Staging a website on WordPress, or how to safely test websites

Last updated December 6th, 2023 00:21

If you manage web hosting on the popular WordPress platform, then you’re probably familiar with the following situation like the back of your hand. You have a live version of the website that receives dozens, maybe hundreds, of visitors every day. You need to implement a new feature on the website, but you’re afraid that it might cause damage or function incorrectly. What can you do about it? The answer is simple: staging the website. Today’s topic is staging a website on WordPress, or how to safely test websites. And don’t worry, it will be convenient, easy, and manageable even for those who are just starting out with WordPress.

Staging a website on WordPress, or how to safely test websites

Let’s first talk about how staging a website actually works. It’s fundamentally simple. On one side, you have a functional and live website (the live web) that users visit and that needs to remain functional. On the other side, you have an exact copy of it that is not public and where you can test everything you need to change on the website. Whether it’s the design, a complete redesign, or new features, staging allows you to transfer and implement the changes made on the staging side to the live version of the website.

And this is exactly what the WP Staging plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-staging/) does. Let’s take a closer look at it and also see an example of how to create a website copy and then implement the changes from the copy to the live version of the functional website.

WP Staging Plugin

To begin with, I should mention that this is a paid plugin. However, if you need to perform tasks such as redesigning a website, which can take several days to months of work, the price for the plugin license is reasonable. As of the date of this article, we’re talking about a price of around $8 per month, which is more than acceptable.

You can easily install the plugin by following these steps:

1. In the left administration menu, click on “Plugins“
2. In the submenu, select “Add New“
3. In the search field in the upper right corner, type the plugin name “WP Staging“
4. Install and activate the plugin.
5. Purchase and activate the plugin license.

Creating a website copy

After activating the plugin, you will see a new item in the left menu called “WP Staging Pro“. Click on it, and on the plugin screen, create a website copy using the “CREATE NEW STAGING SITE” button. On the following screen, initiate the website cloning process by clicking “Start Cloning“. If you only need to clone specific tables or certain data on the FTP, you can modify the cloning process using the “Database Tables” and “Files” options.

The plugin will then create a randomly named folder on the FTP, where it will make a copy of the WordPress data. It will also duplicate the tables in the database, creating the same tables with a new prefix. Technically speaking, a full-fledged copy of the website will be created, including both FTP data and MySQL database tables.