You know how sometimes you want to try something new on your website like a fancy new theme or a plugin that promises to make your site super cool? But you’re scared to mess up your live site right? That’s where staging sites come in! Think of it like a safe space a playground for your website where you can experiment without fear of breaking anything.

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Why is a Staging Site a Big Deal?

Imagine you’re building a LEGO masterpiece.

You don’t just start slapping blocks together on the living room floor! You create a safe space on the table right? A staging site is like that table for your website.

It’s a copy of your site where you can try out new things without affecting your live website.

Think about it this way: you wouldn’t wear a new outfit to a job interview without trying it on first would you? Same goes for your website! A staging site lets you test out changes see how they look and make sure everything works perfectly before you show it off to the world.

Tired of your website being a total dumpster fire after trying a new theme? 🗑️🔥 Stop living in fear! Create a staging site and test everything out before you unleash it on the world. Get started with a staging site today!

When to Use a Staging Site

You don’t need a staging site for every little change but here are some situations where it’s a real lifesaver:

Theme and Design Changes

Let’s say you’re itching for a new website design.

Instead of just slapping a new theme on your live site and hoping for the best you can test it out in your staging environment.

You can tweak the colors fonts and layout until it looks perfect before revealing it to your visitors.

It’s like trying on clothes in a dressing room before committing to buying them!

Code Changes

Sometimes you need to get your hands dirty with code like adding a new feature or fixing a bug.

A staging site is the perfect place to do this.

You can make the changes and test them thoroughly to ensure they don’t break anything.

Plugin Experiments

Want to try out a new plugin but worried it might mess up your site? Test it out in your staging environment first! You can see if it works as expected if it conflicts with other plugins and make sure everything is running smoothly.

Major Site Overhauls

Are you planning a massive site redesign or a content overhaul? A staging site is your best friend! It’s a safe space to build out the new design and test it thoroughly ensuring a smooth transition to the live site when it’s finally ready.

Compatibility Testing

Before upgrading to a new version of WordPress or changing your PHP version you can use a staging site to test for compatibility.

This ensures a seamless upgrade without breaking anything on your live site.

What About the Downsides?

staging sites are amazing but there are a couple of things to keep in mind:

Time Commitment

Working with a staging site does take some extra time.

You’ll need to make the changes in the staging environment test them and then push them to the live site.

It’s like doing homework twice!

Maintenance Headaches

You’ll need to maintain two websites – your live site and your staging site.

This means updating plugins fixing any issues and making sure both are running smoothly.

It can be a bit of a juggling act but it’s worth it for peace of mind.

Potential Costs

Unless your hosting provider includes staging environments you’ll have to pay for them separately.

This can add to your costs especially if you’re managing several websites.

Creating a Staging Site

There are a few different ways to create a staging site:

Manual Cloning

This involves downloading a full copy of your website and installing it on a different WordPress instance.

It’s like copying a huge LEGO set by hand – tedious and time-consuming!

Plugins and Developer Tools

These tools are more advanced and offer features like branching merging and version control.

They’re great for complex development projects but might be overkill for basic staging.

Using Your Hosting Provider

If your hosting provider offers managed WordPress hosting they often have a simple way to create staging environments.

For example with Pressable (a popular managed WordPress hosting provider) you can create a staging site with just a few clicks.

How to Create a Staging Site with Pressable

Log in to Your Dashboard: Go to your Pressable dashboard and select the site you want to create a staging environment for.
Clone Your Site: In the site’s settings panel click the “Actions” dropdown and choose “Clone Site.”
Name Your Staging Site: In the pop-up window give your staging site a unique name and toggle on the option to “Clone as Staging Site.” This ensures it doesn’t count against your site limit on your Pressable plan.
Start Experimenting: Once your staging site is created you’re ready to test changes experiment with plugins and make sure everything is perfect before pushing it to your live site.

Pushing Changes to Live

Once you’ve finalized your changes in the staging environment you’ll need to push them to the live site.

With Pressable this is a straightforward process but it’s different from how you’d manage changes with a development tool.

You can find detailed instructions on Pressable’s website on how to “push” your staging site to production.

Don’t Fear the Staging Site!

Creating a staging site might seem like a lot of work but trust me it’s worth it! It’s like having a safety net for your website allowing you to try out new things without fear of breaking your live site.

So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and create a staging site today!

How to Create a Staging Site for WordPress