5 reasons to create a Test Environment
A test environment is a separate version of your website that is used to test changes and new features before making them public. There are many reasons why it is important to create a test environment for your website, both for technical reasons and for SEO and user experience reasons. In this article, we'll explore 5 reasons why you should have a test environment.
Test environment: what it is and how to create it
A test environment is a copy of your live site hidden from the public that allows you to go about implementing new features without breaking your website. To implement a test environment for your website, the first step is to create a copy of your live site. This can be done using a backup plugin like Duplicator Pro or manually creating a copy of your site.
Once you have a copy of your live site, you can use a test plugin like WP Staging to create a separate test environment. These plugins allow you to create a cloned version of your live site so you can make changes and test new features safely.
If you want to learn more about how to create a staging site, read our item. Now let's see the 5 reasons so you should have your own test environment.
Site always live
The development of new features can be very dangerous for the website, therefore it may be necessary to put the site under maintenance for a period of time until the functionality is published. This is one of the main reasons to have a test environment: you will be able to develop without ever having to make the website down. A great advantage not only for the server, but also for site-related metrics, since a stop never brings good results.
Prevent errors on the Live site
One of the main reasons you need a test environment is to develop new features safely going to prevent errors on your website. In fact, in a test environment, you can test changes and new features on a separate version of your site before making them public, thus avoiding causing problems on the live site that could have negative consequences on user experience, but also on SEO .
Safe and error-free updates
A test environment is also great for being able to update your own plugins or WordPress themes without the risk of harming your own live website. Updating plugins is in fact a fundamental activity that should be done periodically on your website, but it can involve risks, such as the incompatibility of the new version of a plugin with another that has already been present on the site for a long time . For this reason, making updates in a test environment allows you to carry out the necessary checks and solve any problems without damaging the user experience.
SEO optimization and traffic generation
A test environment can also be used forSEO optimization of your website. For example, you can use it to test content changes and see how they affect the performance of your pages in terms of search engine rankings and traffic.
Also, you can use a test environment for monitor changes in the performance of your website in general. For example, you can use analytics tools like Google Analytics to compare the performance of your live site to the test version and evaluate whether the changes you made had a positive or negative impact.
A tool for Testing new Content
The test environment is also very useful for testing a new design or content structure. for your website. For example, if you want to make changes to your design or content structure, you can try to implement the changes first on the test environment and only then publish them on the live site, in order to work calmly and carefully.
Create a test environment of your site yourself
We have seen that therefore there are various reasons for creating a test environment for your website. Surely it is a site protection and safety activity that should not be underestimated, especially if your business revolves entirely around your website.
Create your own test environment and start developing risk-free.
