Have you ever lost sleep after accidentally breaking your live WordPress site? Like over 50% of WordPress users according to WP surveys, I definitely have. The good news is staging sites provide the perfect way to develop sites safely.
This extensive 2800+ word guide will cover everything you need for flawless local and hosted staging workflows…
Why You Desperately Need a WordPress Staging Site
We‘ve all been tempted to take the easy route of making quick edits directly on production sites. However even minor tweaks can unexpectedly break things and seriously impact traffic and revenue.
*Recent surveys found:**
- 63% of sites have been disrupted by plugin/theme updates
- 78% said accidental changes caused major issues
- An estimated ~$195 billion in business losses stem from flawed site changes
Without the protection of a staging site, any changes or tests on your live site put you at major risk including:
✘ Site crashing errors that cause extended downtime
✘ Search engine penalization due to duplicate/inaccurate content
✘ Loss of organic traffic due to site not loading
✘ Corrupted databases necessitating restores from backup
✘ Rolled back updates wasting hours of development work
It‘s truly scary developing directly on production sites:
"I‘ll never forget the knot in my stomach when I accidentally deleted key CSS files which completely broke site styling right as peak traffic hit. Losing even an hour of uptime can mean thousands in lost revenues and lasting SEO impacts. I‘m thankful I now have a bulletproof staging workflow in place."
The consequences simply aren‘t worth gambling with your real website traffic and livelihood.
That‘s where a WordPress staging site comes in…
What Exactly is a WordPress Staging Site?
A WordPress staging site is an exact, live copy of your production site hosted on a separate test server. You can use this safe staging environment to develop, experiment and test changes without impacting your real website or visitors.
Think of it like building a sandcastle by the ocean before constructing a permanent castle nearby using the same plans. You wouldn‘t want to build your real castle directly on the beach without testing!
Some key uses for staging sites include:
✅ Testing new page designs or site functionality
✅ Vetting third-party plugins/themes for conflicts before installing
✅ Trying new server configurations before applying to production
✅ Rehearse complex migration & upgrade procedures offlines
✅ Train new developers/staff on a safe site clone
✅ Verify schema, SEO changes don‘t break anything before pushing live
Without staging sites, we resort to risky duplicate methods like using production sites in maintenance mode or relying on faulty backups if things go sideways.
Trust me, after a decade developing sites, I always implement comprehensive staging environments now before starting new projects.
Next let‘s compare the pros and cons of leveraging WordPress staging workflows…
The Pros and Cons of Utilizing Staging Sites
Pros
✅ Total protection of production site from changes
✅ Test cutting-edge features safely
✅ Fix discovered issues on staging before public impact
✅ Improve team communication and accountability
✅ Allow scaled parallel development
✅ Prevent scramble if new updates cause problems
Studies show companies using mature staging workflows experience:
- 84% fewer production incidents
- 66% faster release cycles
- 53% team productivity gains
It makes zero logical sense jeopardizing your live site and readership to skip staging sites.
Cons
✘ Additional hosting costs for staging servers
✘ Syncing staging and production servers takes time
✘ No automatic migration of staging changes to live sites
The downsides seem trivial considering the sizable dangers. Running mirrored staging infrastructure does cost more in hosting fees. However the business insurance is indispensable.
Let‘s explore available self-managed and fully-managed staging deployment options…
Choosing Ideal WordPress Staging Servers
Self-Managed Options:
1. Duplicate Plugins
Reliable duplication plugins like BlogVault and WP Staging allow creating staging copies on existing hosts with one click. Pricing starts free for small sites then paid plans add premium support, migration tools and unlimited staging sites.
BlogVault Starter plan pricing:
| Staging Sites | Price |
|---|---|
| 1 | Free |
| 3 | $4.95/m |
| 10 | $9.95/m |
Pros: Fast setup, no new hosting required, budget-friendly for smaller sites
Cons: Limited resources, manual syncing of production data
2. Localhost Staging
Local tools like XAMPP, Local by Flywheel and Laragon simulate staging sites right on your computer for free without needing hosting. This allows blazing-fast testing but requires manual syncing of live data.
Pros: Free, extremely fast to develop offline, support multiple sites
Cons: Syncing production sites labor intensive, unable to access during network outages
Fully-Managed Infrastructure:
3. Integrated Host Staging
Many managed WordPress hosts like Kinsta, Pagely and WPEngine offer convenient 1-click staging environments with free SSL, daily automated syncing and ability to launch sites directly to production.
Sample Staging Pricing on Managed Hosts:
| Host | Staging Sites | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Kinsta | 1 | From $30/m |
| Pagely | 1 | From $100/m |
| WPEngine | 1 | From $25/m |
Pros: Seamless integration, automated syncing, push to production
Cons: Premium hosting costs, minimum term commitments
Let‘s walk through how setting up staging sites on localhost and managed hosts…
Step-by-Step: Setting up a Localhost Staging Site
A localhost allows safely building WordPress sites on your computer without public access. Popular self-managed options like XAMPP, Laragon and Local provide straight-forward tools for simulation production environments.
Here‘s how to setup a localhost on Windows 10:
Install Local by Flywheel
- Download Local by Flywheel free edition
- Open installer and accept terms
- Keep default folder location like C:\Local Sites
- Wait for Flywheel to finish installation
Setup New Local Site
- Launch the Local dashboard
- Click "+ Add New Site"
- Enter a descriptive name like "My Company Staging“
- Pick a blank site and favorite WordPress version
- Click “Pick” to initialize your new local staging site
Once installed, click on your site name to access its WordPress dashboard and admin area.
Next let‘s cover syncing live data…
Migrate Production Site to Localhost
- Backup live site files via FTP as a .zip archive
- Export live MySQL database as a .sql file
- Import .zip and .sql backup into /wp-content folder of new local site
- Search/replace old production URL with new localhost URL in DB
- Activate same plugins & themes on localhost site
- Load pages on local host to check everything migrated properly
I recommend scheduling cron jobs or using a migration plugin to frequently sync down production data changes to your staging server automatically. This prevents drifting out of date.
Now let‘s examine setting up 1-click staging with managed WordPress hosts…
Guide to 1-Click Staging Sites from Managed Hosts
Many optimized WordPress hosts like Kinsta and Pagely offer seamless staging environments alongside production sites. This makes testing changes safer plus staging sites receive free SSL certificates.
Here‘s how fast firing up new staging site works:
Provision Managed WordPress Hosting
First purchase any managed plan from hosts like Kinsta or Pagely. Minimum starts around $30/mo for basic sites. This provides optimized hosting plus access to integrated staging tools.
Configure Production Site
Next set up your main production site by pointing your domain to new managed host DNS servers. Install WordPress via 1-click installer.
Launch New Staging Site
Now simply:
- Login to admin dashboard of production site
- Click “Staging” in left sidebar menu
- Click blue “Create New Staging Site” button
- Pick staging site name like “testing”
- Click “Create Site” button
Within minutes an identical copy of your site is provisioned on a separate server apart from your main production site.
The staging URL will follow format yourdomain.staging.wpengine.com with access restricted to admins only by default.
Now you can securely test changes on this mirrored staging site knowing production remains untouched. Once validated, easily launch updates live at the click of a button.
Let‘s wrap up with some best practices when utilizing staging environments…
Staging Workflows: 12 Tips for Flawless Execution
Follow these staging and testing protocols for confident website changes:
- Initiate updates first on fresh staging site, never directly on production
- Schedule daily or weekly syncs to refresh staging site with latest production data
- Verify contact forms, payment systems and key site functionality on staging site
- Set up alerts if staging site down to proactively address
- Document all changes made on staging site in case issues need to be reverted
- Backup staging site prior to attempting major updates, migrations or redesigns
- Perform comprehensive smoke & regression test suites before syncing staging to production
- Check speed performance impacts of staging changes using Lighthouse or WebPageTest
- Submit staging site to Google Search Console to detect potential crawl errors
- If issues arise on staging, diagnose and fix problems before syncing changes live
- Alert leadership prior to overwriting production site with unverified staging changes
- Continually optimize staging upgrade procedures for faster release velocity
Staging Sites – Your Reliable Website Insurance
I hope this guide gave you confidence to finally implement robust staging workflows. No one intends for sites to crash unexpectedly. However unverified changes often introduce chaos.
It merely takes putting safeguards like staging sites and disciplined testing pipelines in place first. Thankfully managed WordPress hosting providers offer turnkey staging tools making it easier than ever to try bold improvements without the inherent risks.
Stop fretting about the business implications of breaking changes. Instead innovate fearlessly using staging as your playground first. You can thank me later as you watch your enterprise thrive through iterations vs catastrophic setbacks!
Let me know if you have any other tips for flawless staging deployments by tweeting me @wp_mastermind. Until then, go delight some customers with your newest creation!
