Revamp Your Website Seamlessly With Staging Site Synchronization

Fearlessly try out new ideas and designs before publishing them to the world.

November 21, 2023

Wojtek Naruniec

Imagine you spot a new theme that would make your site shine. Or a plugin that will elevate your website’s functionality and user experience to new heights. Understandably, you’d probably like to test these changes before making them live to the world. 

In May, we announced the availability of staging sites, which make it easy to experiment with changes like these. We’re excited to announce that you can now use our new synchronization feature to push changes from your staging site to your live, or “production,” site. 

Starting today, fearlessly try out new ideas and designs before publishing them to the world. Let’s take a deeper look. 

Want to test out our staging sites and other developer features? Click here to get started with a free hosting trial.

Let’s say you have a thriving pet grooming business. You have a nice, professional website, but it could use a few more handy features (like appointment scheduling) and a bit more pizzazz in general. Using a staging site, you play around with a few different themes and ultimately decide to design your own with our fun and easy-to-use assembler tool. You land on the perfect design for your site and now you need a plugin that allows clients to book an appointment. You try a couple different options, but nothing looks or works quite how you want it until you land on WooCommerce Bookings. Perfect. 

Now, after those few days of experimenting and trying new things, you have a new, jazzed up website that you’re happy to share with the world. Simply click a couple of buttons on the Hosting Configuration page, and voila, your new site is live. 

By working on your new site in a staging environment, you were able to maintain a professional presence while making magic happen behind the scenes. With our new staging sites synchronization feature, you’re now able to easily push your changes live. 

How to synchronize your staging sites on WordPress.com

First, create a staging site on a Business or Commerce site with Hosting Features enabled. Once your staging site is created, try out some new plugins, play around with a new site design, or build a brand new homepage.

When you are satisfied with your changes and would like to copy them from staging to production, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to your hosting dashboard: Settings → Hosting Configuration 
  2. Scroll down to the “Staging site” section
  3. Select one of the options under “Choose synchronization direction”
  4. Toggle your desired options under “Synchronize this data” 
  5. Click “Synchronize”

When the confirmation window appears, proceed by clicking “Synchronize” one final time. 

For more details, including how to use the synchronization feature for different scenarios, visit our staging sites support page. This feature is accessible to all of our customers on our Business and Commerce plans.

Build your next site on WordPress.com

At WordPress.com, we’re committed to making your website management experience as seamless as possible. In the last year alone, we launched SSH and WP-CLI access, site preview links, global edge caching, staging sites, and more. With data synchronization for staging sites, we’ve added yet another powerful feature to your toolkit. Stay tuned for more exciting updates, and don’t forget to follow our Developer Blog to stay in the loop.

What other features would you like to see? How can we make WordPress.com an even more powerful place to build a website? Feel free to leave a comment.

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25 Comments

Comments are closed.

  1. thekingstreasure Nov 21st at 4:17 pm

    Thanks for this.

    Liked by 2 people

  2. UDEDIS Unidos para la Defensa de la Discapacidad Nov 21st at 4:36 pm

    Necesito hablar con vosotros. He perdido el acceso a mi blog y no se recuperarlo

    Like

  3. Tracy Nov 21st at 8:08 pm

    I’m ready but scared I had many bad things happen to me because of my stupidity so I won’t dive in ,let God do his work

    Liked by 3 people

  4. Praise Nov 21st at 8:47 pm

    Wow

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Ana Daksina Nov 21st at 10:34 pm

    Good idea!

    Liked by 3 people

  6. Toni Wright Nov 22nd at 12:15 am

    I want to know what happened to the Business Plan I paid for? Where is the Live Chat? If you changed my plan before I was able to finish paying for it, how is that possible? Where is the Live Chat and why is it so hard to get in touch with a “HAPPY ENGINEER?”

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Daniel Mwakapiki Nov 22nd at 8:18 am

    Good

    Like

  8. Suhas Arya Nov 22nd at 1:16 pm

    Super

    Liked by 2 people

  9. misnamichu1995 Nov 22nd at 2:07 pm

    Good idea

    Liked by 1 person

  10. victorchioke619 Nov 22nd at 2:41 pm

    Nicee

    Liked by 4 people

  11. Ravi T g m Nov 23rd at 8:01 am

    Nicee

    Liked by 3 people

  12. interestinglyonline.com Nov 23rd at 11:48 am

    Nice one. Thanks for the tips.

    Liked by 2 people

  13. I Hate Beef Nov 23rd at 1:48 pm

    Who is this feature available to?

    Liked by 8 people

  14. My Bharat Nov 29th at 4:28 pm

    Nice

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Dirichi Diamond Nov 30th at 8:29 am

    Thanks for the update. Nice

    Liked by 6 people

  16. favojoche2022 Dec 1st at 6:49 am

    Good idea

    Liked by 2 people

  17. kianharrisat795 Dec 1st at 9:11 pm

    I love minnie mouse because she is so very romantic

    Liked by 2 people

  18. Aminu Idris Dec 2nd at 11:09 am

    So cute

    Liked by 2 people

  19. blessedonyemauche74 Dec 4th at 11:44 am

    Wow

    Liked by 2 people

  20. Tumininu Victoria Dec 5th at 10:06 pm

    Great

    Liked by 5 people

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