What is the reason you need a staging Site for Your Membership Project
One of the reasons WordPress is an excellent choice for your membership website is the variety of themes and plugins that this software offers, not to mention all possibilities for customization available to the user.
WHAT'S INSIDE Toggle
- What a Staging Site is and Why You Need One
- Check with Your Web Host
- Find a Suitable WordPress Staging Site Plugin
- Final Thoughts
With WordPress you are able to create improvements to your website with a new plugin, theme or a custom-written codes on your website.
It only takes just a couple of clicks to transform the design of your website, include new features, or modify your site in some other manner, why not play a little?
But there's a problem. Despite the relative simplicity with which we are able to create a variety of changes to WordPress websites, there are some limitations. WordPress websites, these modifications can have unexpected effects members might not be able to appreciate.
In this post we'll discuss the best ways to work on your WordPress site without disrupting the user experience which is crucial when you have paying members.
What exactly is a Staging Site and why you need one
As mentioned, if you experiment with the latest themes, install brand new plugins, or simply tweak the widgets or menus within WordPress You could accidentally put your site at risk.
Think about what a potential user might think about If the design of your website suddenly alters, or a feature ceases operating, or the entire site is unavailable.
At best they'll think twice about entering their personal details At worst, they'll leave your site, never to return.
And it's possible they'll be able to inform other people about their displeasure about your website.
All the above can occur if you start adjusting the basic aspects of your website. That's why you use a staging site or development environment for testing any changes you plan to make to your website.
For a site owner who owns a membership It's more crucial not to make any changes to your live site and instead make a backup of your web page that only your staff and you have access to.
The staging site you choose to use is a secure place in which you can do what you want without:
- Frustrating existing members
- Alienating new visitors
- Losing data, including the transactions of customers.
When you're confident that the changes you made didn't cause any issues, you can make them available to the current version of your website.
Sound good? Then read on to learn how you can create a staging site for your WordPress site for membership.
Check with Your Web Host
One of the benefits to choosing a hosting platform that today powers over 30% of sites is that there are several excellent WordPress-optimized hosting plans available.
One of the new features common to these WordPress web hosts, including some low-cost plan options for entry level that allows you to create quickly a staging site or testing environment using your existing web page.
The top staging-site options provided by web hosting providers allow you to easily create a test environment that is private. You can then move the test versions of your site to the live hosting environment.
Thanks to this, you can take the time you need and be as thorough as you need when testing out a new site configuration. Once you're satisfied, you can make those improvements available to visitors and members in just one or two mouse clicks.
Either way, using a staging site helps you stay clear of the inevitable issues which can arise when you use your real-time website to test and development.
Find a Suitable WordPress Staging WordPress Plugin
In selecting a WordPress plugin to set up the staging version of your site, you can choose between two choices:
- a plugin built specifically for this purpose or
- a more general-purpose website-duplication plugin.
Let's look at the pros and cons of each approach before listing the best plugins.
A purpose-built staging-site plugin could be the obvious choice, but your options are more limited since there are less plugins that can be used that you can choose from.
In addition, you don't have as much control over the process and the end product as using more common-purpose plugins for copying sites.
Another option, a general-purpose site-duplication plugin will give you greater control over the whole process.
The best plugins in this category permit you to copy certain elements of your website, such as the database or content. They also give you more options regarding where the staging site is located such as a local WordPress installation, or a separate subdomain.
Though many of the most effective WordPress web-duplication tools are available for free, they're often not as easy to use as the tools for staging sites that are commercially available.
- WP Stagecoach - a commercial one-click staging-site-creation WordPress plugin with lots of useful features.
- WordPress Staging - a free work-in-progress WordPress site staging plugin and cloning.
- Duplicator - an effective but more complicated WordPress web-duplication plugin.
It's clear, If you're ready to shell out for a premium plugin, this process will be much more straightforward. While the free options may require some work, they're certainly viable tools for creating an WordPress website for membership staging.
Final thoughts
We hope that you have now understood the benefits of having an environment to stage your WordPress Membership website.
You may get away with cowboy coding for a private site, but if you're managing a membership website for a professional You have an even greater obligation to look after your members, whether they're paying for access or otherwise.
How do you design an online staging area for your membership website? Comment on your suggestions in the comments below.