Building a WordPress site is an exciting and essential step for creating a personal blog, business site, or portfolio. While most people are familiar with the idea of going live once the site is built, some prefer to set up the website in private mode before making it available to the public. Whether for testing, development, or customization, building a WordPress site without going live allows for a smoother transition when you’re ready to launch. In this article, we’ll walk you through the process of building a WordPress site without it going live, including setting up the site in a staging environment, using plugins to hide it, and testing it thoroughly.
What Is a WordPress Staging Environment?
A staging environment is a replica of your live site where you can test new themes, plugins, or content changes before they go live. Essentially, it’s a safe space to develop and modify your WordPress site without risking damage to your live website. The staging environment is essential for troubleshooting, experimenting, and ensuring everything works smoothly when you make the transition to a live site.
Steps to Set Up Your WordPress Site Without Going Live
Setting up a WordPress site without making it visible to the public is fairly straightforward. The key is to ensure that all visitors—except for yourself or any developers you work with—are blocked from accessing your site. Here’s how you can do that:
1. Install WordPress Locally
Installing WordPress locally means that your website is hosted on your computer instead of on a public server. This is a great way to build a site without it being visible to anyone. To do this, you’ll need software like XAMPP, MAMP, or WAMP, which turns your computer into a local server. This method allows you to develop your site completely offline.
After installing the necessary software and setting up a local server, you can download WordPress from the official website and set it up on your local server. You’ll have the full functionality of WordPress without needing to publish your site to the web.
2. Use a Maintenance Mode Plugin
If you’re building your site on a live server but want to prevent it from being visible to the public, using a maintenance mode plugin is the simplest method. Plugins like Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode by SeedProd or WP Maintenance Mode will allow you to display a “Coming Soon” page to your visitors. You can work on the backend of the website, and only those with the correct credentials will be able to view it.
These plugins also allow you to customize the “Under Construction” page with information or branding, so visitors know the site will be live soon. Here’s how you can use this method:
Install and activate the plugin of your choice.
Configure the settings to enable maintenance mode. You can set it to show the page to everyone or exclude certain user roles (like administrators) from seeing it.
Customize the appearance of the page with your logo, message, or any other details you want to include.
This method is highly effective for sites that are live on a server but not ready for public viewing.
3. Create a Password-Protected Site
Another way to keep your WordPress site hidden from the public is by using a password protection method. By doing so, only those with the password will be able to access the site. To password-protect your site, follow these steps:
Go to your WordPress dashboard.
Navigate to Settings and click on Reading.
Under the “Search Engine Visibility” section, check the box that says, “Discourage search engines from indexing this site.”
In addition, you can also restrict access by using a plugin like Password Protected or PrivateContent. These plugins offer you a variety of options to protect your entire site or specific parts of it.
4. Use a Staging Site with Your Hosting Provider
Many hosting providers offer built-in staging environments for WordPress sites. If you’re using a managed WordPress hosting service like WP Engine, SiteGround, or Bluehost, they typically offer an easy-to-use staging environment. Here’s how it works:
Log in to your hosting control panel.
Find the option to create a staging site. This will copy your live site (or create a fresh copy if you don’t have one) to a private subdomain or folder.
You can then make edits, test new features, and even change themes on this staging site.
Once you’re happy with the changes, you can push the staging site to the live environment.
Staging sites provided by your hosting provider are the best way to ensure that you can work on your website without any downtime or the risk of breaking your live site.
5. Make Your Site Private Using WordPress Settings
WordPress allows you to make your entire site private from within its settings. By going to the Settings tab in the WordPress dashboard and selecting Reading, you can find the option labeled “Discourage search engines from indexing this site.” When this box is checked, search engines will ignore your site, and it will not show up in search results.
However, this method alone does not prevent people from accessing your site if they have the direct URL. To make sure no one can view your site, use the Password Protection or Maintenance Mode methods mentioned earlier.
6. Hide Your Site Using a Plugin Like “My Private Site”
A more specific way to keep your site hidden from the public is by using a plugin like My Private Site. This plugin allows you to make your entire WordPress site private, so only those with a user account and login credentials can access the content. This is perfect for developing an intranet-style website or if you want to work on a site without public access.
Once the plugin is activated, the entire site will require login credentials, and non-logged-in visitors will not be able to see any of the content. You can also customize the login screen and choose whether the site is visible to only logged-in users or specific user roles.
Testing Your Site Before Going Live
Once you’ve built your site and are satisfied with its design, it’s crucial to test it thoroughly before going live. Below are some areas you should focus on when testing:
1. Check Site Speed and Performance
The speed of your WordPress site can significantly impact its user experience. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTMetrix to analyze your site’s loading speed. Ensure that images are optimized, plugins are not overloading the site, and caching is configured correctly.
2. Test Mobile Responsiveness
In today’s mobile-first world, it’s essential to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly. Check how your site looks on various devices like smartphones, tablets, and different screen sizes. Most themes in WordPress are responsive, but it’s still important to test this aspect thoroughly.
3. Ensure Compatibility with Browsers
Test how your site functions across different browsers—like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge. Sometimes, a site may look perfect in one browser but fail to display correctly in another.
4. Test Site Functionality
Before launching your site, check all the interactive elements like forms, eCommerce functionality, contact pages, and social media buttons. Ensure everything is working as expected and no functionality is broken.
5. Backup Your Site
Before making your WordPress site live, it’s essential to create a backup. You can use plugins like UpdraftPlus or BackupBuddy to create a full backup of your site. This way, you’ll always have a copy to revert to in case something goes wrong during the transition to the live environment.
Conclusion
Building a WordPress site without going live is an effective way to ensure everything is working perfectly before you reveal your work to the world. Whether you opt for a local environment, staging site, password protection, or maintenance mode, there are various methods available to keep your site hidden from the public while you develop it. With the proper tools and precautions, you can build your WordPress site in a safe and controlled environment, testing all features and making improvements without worrying about the site’s public visibility. Once everything is ready, you can go live with confidence, knowing that your website will perform as expected.
Related Topics
- How To Block Countries From Your Website On WordPress?
- How To Backup A WordPress Site On GoDaddy?
- How To Back Up A WordPress Site?
