In this Monday MasterClass, we see several ways to move or ‘push’ the updated version of our site to the live or production website. This time we cover Local Staging and Hosted Staging, and compare between the two to see when and how we should use them: This episode covers a lot of valuable web-building information for all levels looking to learn how to: – Push a new website to live using All-in-One-WP-Migration – Push a site from Hosted Staging to a live site. – Owner Generated Content vs. User Generated Content – Backing up user/visitor data
this Monday master class picks up where
we left off in our previous master class
in which we saw not only how simple it
is to set up a staging site but also why
we should use it to make changes and
updates and run tests and so on all
within a safe and controlled environment
that of a local version of our WordPress
website on our computer or laptop rather
than risk damaging our live or
production site now since then we’ve
been following the comments and feedback
that you’ve all been very kind in
providing and it’s precisely because we
value your input that we’ll begin this
week’s masterclass by answering some
great questions that you’ve raised and
clarify the important points that you’ve
brought up for the purpose of staging we
need to establish two types of WordPress
websites or if you like two groups of
elements or users on the one hand we
have websites that include user data
such as data from forms or orders placed
by users this also includes sites that
contain user-generated content such as
uploaded images and files and comments
etc on the other hand we have sites that
only rely on the content that we the
site moderators provide now the reason
we make this distinction is that we need
to know whether or not we should be
concerned about the data that was added
to our live website while we were
working on the backup version of our
site in the local isolated environment
now if we’re the only people inputting
data to our site we can avoid adding any
data while we’re working on the changes
and just push the updated version of our
site in much the same way that we would
a brand new site so if this screen looks
familiar it should because it’s exactly
where we left off in our last master
class now we’re in flywheels local app
which is what we use to upload a backup
copy of our live or production web site
onto a staging environment on our
computer or laptop now perhaps you’ve
done something similar using bitNami or
XA MPP for the purpose of this
masterclass we’ve added a menu and a
header now once we’ve
updating and testing our site we want to
upload our new version from the local
environment to the live site the
simplest way to do this is by using a
migration plugin and we’ll be using one
of the most popular among them the
all-in-one WP migration plugin we’ll
install this plugin on both our local
and our live WordPress installations the
same way as we would any other plugin
we’ll go to the wordpress dashboard and
in the plugin tab we’ll click add new
search for all-in-one WP migration we’ll
download it and activate it now with
that done we’ll go to the WordPress
dashboard in our local environment and
in the left menu bar we’ll click on the
all-in-one WP migration then select
export now you can go over this nice
list of Advanced Options here and of
course select anything that is relevant
in the settings we’ll select file and
export essentially all we’re doing is
creating a backup of our site as it is
on the local environment
and we’ll just download the migration
file once it’s done we’ll go to our live
sites WordPress dashboard in the left
menu bar we’ll click on all in one WP
migration but this time we’ll select
import and in the settings we’ll select
import from file we’ll locate our
exported file and click on open this
might take a little longer than a few
moments depending on the size of the
site but nothing on our live site has
changed yet a warning will appear in
case we’ve forgotten that doing this
will overwrite everything on our live
site including comments orders etc
as this isn’t a problem for this
particular website we can click on
proceed and we’ll just speed this up a
little as the old files are replaced by
the new ones and we’re done
our new version is up and running not
that there should be anything wrong with
the site but we’ll check it because it’s
always better to be safe than sorry
perfect when it comes to our other
category of WordPress and elements or
users who rely on data that comes from
an external source data that comes from
the users and their subscriptions
purchase orders even comments there are
two
of pushing a newly updated site from the
staging environments to the live site
without risk of losing any data that was
registered there one unfortunately
involves messing around with individual
files and folders through an FTP or SFTP
interface the other is through a hosting
service now whichever way you choose to
push your site it is extremely important
to back up your live site and data
before you do anything else remember
it’s always better to be safe than sorry
now to do this you can use the
all-in-one WP migration plugin that we
just mentioned or duplicator or migrate
dB once your live site is backed up the
easiest way to push our site is through
our host server now there are plenty of
WordPress web hosting services that
offer staging services whereby a
completely independent separate
environment is created on the hosting
server to run all of our tests and try
out our new ideas and these include
hosts such as Bluehost psych ground even
flywheels premium hosting package
includes this option and of course we’ll
be posting links to all of these and
more in the show notes below if we’re
honest Bluehost is the more popular
because they offer their staging service
for free but then again you might prefer
SiteGround because of their superior
quality of service this is something
that we must decide for ourselves based
on the size of our site and the volume
of traffic but we also need to consider
the revenue that we’ll need to achieve
in order to cover our costs and whether
our choice will help or harm our
business goals and this is where we need
to really be honest with ourselves
because if our website is also our
livelihood then hosting is not one of
those places where we want to cut
corners or scrimp and save
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local staging a staging environment on
our own computer or laptop has many
benefits chief among them is speed
working locally we’ll see test results
and responses far quicker making it the
perfect environment for huge overhauls
and possibly initial builds too while
host staging is not as fast as local
staging it is ideal for routine testing
and updating because it can still handle
changes to graphics written content
updates and tests quite nicely so long
as they’re not too big the major
drawback is inevitably the price tag as
several hosting services charge extra
fees for staging
however these fees include support which
could save a lot of time and money in
the long run but bottom line all host
sites that offer staging services have
similar features that allow us to push
the new version of our site from the
staging to the live sites with minimum
effort and zero worry everything that we
have seen and discussed in this
masterclass is used by professional web
builders the world over if you use any
of these methods or would like to
suggest an alternative perhaps easier
method or you have any advice that could
help other users then by all means let
us know in the comments and if you’ve
enjoyed this masterclass and you’d like
to see more then make sure you click on
the subscribe button and tap that bell
so that you don’t miss out on our next
masterclass after all our goal is to be
the best at helping others excel at
their craft thanks for watching
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