developer to retype it.

After that I fixed the review box: a line break that was showing up after the reviewer's name, the centring, and the colour of the text, the fill and the border.

The result

Both sites got their edits without ever going down, with the client checking each stage before the next one started. Twelve orders across three years.