What Is a Staging Site?

A staging site is a copy of your live website placed in a safe, private location such as:

• staging.yourdomain.com
• dev.yourdomain.com
• test.yourdomain.com

You can build or edit without affecting your public site.

⚠️ Think of staging as your “sandbox” — a place to break things without consequences.

Why You Should Use a Staging Website

• Test new plugins or themes safely
• Develop features before launch
• Train staff without risk
• Run updates without breaking live site

Even big companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google use staging systems.

Step 1: Create a Subdomain in Nairahost

1. Login to cPanel
2. Click Subdomains
3. Enter a name like staging
4. Select your domain
5. Click Create

Your staging folder will now exist at:

/public_html/staging

Step 2: Copy Files Into Staging Folder

Option 1 – Manual Copy

1. Open File Manager
2. Copy all files from public_html
3. Paste into public_html/staging

Option 2 – Using WordPress Plugins

• WP Staging
• Duplicator
• All-In-One Migration

???? WP Staging creates a full clone inside your hosting automatically.

Step 3: Clone Database

1. Open phpMyAdmin
2. Select your live database
3. Click Export → Download
4. Create new database → Import SQL

Step 4: Update Configuration (WordPress)

Edit wp-config.php in your staging folder:

define('DB_NAME', 'staging_db');
define('DB_USER', 'staging_user');
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'yourpass');
    

Then change site URLs in phpMyAdmin:

UPDATE wp_options SET option_value='https://staging.yourdomain.com' WHERE option_name='siteurl';
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value='https://staging.yourdomain.com' WHERE option_name='home';
    

Step 5: Protect the Staging Site (Important)

You do NOT want Google to crawl or index your staging site.

Option 1 – Enable “Discourage search engines” in WP Settings

Option 2 – Add password protection via cPanel

1. Go to Directory Privacy
2. Select staging folder
3. Enable password protection

Step 6: Working on Your Staging Site

• Install plugins safely
• Test new themes
• Debug code
• Make design changes

Step 7: Push Staging to Live

Once you're satisfied, copy updated files and database back to your main site. Plugins like WP Staging Pro and Duplicator Pro can automate this.