InMotion Hosting – WordPress Staging Site: A Step-By-Step Guide

You’ve decided to create a blog. Now what? Choosing a domain name and setting up your website with a reliable hosting company are the first steps to take. But rather than simply set up a blog and leave it at that, why not take the time to develop your site further? After all, there’s a wealth of features available beyond just blogging, and you can leverage these features to their fullest potential.

What you need is a staging site. A staging site is a website that you use to experiment with different layouts and features that you can then move seamlessly into your live blog. To ensure that your efforts don’t go to waste, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide to help you create a functional and powerful WordPress staging site in no time! Let’s get started.

Step 1: Register Your Domain Name

This first step is pretty self-explanatory. You’ll need to have a domain name for your site. You can choose any.com extension that you wish, as long as it’s not taken or owned by another entity. For example, you could register “blog.mysite.com” or “yourblog.com”, but not “myblog.com”. Keep in mind: when you choose a.com address, it is considered Web 2.0, because it is a domain that people can own and manage themselves. If you are unfamiliar, Web 1.0 sites were simply made up of keywords and hyperlinks, whereas Web 2.0 sites incorporate an artistic style as well as additional content such as videos, pictures, and interactive elements.

Step 2: Install WordPress

Now that you have your domain name, install WordPress onto your server. If you’re reading this, then you’ve already taken the first step by installing WordPress. But, just to be safe, you can also download the WordPress package directly from the WordPress website. Once you’ve downloaded and installed WordPress, navigate to its dashboard by going to localhost (or the IP address of your staging site) and clicking on the WordPress icon in the address bar.

Step 3: Set Up Your Database

After you’ve installed WordPress, the next step is to create a database for your site. A database is a collection of data that can be searched and organized. If you’ve ever used a search engine like Google or Bing, then you’ve probably already had contact with a database. When users search for content on Google, the results are displayed based on the information stored in the database. So, if you’ve ever wanted to make your blog searchable, then you have to have a database. As a side note, you don’t have to use a search engine to find your database. You can directly type “localhost” or your IP address followed by “+ Databse” (without the quotes) into your browser’s address bar and your database will be displayed.

Step 4: Install WordPress Plugins

After you’ve created your database, it’s time to install the WordPress plugins that you need for the site. When developing plugins for WordPress, the first thing you’ll need to do is register the plugin with the WordPress.org repository. Once you’ve registered the plugin you can download and install it to your WordPress dashboard. When installing plugins, it is usually a good idea to activate them (when they are installed). This will allow you to start using the plugin right away, without needing to create an account and login to use it.

Step 5: Install Jetpack

If you’re using the free version of WordPress, then you won’t have access to many of its features. Luckily, you can download Jetpack and gain full access to WordPress’s immense feature set, as well as the ability to create highly customized sites. Before you download Jetpack, you should read its documentation carefully so you know what features you’ll need to toggle on to use it. Once you’ve downloaded and installed Jetpack, navigate to its dashboard by going to localhost (or the IP address of your staging site) and clicking on the jetpack icon in the address bar.

Step 6: Use the Admin Area

The last step of the process is to log in to WordPress as an administrator and use its backend to customize the site as you see fit. Don’t worry — when you log in you’ll still be on the public facing side of WordPress, so your content won’t be visible to users. Returning to the frontend, you can use the left-hand navigation menu in WordPress to browse to different areas of the site where you can find the controls necessary to modify its layout and design.

Congratulations! You’ve just completed the 6-step process to create a functioning WordPress staging site!

Not only have you successfully created a functioning WordPress site, but you’ve also created a fully customizable one. So, what happens now? Your site is complete and ready to go live, but there’s still something missing. You’re forgetting about SEO. You’ll need to take the time to optimize your site’s content so that it can be easily found by potential users who are looking for information about your niche.

Step 7: Generate Your SEO-Optimized Content

There are several free tools like Google Keyword Planner, which you can use to find the keywords and phrases that you should be using in your content, as well as the competition for each phrase. When developing content for your blog, use these tools to determine the phrases that you should be using and a variety of platforms, such as YouTube, to disseminate your content. Remember, the more you put in, the more you get back. So, make sure you create content that is both relevant and useful, as well as the best piece of content for your niche. When done correctly, the results of your efforts will be astounding!

Step 8: Promote Your Blog

Now that you have an SEO optimised blog, the last step is to promote it on online communities such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. You should use these platforms to connect with people who have similar interests to your blog, as well as the general public. Sharing on these platforms is free, so you can use them to gain more traction for your blog. Creating content for your blog that is engaging and interesting will help drive more traffic to it, as will connecting with people who have an interest in your niche of choice.

InMotion Hosting – WordPress Staging Site: A Step-By-Step Guide

Creating a functional and powerful WordPress staging site is now easily within your reach. All you need is a little bit of patience and the ability to follow simple instructions. Don’t forget to read our guide’s FAQ section if you have any questions about the process, and feel free to reach out to our team of support if you need any further assistance.