How to Create & Deploy WordPress Staging Sites (3-Step Guide)

Here's a complete guide to creating and deploying WordPress staging sites!

What is a staging site you might ask? I view it as a starting template that will save you serious time in the long run as you build sites over and over again.

Additionally, you can have different templates and types of staging sites to help save you time as you build a variety of sites. For example, you could have one for brochure style sites, one for eCommerce, one for blogging, etc!

In this video, we'll cover:

1) The most common ways to set up staging sites
2) What to include in staging sites
3) How to deploy staging sites

For the full post with all links and resources mentioned, head to:

Video timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction & overview
00:40 - What is a staging site?
01:23 - Part #1 Common ways to set up staging sites
03:09 - Part #2 What to include in staging sites (5 things)
04:45 - 1) WordPress settings
09:02 - 2) Starter pages
10:53 - 3) Common plugins
12:03 - 4) Theme options
14:04 - 5) Style guide page
15:21 - Part #3 How to deploy staging sites
17:44 - Video recap
18:45 - Get my full web design process SOP

We're just scratching the surface on optimizing your web design process to help save you time and make you more profitable, to get access to my entire web design process SOP, join my Web Design Process Course today!

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Featured links mentioned:

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[LandyVlad_Rides]

Thanks for the chapters it's very much appreciated. I hate when channels do tutorials like this and don't have chapters so I can re-find the bits relevant to me.

[Shae]

Would this same process apply of I use a website template and what to deploy it? I'm currently working on a website template I bought from themeforest, I haven't deployed ot yet but will be ready to end of week.

[designermike]

Some great nuggets in there, thanks Josh!

[Leameana]

This is absolute gold! You just gained a subscriber

[eddiebrock]

Hey Josh, appreciate the video, very helpful. One question I have. Do you activate the plugins on the staging site or wait until you move to the production site? Thanks again!

[remonzwaan]

A staging site is not the same as a template site. Sure you can use it to build a template site, but a staging site means it is not used/open for live access. Most of the times a staging site is used to give your cliënt a preview

[christopherrimplington]

and what's the difference between staging and cloning, e.g. in Softaculous you have both options

[kami-ykmu]

it means i cannot upload all the changings to the live version if i didnt use the premium version? please answer me

[raymers]

Hi Josh! Fellow SiteGround user here. Have you ever been able to get Custom Deployment to work, especially when you are using Divi builder? I've tried countless things to make the database tables cross-referenced in custom deployment work so I can send one staging page to the live site, but it's not the most transparent thing to decipher. Have you had any luck with this?

[SocialIPO]

Great video where’s WP beginner link Best have security plugins not activated Make clone as unique as possible ASAP if you don’t want a Google strike.

[thomasdildine]

What are child themes, when are they used, and how do you set them up?

[ibrahimkahlil]

brother you are wrong. Block editor is better then classic. you have to understand it and learn it. and block is the future of WordPress.

[HA-kwvq]

Seems all about Divi and others tools makes it hard to follow, would be better to add that to your title and save the watch as not relevant to those who just want WordPress info