Regarding website development, the concept of staging sites has become indispensable.
Staging sites serve as a safe playground for developers to experiment, test, and tweak without risking the integrity of a live site.
This post will explore ten scenarios where using a staging environment proves invaluable.
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When to Create a WordPress Staging Site
Wondering when to use WordPress Staging?
Here are ten use cases when building in a staging environment makes more sense:
1. Testing an Idea
Sometimes, we are still determining if something we want to do on our site will work or work out the way we want.
This could be experimenting with new layouts, color schemes, structural changes, cross-plugin compatibility, and integrations with third-party services, APIs, or plugins.
These ideas are risky to test on a live site because we are still determining the outcome. What if the result is negative and causes downtime?
And because it’s a new Idea, we might need more time to undo it.
Staging sites are perfect for experimenting with new ideas or features without risking your live site’s functionality.
Build Staging sites with InstaWP →
2. Remote Development
Online staging environments allow developers to work on website changes or new WordPress projects from anywhere.
This means you can be on the road, on a plane, or in Hawaii and still be able to work on any WordPress project when the need arises.
As long as you have Internet access, WordPress staging lets you be at the top of your game and support your team and customers irrespective of the time and location.
3. Creating Demos
Staging sites can serve as product demos to convince potential customers to buy your product or demo sites for clients to preview changes before they go live, ensuring client satisfaction and approval.
Staging sites can also be used for training, allowing support team members to familiarize themselves with new demo features before rolling them out live.
4. SEO Optimization
Staging sites enable you to test SEO strategies and optimizations, such as keyword usage, URL or theme structure changes, etc., to measure their impact before implementing them on the live site.
You can use staging sites to compare newly proposed SEO strategies with existing ones to see which approach is more effective.
When changing URL structure, you can use Staging to find broken links and rectify them before impacting a live site.
5. Speed Tests and Optimization
You can use staging environments to conduct speed tests and performance optimizations to enhance your website’s loading speed and user experience.
You can first apply recommendations from tools like GTMetrix, Google Page speed insights, etc., such as the use of cache plugin, removing unused CSS, etc., on staging sites to see their impact before pushing those changes to live sites.
InstaWP staging paid plans allow you to create staging sites on servers in different locations. With this feature, you can perform speed tests based on location and know the best area to serve a live site from.
6. A/B Testing
A/B testing compares two web page or application versions to determine which one performs better.
By conducting A/B testing in a staging environment, you can experiment with different features, designs, or content variations to make data-driven decisions on what resonates best with your customers and users.
7. Site Migration
WordPress Staging (using InstaWP) makes migrating a live site from one hosting to another seamless and hitch-free.
You first create a replica of the site with WordPress staging, then push that staged replica to the new hosting and point the domain to the new hosting, all without disrupting the user experience on the live site.
Read WordPress Migration guide →
8. Collaboration
Staging sites facilitate collaboration among team members, designers, and clients by providing a shared platform to review and refine website changes before deployment.
9. Multilingual Support
For multilingual websites, Staging allows for testing language plugins and ensuring smooth translations without disrupting the live user experience.
10. Security Enhancements
Implementing security measures, such as firewall configurations or encryption protocols, can be thoroughly tested in Staging to minimize vulnerabilities.
How to Build a Staging Site in WordPress
Let’s delve into how you can quickly build a staging site in WordPress literally within seconds.
Step 1: Create your InstaWP Account
You need to have an InstaWP account to use the InstaWP staging feature. Creating an account is simple and takes a few seconds. Click here to create your account.
Step 2: Create a staging site
After creating and verifying your account, log into your InstaWP dashboard. Select Staging at the top navigation and click the Add New + button from the staging page.
From the popup that comes up, select From Scratch. If you want to create a fresh site, you can customize it from Scratch. Then, select the plugins and themes you intend to use to build the staging site.
Alternatively, select From Template if you create the staging site from a template URL or select Store if you want to build from InstaWP’s pre-designed collections.
Step 3: Customize Your WordPress Site
After creating your staging site, you will be provided automatically generated details on accessing the site.
You will also be provided with a Magic Login button, which, when clicked, will take you directly to the WP Admin panel.
From the WP admin panel, you can start building your staging site by making your customization, adding content, making edits, testing changes, etc.
How to Create a Replica of Your Live Site in Staging
The sole purpose for staging sites is to first test changes intended for a live site before implementing those changes on the live site.
You must first replicate the live site in the staging environment to achieve this. And that’s what we are going to uncover in this section.
Step 1: Sign in to your InstaWP Dashboard
Before replicating a site with InstaWP, you must have a free or paid InstaWP account and be logged into it. If you don’t have an account, sign up now.
Step 2: Install the InstaWP Connect WordPress staging plugin on the live site
To create a replica of a live site in InstaWP, you need to install the InstaWP Connect plugin on the live site and use it to connect the live site to InstaWP.
To achieve this, go to the live WordPress site you want to replicate and log into the WP Admin panel. From the admin dashboard, install and activate the InstaWP Connect plugin.
Step 3: Connect the Live WordPress Site you want to Replicate to InstaWP
To connect the live site to InstaWP using the installed InstaWP Connect plugin, navigate to Tools > InstaWP. Click the Connect button.
You will be redirected to InstaWP to grant permission. Click on the Approve button from the prompt, and the live site will be connected to your InstaWP account.
You will be automatically redirected back to the live WordPress site, where you can initiate the staging process.
Step 4: Create the staging site with the InstaWP Connect plugin
Now that your live site is connected to your InstaWP account, you can begin to create replica staging sites of the live site. You can create multiple staging sites for one live site but within the limit of your InstaWP plan.
To create a staging site using the connected InstaWP Connect plugin, navigate to Tools > InstaWP and click the +Create Staging Site button.
Select the type of Staging you want to perform. You are provided with three (3) options:
- Quick Staging
- Full Staging
- Custom Staging
The option you select will depend mainly on the kind of replica you wish to create. However, Full Staging is the ideal choice when doing a site replica, but other factors can prevent you from doing full Staging, such as the size of the live site, your available InstaWP disk size, etc.
Continue until you get to the last step, where you are to confirm all your choices from the previous steps before commencing the Staging.
If everything is as you want, enter the site name and click the Create Staging button.
Once it’s 100% completed, your live site will be cloned into your InstaWP account, and you will be able to access the replica staging site from the provided URL and login details and via your InstaWP dashboard.
How to Go Live with Your Staging Site
InstaWP Live offers the ultimate managed WordPress hosting solution, catering to users who seek highly reliable and lightning-fast hosting for their WordPress websites.
InstaWP Live comes fully equipped with DDoS protection, Web Application Firewall (WAF), Automated Backup, Content Delivery Network (CDN), and Guaranteed uptime, ensuring hosted sites’ secure and seamless operation.
InstaWP server infrastructure is cloud-based and is powered by Automattic’s cloud storage, which fuels superb WordPress performance.
InstaWP Live is not only safe, but it is also optimized to prioritize speed, reliability, and effortless integration.
Here’s how to Go Live with your staging site in seconds using InstaWP Live:
Step 1: Go Live with InstaWP Live Hosting
From your InstaWP dashboard, click on the rocket icon in the action menu that says “Go Live” on the right side of the staging site.
A popup with three options will come up. Select the InstaWP Live option and click the Next Step button.
The prompts that follow will guide you through the process.
Step 2: Map your Domain Name to the Live Staging site
After your site is live, use the Map Domain option to connect your custom domain to your live site. You will find it via the Actions column > Hosting settings. Follow the guided process, and you’re done!
Conclusion
By leveraging Staging, developers and agencies can mitigate risks while they innovate, iterate, and refine WordPress sites with confidence.
Because of its flexibility and simplicity, intelligent developers and agencies use InstaWP for all their WordPress Staging. What about you?
Invest in Staging with InstaWP and elevate your WordPress development process.
