A staging site is a test copy of your live website.
It lets you make changes, test updates or try new features without changing the website your visitors see.
Staging sites are often used for:
- WordPress updates
- plugin or theme changes
- design changes
- testing new pages
- checking fixes before they go live
The usual workflow is:
- Create a staging copy of the live site.
- Make changes on the staging site.
- Test the staging site carefully.
- Copy the approved changes back to the live site.
A staging site is not always a perfect copy forever. If the live site changes after the staging copy is created, those later changes may not automatically appear on staging.
Be especially careful with ecommerce websites, membership sites, booking systems and websites that receive form entries or comments. Orders, users, form submissions and comments can change on the live site while you are working on staging.
Before copying a staging site back to the live site, check whether any live data could be overwritten.
Staging can be handled in different ways depending on the hosting account, WordPress tools, plugins or developer workflow being used. If you are unsure which method is suitable for your site, open a support ticket and we can advise.