How to create a clone / staging site in WordPress
Updated last month
To create a private staging environment for our WordPress site, so that we can clone the site and perform tests on our private clone, we must follow these instructions:
Access WordPress Management
First, we access our cPanel and select WordPress Management on the left side of the panel.
Clone Installation
Here, we find the installation we want to clone and click Clone:
A window will open to determine the clone's location. We recommend using a subdomain such as staging.domain.com or dev.domain.com, and that's it.
Enable maintenance mode
Once the process is complete, we recommend enabling the "Maintenance mode" option to prevent the new site from being accessible to anonymous users and show it only to logged-in administrator users.
Disable plugins
We recommend keeping the following plugins disabled on the staging site to avoid interfering with the main site or sending incorrect emails to customers, in case the site is intended for testing and you do not plan to move any changes to the main site later.
Google Analytics, Site Kit, or any plugin that tracks statistics, to avoid contaminating the main site's statistics.
Disable email sending with plugins such as FluentSMTP
Google or Facebook for WooCommerce, or any plugin that generates a feed, which will be unnecessary on the test site.
Copy settings to the main site
If we want to transfer the changes made on the staging site to the main site, we can use the "Copy data" tool in WordPress Management:
