Staging sites and pushing live
Build on a throwaway staging domain, then promote it to a production domain with a WordPress search and replace done for you.
Staging sites let you rebuild, upgrade or experiment without touching a live site, then promote the result. Applies to all WordPress Cloud packages, which include a staging allowance separate from the production one.
What a staging site is
A staging site lives on <label>.stg.webgee.space rather than a domain of your
own. Create one from Websites → Add website by choosing Staging
website. See Add a website.
Staging sites carry an STG badge throughout the panel and behave like production sites in almost every respect — same container, same tooling, same backups.
Two differences matter:
- No mailboxes. Email accounts require a production website. The Emails page reports "No websites exist" if all you have is staging.
- Not indexed by you. The
stg.webgee.spacedomain is WebGee's, so search engine visibility is not yours to control. Do not park a real site there long term.
Push a staging site live
Open the staging site and select Push live. Two destinations:
- To an existing website — overwrite a site you already have.
- To a new website — create a production site from this staging copy.
For a new website:
- Choose the Package the production site will consume.
- Enter the production Domain.
- Leave Perform a WordPress search and replace ticked.
- Select Push live.
Pushing to an existing website replaces that site's files and database. Take a backup of the destination first — pushing live is not reversible from the push dialog.
Why search and replace matters
WordPress stores absolute URLs throughout the database — in post content, in
widget configuration, and inside serialised option values. Copying the database
without rewriting them leaves the live site pointing at
stg.webgee.space for images, links and redirects.
The search and replace step rewrites those references from the staging domain to
the production domain, handling serialised data correctly. Leave it ticked
unless you have a specific reason not to, and if you untick it, expect to run
wp search-replace yourself afterwards.
After the push
Pushing live consumes one production website from your package. Check Packages to confirm the count moved.
Then verify on the production domain:
- The site loads over
https://with a valid certificate. - Site URL under Apps → Toolkit → General shows the production domain, not the staging one.
- Media files load — broken images are the usual symptom of a skipped search and replace.
The staging site is not deleted by the push. Keep it as your next working copy, or remove it to free the staging slot.