You‘ve spent weeks meticulously crafting the perfect WordPress website. The design is polished, the copy is compelling, and every plugin is in its proper place. But before you smash that "Publish" button and send your digital baby out into the world, there‘s one crucial step you can‘t overlook:
Previewing your site from top to bottom to ensure it looks and functions exactly as intended.
Fail to test your site pre-launch and you risk exposing visitors to a glitchy, unoptimized experience that could send them running for the hills. Not exactly the first impression you‘re going for, right?
In fact, 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a website after a bad experience. And considering that first impressions are 94% design-related, it‘s well worth investing the time to preview your site and iron out any kinks before going live.
As a WordPress developer for over a decade, I‘ve made the mistake of launching sites prematurely, only to scramble to fix errors and placate unhappy clients. Trust me, it‘s not a position you want to find yourself in.
That‘s why I‘ve put together this comprehensive guide walking you through how to preview every aspect of your WordPress site before launch. Whether you‘re a solopreneur building your first site or an agency delivering a high-stakes project to a client, these techniques will give you the confidence to launch flawlessly every time.
Why Previewing Your WordPress Site is Non-Negotiable
When you‘re eager to share your new website with the world, it can be tempting to rush the launch and figure you‘ll fix issues on the fly. But this approach will likely just create more work and headaches for you in the long run.
Previewing allows you to:
- Test your site‘s appearance and functionality across devices and browsers
- Catch embarrassing typos, formatting issues, and broken links
- Ensure all pages are optimized for search engines
- Verify contact forms, checkout processes, and other critical flows work properly
- Solicit feedback and approval from clients or stakeholders
- Avoid the cost and reputation damage control of post-launch errors
Speaking of costs, did you know that the average price to fix a single website bug post-launch is $250? Multiply that by multiple bugs and you‘re looking at some serious cash down the drain, not to mention the time suck of emergency troubleshooting.
Plus, with the risk of losing nearly 90% of dissatisfied visitors for good, you simply can‘t afford NOT to preview your site thoroughly. It‘s like measure twice, cut once…except in this case it‘s more like preview thrice and keep your sanity intact.
Multiple Methods to Preview Your WordPress Site
Now that you‘re sold on the importance of previewing, let‘s dive into the various ways you can QA your site pre-launch. WordPress offers several options for previewing your full site, specific pages/posts, and theme changes safely before pushing them live.
Method 1: Create a Staging Site for Risk-Free Testing
One of the best ways to comprehensively preview changes to an existing WordPress site is to create a staging version. A staging site is an exact replica of your live site hosted on a private server or subdomain.
With staging, you can implement updates and test new features without worrying about breaking your live site or disturbing visitors. It‘s like having a sandbox to play in where you‘re free to experiment and make mistakes.
To create a staging site, you have a few options:
- Use your web hosting platform‘s built-in staging tool (if available)
- Manually create a subdomain and clone your site files and database to it
- Use a WordPress staging plugin
If your host offers 1-click staging, that‘s usually the most straightforward option. Here are instructions for some of the most popular managed WordPress hosts:
No built-in staging? No problem. You can use a plugin instead, like:
These plugins will help you create a clone of your live site either locally or on a subdomain, so you can preview changes without impacting production.
Method 2: Put Your Site in "Coming Soon" Mode
If you‘re building a brand new site from scratch, staging won‘t do you much good since you don‘t have a live version yet. In this case, the best way to preview your under-construction site privately is to put it in "Coming Soon" or "Maintenance" mode.
When activated, Coming Soon mode displays a temporary landing page to the public letting them know your site is in the works. Meanwhile, logged-in admins (i.e. you) can bypass the Coming Soon screen and preview the full site normally.
Most Coming Soon plugins also allow you to:
- Build a custom Coming Soon landing page to capture email leads
- Set an automatic launch date for your site to go live
- Give specific users access to preview the site via a secret URL
Here are a few popular Coming Soon plugins to check out:
To enable Coming Soon mode with SeedProd (my personal favorite):
- Install & activate the SeedProd plugin
- Go to SeedProd > Pages and click "Set up a Coming Soon Page"
- Choose a template and customize your Coming Soon page
- Configure your access controls under Page Settings > Access Control
- Publish your Coming Soon page and toggle the "Enable Coming Soon Mode" option to On
Voila! Now when you visit your site‘s public URL, you‘ll see the Coming Soon page. But when logged in, you can navigate your site freely to preview all your in-progress content.
Method 3: Preview Specific Posts & Pages
Sometimes you don‘t need to preview your whole site – just specific pages or posts you‘re working on. Luckily, WordPress makes it very easy to preview any post or page before publishing with a single click.
To preview an individual page/post:
- Open the page/post in the WordPress block editor
- In the top right corner, click the "Preview" button
- Select whether to view the preview in a new tab
WordPress will generate a preview link that shows exactly how your page/post will look live, with your theme‘s styling and any dynamic content pulled in.
You can even share the preview link with others (like clients) by copying the URL. Just keep in mind that the link will expire as soon as you publish or update the page/post.
Pro tip: You can preview pages/posts without saving your changes first. So if you‘re just playing around with a new design direction, you don‘t need to worry about accidentally overwriting your original draft.
Method 4: Preview Theme & Customizer Changes
In addition to previewing content, WordPress also lets you preview changes to your site‘s theme and appearance settings risk-free.
Before activating a new theme, you can preview how it will look across your site from the Themes page:
- Go to Appearance > Themes
- Hover over the theme you want to preview
- Click the "Live Preview" button
WordPress will open the Customizer showing your site wearing the new theme. You can navigate around to get a feel for how the theme handles your content and layouts BEFORE activating it.
No more surprises or mad scrambles to revert your theme!
The Customizer also has a live preview feature baked in. As you tweak settings like your site title, colors, and homepage layout, the preview pane will update instantly to reflect the changes.
That way, you can perfect your site‘s appearance in real-time without pushing changes live until you‘re 100% happy. When you‘re ready to apply the changes, simply click "Publish" in the top left.
If you build websites for clients, you know how important it is to solicit their feedback and approval throughout the design process. But you may not want to give away the keys to your WordPress dashboard or risk them seeing a broken live site.
The solution? Create a password-protected preview of the site that only people with the login credentials can access. This gives your clients a way to experience the site in its full interactive glory without needing to log into WordPress.
There are a few ways to set up password-protected previews:
- Use your hosting platform‘s built-in password protection
- Password protect your staging site
- Use a plugin like Password Protected
- Create a custom login page using a plugin like Theme My Login
Personally, I like using the Password Protected plugin because it‘s simple and just works. Install the plugin, activate it, and your site is instantly password protected. Clients can "log in" using the global password you set.
Whichever method you choose, make sure to communicate the preview link and login instructions clearly with your client. You may even consider making a short Loom video walking them through how to access the preview.
The easier you make it for your clients to preview the site, the more likely you are to get timely feedback and keep the project moving forward.
Tips for an Effective WordPress Preview Process
We‘ve covered the various ways you can preview your WordPress site before launch. Now, I want to share some of my hard-earned wisdom for making your pre-launch preview as comprehensive and stress-free as possible.
Build Previewing into Your Project Timeline
One of the biggest mistakes I see WordPress developers and site owners make is not budgeting enough time for previewing and revisions before launch. They assume they can throw the site together quickly and just hit publish.
In reality, the preview and refinement phase often takes longer than the initial build. By the time you factor in testing across devices, catching all the little details, implementing client feedback, and prepping the site for launch…it adds up.
That‘s why I recommend allocating at least 1-2 weeks for previewing, depending on the size and complexity of the site. Build this time into your project plan from the start so it doesn‘t catch you off guard.
Trust me, you‘ll be glad you have the extra buffer when the inevitable last-minute requests and tweaks come in.
Create a QA Checklist to Test Every Element
When you‘re deep in the weeds of developing a site, it‘s easy to overlook small details that are glaring to a fresh set of eyes. Having a thorough quality assurance (QA) checklist keeps you focused and ensures you don‘t miss any crucial elements.
Some key things to include on your pre-launch QA checklist:
- Test all forms and interactive elements (contact forms, search, pagination, etc.)
- Click every link and button to check for broken links
- Review all content for typos, formatting issues, and clarity
- Preview the site on multiple devices and browsers
- Confirm meta titles and descriptions are optimized for search
- Ensure images are optimized and sized properly
- Check site speed and performance
- Validate HTML and CSS
- Set up Google Analytics and Search Console
- Create a custom 404 error page
- Configure backups and security measures
Your list may differ based on the needs of the site, but these are some of the most important boxes to check before going live. I like to use a project management tool like Asana or Trello to track my pre-launch tasks and visualize progress.
Don‘t Neglect Mobile Preview and Testing
Did you know that 54.4% of global website traffic comes from mobile devices? That means neglecting to preview and optimize your site for mobile could alienate over half of your potential visitors.
While most WordPress themes are responsive out of the box these days, you still need to manually test your site‘s mobile experience. Responsive design isn‘t a silver bullet – there‘s a lot that can go wrong when your site scales down.
Some common mobile issues I see:
- Overlapping or cut-off content
- Unclickable links or buttons
- Slow loading images
- Forms that are hard to fill out
- Wonky navigation menus
To catch these issues before they frustrate users, make sure to preview your site on as many devices as possible. If you don‘t have a stockpile of smartphones and tablets at your disposal, use a tool like BrowserStack to simulate your site across devices.
I also highly recommend installing a mobile preview plugin like WP Mobile Preview. This adds a floating preview button to the WordPress admin bar so you can instantly see how your site looks on mobile and tablet without leaving your dashboard. Super handy for spot-checking as you build.
Get Feedback Early and Often
Finally, don‘t wait until your site is "perfect" to share it with others for feedback. The earlier you can get external input, the more time you have to iterate and refine before launch.
If you‘re working with clients, schedule a preview milestone about halfway through the project. This is a great opportunity to align on the overall direction, catch any red flags, and make sure you‘re on track to meet their expectations.
I also like to get feedback from fellow WordPress developers or designers in my network. They often catch technical issues or design improvements I overlook when I‘m too close to the project.
You can also tap your target audience for feedback. Invite a few trusted customers or readers to preview the site and share their first impressions. Is anything confusing to navigate? Does the messaging resonate? Their outside perspective is invaluable for creating a site that actually meets visitors‘ needs.
Go Forth and Preview with Confidence
Congratulations! You now have a full arsenal of techniques and best practices to preview your WordPress site like a pro. By incorporating these into your pre-launch process, you‘ll catch issues before they become showstoppers and ensure a polished, functional site from day one.
Some key takeaways to remember:
- Preview early and often to catch issues when they‘re easier to fix
- Use staging or Coming Soon mode to preview site-wide changes safely
- Take advantage of WordPress‘ built-in preview features for low-risk experimentation
- Create a QA checklist to test every aspect of your site, including mobile
- Get feedback from clients, peers, and target users to validate your work
- Budget ample time for the preview and refinement phase before launch
Now it‘s time to put these techniques into practice. Refer back to this guide as you gear up for your next launch and notice how much more confident you feel hitting that publish button.
Happy previewing!
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