Setting Up a Staging Environment

A staging environment is a copy of your production environment used for testing changes before deploying them live. This prevents downtime and bugs on your live site.

Simple Staging Setup

1. Create a Subdomain: Create a subdomain like `staging.yourdomain.com`.
2. Copy Your Files: Duplicate your live website's files to a new directory for the staging site.
3. Duplicate Your Database: Export your live database and import it into a new database for the staging site.
4. Update Configuration: Update your staging site's configuration file (e.g., `wp-config.php`) to use the new staging database credentials and the staging URL.
5. Restrict Access: It's crucial to block search engines and public access to your staging site, usually with password protection (.htpasswd) or IP whitelisting.