Why You Need a Staging Site for Your Membership Project
One of the reasons WordPress is an excellent option for your website that is a member-only is the variety of themes and plugins that this software can provide, not to mention all possibilities for customization available to users.
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 some custom code on your site.
And when it only takes just a couple of clicks to alter the appearance of your site, add additional features or alter your site in some other way, why not experiment for a while?
There's an issue. Despite the relative simplicity with which we are able to modify WordPress websites, there are some limitations. WordPress websites, these changes can have unexpected effects members might not be able to appreciate.
In this piece, we'll explain how you can work on your WordPress site without disrupting the experience for users - something especially important for websites with paying customers.
What is a staging site and why you need one
Like we said, if you experiment with different themes, download new plugins, or just play around with the widgets and menus of WordPress it is possible to place your website in danger.
Take a look at what a new member may think If the design of your website suddenly shifts, a function stops functioning, or the whole site goes down.
They'll at best think twice regarding entering personal details At worst you'll see them leave the website, never to return.
It's also possible that they'll be able to inform others about their frustrations regarding your site.
All the above can occur if you start adjusting the fundamental elements of your site. That's why that you utilize a staging website or development environment for testing any modifications you're planning making to your website.
If you're a member-site administrator, it's even more important to not make changes to your live site and instead make a backup of your website only you and your team are able to access.
Your staging area is a secure place in which it is possible to accomplish what you want without:
- Current members are frustrated
- New visitors are attracted by the awe-inspiring
- Data loss, which includes the transactions of customers.
When you're confident that the changes you made didn't cause any problems, you'll be able to transfer them to the live version of your site.
Sound good? Read on for more information on how you can make a staging website to host your WordPress Membership website.
Make sure to check with your Web host
One advantage when choosing a platform which now powers over 30% of all websites is the fact that there's several excellent WordPress-optimized hosting plans available.
One of the new features available to the WordPress web hosts, such as some affordable entry-level plans that allows you to build a quick test site or staging area using your existing web page.
The top staging-site options offered by web hosts let you easily set up a private test area push the test version of your website to the live hosting environment.
Thanks to this, you're able to take all the time you like and as detailed as you'd like when attempting to test out a new site configuration. When you're done to go live, you can put those modifications available to your visitors as well as members in only several mouse clicks.
Whatever the case, a staging website can help to avoid problems which can arise when you use the live site for testing as well as development.
Choose a suitable WordPress Staging Site Plugin
When choosing a WordPress plugin for setting up a staging version of your site you can choose between two choices:
- a plugin built specifically to serve this purpose, or
- A more universal-purpose plugin for website duplicate.
Let's review of the pros and cons of each approach before listing the best plugins.
A specifically-designed staging-site plugin may seem like the obvious choice, but the options available are limited since there are less plugins of this type that you can choose from.
Plus, you usually aren't as in control over the procedure and end result as you do using more common-purpose plugins for copying sites.
The second option, a general-purpose site-duplication plugin, gives you more control over the entire process.
The best plugins in this category let you copy particular elements of your website, such as the database, or even content. Additionally, they offer options regarding where the staging site will be located, including the local WordPress installation or a private subdomain.
Although many of the best WordPress web-duplication tools are cost-free, they're not always so easy to use like professional staging-site software.
- WP Stagecoach - a commercial one-click staging-site-creation WordPress plugin with lots of useful features.
- WP Staging - a free work-in-progress WordPress website staging-and-cloning plugin.
- Duplicator is a robust but more complicated WordPress website-duplication plugin.
It's clear, when you're willing to pay for premium software, the process is a lot more straightforward. While the free options may require some work, they're certainly an option for building the WordPress membership-staging site.
Final thoughts
We hope that you have now understood the advantages of creating the stage for your WordPress site for membership.
There's no reason to not do the simplest of codes on a small personal blog, but when you're managing a membership website for a professional there's a higher obligation to care for your members, whether they're paying for access or not.
What are you planning to do when creating the staging website to host your membership site? Let us know your ideas in the comments below.