Editing a file on your computer and changing the page on your website were two separate steps in a typical FTP publishing workflow. It helped to keep track of which copy you were looking at.

A safe way to recreate the workflow is to use a test server. Keep a local copy of index.html and create a separate remote directory for the lab. Connect with your file transfer client and compare the local and remote listings. Upload the file, then open the corresponding test URL in a browser. If the old page still appears, confirm that the remote directory you uploaded to is the one the web server actually serves.

For the next test, add one sentence to the local page and upload it again. Keep a copy of the previous file so you can put it back if needed. This makes it easy to see how a small edit moved from your computer to the public page.

Plain FTP belongs in an isolated historical lab. For a live site, use an encrypted transfer method supported by your host, such as SFTP.