However, the same community of users that makes up WordPress has become his ally to review the errors and resolve security issues.
So, together, both aspects have gone hand in hand over the years to ensure the platform works properly.
Why should i clone my website?
From the point of view of WordPress it is a system that, as explained above, is constantly updated to avoid problems.
However, this does not eliminate the degree of risk associated with making a change within the encoding of your page without making one backup copy of your WordPress website before generating any changes.
The idea of cloning your WordPress site into a subdomain is based on the ease of enabling the procedure to make changes without any risk.
This way you will avoid the possibility to create an irreversible update, or a change that does not present a solution, on the web that remains in progress.
Ways to clone or duplicate your WordPress website
As we said before, this idea of generating an exact copy of your site for a subdomain allows you to test with no room for risk.
In general, the easiest way to duplicate is to import the entire website from the server it is hosted on and then install it on a local server which will be on your computer.
To achieve this, WordPress allows its platform to be downloaded via an FTP program (the best known and most recommended is Filezilla).
Unfortunately, this creates the possibility that the changes will not work correctly when your site returns to its original domain.
For the same reason, it is recommended that you duplicate your website in WordPress in a subdomain of the same server, due to the similarities in their configurations.
Clone your website with WP Staging
This is a plugin that is part of the WordPress repertoire that allows the creation of a test site where you will test the changes you want on your website. Before starting the procedure, remember to back up your site well before you start duplicating page content.
Upon installation and activation, it will automatically take you to the page that will allow you to start the procedure. The first step is to press the button " Create new staging site “, Which will start an analysis of your contents, where you will decide the name of your clone site and the files you want to compose.
As soon as you have made these settings, click on " start cloning ”To start the procedure, the delay of which will depend on the size of your page and its server.
Once this is done, select the option " open staging site ”To access the duplicate page you created with administrator credentials.
Clone your website manually
Unfortunately it often happens that some servers are not compatible with the plugins that are used on the platform. While it is a slow and complex option, it allows you to clone your WordPress website to a subdomain even when the server shows an error by some other method.
Start by creating a FTP account of login and a subdomain and then update your database URLs, so that they establish a difference from your main site.
After getting the files via FTP, you need to edit wp-config.php to change the connection data to the new database, in order to upload all the files to the new subdomain.
