A common question we receive in support relates to adding a staging site to WordPress. While this is a little outside of what we normally cover, these are the basics:
Source article: WPBeginner
What is a Staging Site?
A staging site is a clone of your live website that is used for testing changes before making them live (aka pushing to production). Staging sites help you catch errors, so you don’t end up breaking your live website.
Note: A staging site is intended to be temporary, normally remaining connected for 30 days or less.
There are multiple ways to create a staging site for WordPress. The easiest of them is to use your hosting provider’s built-in staging site feature.
Some of the best WordPress hosting companies already offer 1-click staging websites. If your website is hosted with one of them, then you can easily create a staging site without any hassle:
- WP Engine
- Siteground
- Dreamhost (pick a VPS or dedicated WordPress plan)
- Kinsta
- Bigscoots
(We do not work with NetFirms hosting.)
Other options for creating a Staging site can be found here.
Why Would I Need a Staging Site?
A staging site might be needed for a couple reasons.
1) Your MLS may require that the IDX be live on a staging site that is password protected. More and more MLSs these days are changing their requirements and are handling approvals this way.
2) You have a live site with another IDX provider and are switching providers. You want to keep your current IDX live until you've made the switch, so you will need a staging site to work on your edits until you're ready to go live.
Click here to learn more about using a staging site with Showcase IDX!