A staging site is a clone of your live site where you can make and test changes without affecting the normal operation of the live site. In the video below we’ll walk you through how to create a staging site on WP Alpha and how to delete it when you’re done with it.
Step by step: creating a staging site
- Log in to the hosting admin console and click WordPress to open the WordPress manager.
- Find your site and click the Clone icon.
- The clone will usually default to staging. The tool may also offer to use your existing domain with “staging” added on the end. Avoid that option and use a subdomain instead, such as staging, staging1 or dev.
- Click Start. Depending on how big and how busy the site is, cloning can take anywhere from 5 minutes to half an hour. You can close the window with the X; the clone keeps running in the background and a notification appears in the bottom right corner when it is done.
- Go back to the WordPress section. The clone appears as a new WordPress site. Check that search engine indexing is turned off; it is off by default.
- Set up a DNS record pointing the new host name at the server your site is hosted on.
- Follow the prompts to issue the free Let’s Encrypt certificate. Secure the staging host name by itself, not the www version. As long as the DNS record points at the hosting, the certificate usually issues within one to two minutes, although it can take longer.
Why a subdomain and indexing matter
A staging site is a copy of your live site. If Google indexes it, the duplicate can seriously damage your SEO and rankings. Using a subdomain and keeping search engine indexing off keeps the copy out of Google.
We also recommend not turning on Smart Updates for staging sites. It creates extra work in the hosting account and uses resources, and a site you are only testing on does not need patching every night.
Do not copy staging back over live
We don’t recommend ever cloning a staging site back to a live site. In almost all cases too many changes have happened on the live site in the meantime, and pushing staging back overwrites them. On a WooCommerce site you would overwrite orders, customers and more. Redo your changes on the live site instead; it is far more reliable.
Step by step: deleting a staging site
- Go to Websites & Domains.
- Find the staging site. Because it is a subdomain, it is indented under your main domain.
- Click the three dots on the right hand side and choose Remove Subdomain.
- Confirm when asked, and the staging site is deleted.
Staging sites are included in the regular hosting backups, which typically run every 90 to 120 minutes.
If you get stuck, our support team can help. Log a ticket from the client area or start a live chat.
Second walkthrough: multiple staging sites and removing one
You can build as many staging sites as you need. The practical limits are your storage space and the number of databases your account allows. Give each one its own subdomain, for example staging02 if staging01 already exists, so you don’t overwrite an existing copy. The database name is filled in for you.
Search engine indexing should be off by default, but check it. For the most protection, also turn on password protection: set a username and password, then switch it on, so nobody else can see the site. The staging site appears in the WordPress manager, where you can manage themes and plugins like any other site. To remove it, choose Remove Subdomain and it is deleted within seconds.
