Before we dive into the step-by-step guide for launching a new staging site with Kinsta, let‘s briefly define what exactly a staging site is and why it‘s so invaluable for professional WordPress developers like us.
What is a WordPress Staging Site?
A staging site is essentially a cloned copy of your live, production WordPress site hosted on a separate test server. This staging environment allows you to freely test changes to code, content, plugins, themes, database structures, and more without impacting the real website your visitors see.
It‘s like having a safe sandbox to play in!
Key things you can test and tweak on a staging site include:
- Experiment with page layout changes
- Review new themes or designs
- Test plugin compatibility
- Evaluate new features like custom post types
- Update legacy code that could potentially break things
- Dramatically modify content, menus, widgets etc.
- Migrate databases or platform versions
- Much more!
Essentially anything that you don‘t want to risk breaking on your live site should be vetted on a staging site first.
Why Staging Sites are Critical for WordPress Publishers
Let‘s explore some of the top reasons leveraging dedicated staging environments is a must for serious WordPress site owners:
1. Eliminate Risk of Downtime from Publishing Changes
Making updates directly on live production servers is incredibly risky. If a plugin update or code tweak breaks something, it can instantly take down your site! Having a recent clone in a staging environment enables methodically testing changes in isolation first.
2. Catch Errors Before They Reach Visitors
Similarly, not properly vetting updates on staging means site-crashing bugs could impact real visitors. Lost traffic, sales, and reputation from unexpected downtime is totally avoidable with robust staging workflows.
3. Review Feedback from Stakeholders Before Going Live
Collaborating with team members, client approvals, developer code reviews etc. should happen on staging server copies before ever deploying to production. Streamline feedback gathering without business impact by sharing staging links.
4. Compare Variations Side-by-Side
Testing homepage redesigns, new lead gen landing pages, or radically new site structures is much easier when you can access both variants simultaneously. Archive older staging versions to revisit previous drafts as well.
5. Improve Site Agility for Frequent Updates
With a reliable staging site process in place, teams can ship updates much more rapidly. Streamlined deployment pipelines from dev to staging to production enable continuous delivery of new features.
As you can see, leveraging staging environments is critical for mitigating risk, gathering feedback, and accelerating release velocity.
Why Kinsta Makes Staging Sites Foolproof
Kinsta‘s managed WordPress hosting platform goes above and beyond in making it simple to create and utilize staging sites for all your publishing needs.
Their optimized hosting architecture ensures high-performance resource allocation so spinning up full site clones takes just minutes without impacting your production environment.
Intelligent access controls, bandwidth resource pooling across accounts, and built-in staging tools offer unparalleled flexibility no matter your traffic or complexity needs.
Now let‘s explore exactly how to launch a WordPress staging site with Kinsta in just a few clicks!
Step-by-Step: Creating a New Kinsta Staging Site
Prerequisite: You‘ll need an existing WordPress site already hosted on Kinsta to create a connected staging site copy.
Here‘s how to get a Kinsta staging environment spun up in under 5 minutes:
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Login to the MyKinsta dashboard and navigate to “Sites” in the left sidebar menu.
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Next, click the site you want to create a staging version of to access Site Overview.
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In the upper right “Change Environment” dropdown, select Staging:
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On the next screen, click the large blue “Create Staging Environment” button.
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Wait about 60 seconds for Kinsta to rapidly clone your site into a new staging environment.
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When ready, refresh and you will see staging details including the new URL under “Domains” tab!
That‘s seriously all it takes to get a full-fledged independent staging site powered by Kinsta for safely testing changes.
Tip: Make sure to store this auto-generated staging URL somewhere handy for your team to access.
Now let‘s explore some best practices for leveraging your Kinsta staging site…
What to Test First on Your New WordPress Staging Site
With a fresh WordPress staging site now ready test changes safely, you‘re probably curious what to update first.
Every team and project is different, but here is a typical priority list I recommend addressing on staging before going live:
Update Legacy Plugins/Code
- Upgrade outdated 3rd party plugins to latest versions
- Improve custom legacy code up to modern PHP/WP standards
Review Theme/Style Changes
- Test width, font, color, layout modifications
- Switch themes or templating syntax (e.g. Gutenberg blocks)
Evaluate New Features/Functionality
- Vet new custom post types, custom fields, APIs, etc thoroughly on staging before launch
Analyze Major Platform Upgrades
- WordPress core, PHP version, MySQL etc should be upgraded first in staging environments
Following these best practices will help identify compatibility issues, breaking changes, performance impacts and more before pushing to production.
Once you validate all updates are working smoothly in staging, it’s time to replicate the changes live!
Deploying From Staging to Production the Easy Way
Migrating all your final tested changes from staging up to the live site is incredibly simple with Kinsta’s built-in tools.
There is literally a big green “Push Staging to Live” button for this exact purpose:
Simply click this whenever you have staged updates ready to be published based on internal testing.
The entire staging site including:
- Content changes
- Code customizations
- Backend configuration tweaks
- Plugin installs / uninstalls
- Database modifications
- Anything else!
Will be seamlessly copied over to production behind-the-scenes.
Usually within 3-5 minutes your live site will be updated matching the vetted staging site automatically with no effort or downtime.
It doesn’t get much easier than that for publishing peace of mind.
Let’s wrap up with some final tips for staging sites success…
Best Practices for Leveraging Staging Workflows
Here are key best practices I recommend WordPress teams adopt for smoothly operating staging environments:
Create Internal Testing Checklists
Standardize validation protocols for updating staging sites before deployment. Share these Stage Verification Checklists with all contributors to align.
Mirror Production Settings in Staging
Configure resources and software in staging to match live as close as possible. This helps accurately assess changes before going live.
Automate Content Syncs Where Possible
Leverage tooling like WP Stagecoach to migrate staging content to production quicker.
Implement Staging-First Update Procedures
Require all site changes get tested in staging as part of your CMS publish policies for reduced risk.
Archive Old Staging Versions
Maintain previous staging iterations to easily roll back if needed or compare to current versions.
If you instill these reliable staging habits, your team will get into a smooth rhythm for updates.
The result is way faster release velocity and experimentation agility!
Launch Your Kinsta Staging Site Today!
I hope this post has clearly demonstrated the critical importance of leveraging dedicated WordPress staging sites as part of your publishing toolkit.
Kinsta makes spinning up independent clones incredibly fast and frictionless. Their optimized platform maintains blazing speeds and availability without burdening your production environment.
Take advantage of these tools to future-proof your editorial team‘s workflows or development roadmap!
Have you used staging sites like Kinsta‘s before? Or any other questions on best practices outlined? Let me know in the comments below!
