Why You Need a Staging Site for Your Membership program

Jan 28, 2024

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One of the primary reasons WordPress is an excellent choice to host a membership website is the wide range of themes and plug-ins this software is able to provide as well as the customizable possibilities available to customers.

What's in the inside? Toggle

With WordPress you can create improvements to your website through a brand new design, plugin or even a customized codes on your website.

It only takes just few clicks to alter the appearance of your site, add new features, or modify the layout of your website in a different method, Why not experiment using a couple of ideas?

There's however an issue. Despite the relative ease with which we can create a variety of changes to WordPress websites, there are some limitations. WordPress websites, such modifications could have unintended consequences which users may not like.

In this article, we'll teach how to work on your WordPress website without impacting experience for customers which is particularly important when it comes to paying users.

What is a staging site and why you need to own one

Site Safe Coding

As we mentioned, if you test different themes, download new plugins, or play using the menus and widgets of WordPress, you could unwittingly expose your site to risk.

Take a look at what a user might think about in the event that the design of the site abruptly shifts, an element stops functioning, or the whole website is down.

The ideal scenario is that users will be wary of entering personal information. If they don't, you'll find them leaving the website and never come back.

You could also let others know about their displeasure over your website.

The above scenarios can happen in the event that you decide to change the basic elements of your site. That's the reason it's advised that you utilize a staging site or development environment to test any changes you plan to implement on your website.

If you're a Member-Site Administrator, it is more important making any modifications to your live site and create backups of your site page, which only the team members and you are granted access to.

Your staging site is a secure place in which you are free to do whatever you want and without the following restrictions:

  • The current members are dissatisfied
  • Visitors are drawn to the breathtaking
  • Data loss includes customer transactions.

When you're confident that the changes you've made weren't causing difficulties, you're allowed to add them to the current version of your site.

Sound good? Check out this article to learn how to build a staging page to your WordPress site to allow members.

Make sure to check with your Web host

 GoDaddy Staging Sites

One advantage of choosing the platform which powers more than 30 % of websites is that it offers many WordPress-optimized website hosting options available.

One of the latest functions that are common to WordPress web hosting providers, which includes the cheapest plan available include the ability to quickly build a stage site or test environment with your existing site.

The top staging-site options offered by web hosting providers allow you to easily create an exclusive test area and then to transfer the test version of your site to your live host system.

SiteGround Staging Site Tools

Because of this, it's possible to take all the time you like and as detailed as you want when trying the new configuration of your site. Once you're finished and are satisfied, you can provide the new features to visitors and members by just two or three clicks.

However, the use of staging websites can be helpful to prevent problems associated with making use of the live site for development and testing.

Select a WordPress Staging Site plugin

WordPress Stating Plugin

If you want for the WordPress plugin, which allows users to build the stage version of your site you have two options:

  • A plugin designed specifically for this purpose.
  • A web-duplication plug-in for general-purpose use.

Let's take a quick glance at the pros and cons of each choice before identifying the most effective plugins.

A specially-built stage-site plug-in may seem like a natural choice However, the options available are more limited as there are less plugins that can be used that you can choose from.

In addition, you aren't so much in charge of the entire process or the final result as you are when you use plug-ins with a more general purpose for site copying.

WPStaging Plugin

A second alternative, the general-purpose website-duplication software will give you greater control over the entire procedure.

The best plugins in this category let you take specific elements from your site, such as the database, for instance or the content. There are other options for where the staging website will be, for instance your local WordPress installation or a private subdomain.

While many of the top WordPress web-duplication tools are cost-free, they're not always as easy to use as professional staging-site software.

  • WP Stagecoach - a commercial one-click staging-site-creation WordPress plugin with lots of useful features.
  • WordPress Staging Free, currently in development WordPress stage and Cloning plugin.
  • Duplicator is a powerful but more difficult WordPress duplication plugin for websites.

You can see that when you're willing to pay for an expensive plugin, it's easier. Although the free ones may require a bit of effort however, they're certainly useful tools for creating an WordPress membership-staging site.

Last reflections

I'm hoping you're now aware of the advantages of creating a staging environment for your WordPress Membership website.

There's no need to worry about code that's a bit crude for a personal website but when you're operating an official membership website, you have more of a responsibility to look after your customers, regardless of whether or not they're paying for access to your website or not.

     What are you planning to create when you are creating a web-based space to host your site for membership? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

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