How to set up a Staging Site in Big Scoots Hosting

A staging site is an exact copy of your live website, you can add plugins, update WordPress core files and test styling options without worrying about breaking your live site. Here's how to set up a staging site in Big Scoots:

Why use a Big Scoots staging site?

• Prevent errors and bugs: A staging site allows you to test any changes or updates without affecting your live website. This helps to prevent errors and bugs that could negatively impact your website's functionality and user experience. This is especially important when adding plugins to your site.
• Improve website performance: Testing changes on a staging site can help you identify any performance issues before they affect your live website. This allows you to optimize your website and ensure that it performs well for your visitors.
• Avoid downtime: Making changes to your live website can cause downtime, which can be frustrating for your visitors and negatively impact your search engine rankings. Using a staging site allows you to make changes without affecting your live website's uptime.
• Test new features: A staging site allows you to test new features before making them live, allowing you to ensure that they work properly and provide a good user experience.

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Before you start:

Make a backup of your site, and store it on your computer, in Dropbox, or Google Drive.

How to set up a staging site in Big Scoots :

Go to CPanel in Big Scoots and then go to WordPress manager. Click on the dropdown in the right-hand column of the site that you want to create staging for. Click on staging, and where it says directory, add a directory name, i.e.: staged. Click Disable Search Engine Visibility, then click Create Staging. Click on administrative url and you will be taken to the admin area of your staging site.

Double check that you are in your staging site. Your url should be something like this:

https://yoursitename.com/staged/wp-admin/

The word “staged” in my url is the directory name that I chose when setting up staging.

Make your changes in your Big Scoots staging site

Now you can add plugins, update your site, change the theme, etc. without worrying about messing up your live site. Also, your visitors will not see a maintenance page. Be sure to test your site to see if there are any bugs or errors. Click on links, make sure that images are displaying properly, contact forms are working, etc.

Push your staging site to live site

Once you are satisfied that your changes are working and there are no errors, go back to CPanel. Click the dropdown that is in the right hand column of your staging site, and click push to live. This will upload the staging site to your live site.

Check your live site to be absolutely sure that all of your changes are working properly.

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