From Staging to Go-Live Print

NameHero Resources:

1. 07/17/17  How To Setup A Staging Environment For WordPress
2. 01/24/18  How To Setup A WordPress Staging Site And Re-Import Your Changes (Updated For 2018)
3. 11/13/18  How to Create A WordPress Staging Environment With 1 Click (Start at 38:00)

Elementor Resources:

1. Strategies for going Live With New Site (WordPress Meetup Slides)

Phase 1: BACKUP

1. Make a full cPanel backup of the existing site (if one exists)
   1. Go to the lyonlazarus.com cPanel > Full Backups > Generate Download > Add to Download Queue > Download

Phase 2:

STAGING FOR AN EXISTING SITE (a current live site) ON NAMEHERO

How to Create A WordPress Staging Environment With 1 Click (Start at 38:00)

1. (38:00) Create staging site (e.g. lyonlazarus.com/staging)
   1. cPanel > Softaculous Apps Installer > Installations > Create_Staging
      1. Choose Protocol: https://www > Choose Domain: lyonlazarus.com > In Directory: stage > Database Name: leave default > Create Staging
         
         1.  
2. Make changes to the staging site
3. (44:00) Push from Staging to Production
   1. cPanel > Softaculous Apps Installer > Installations > Push To Live (icon) > Push To Live (button)
4. (48:40) Remove (delete) the RemoStaging site
   1. cPanel > Softaculous Apps Installer > Installations > Remove (red x) > Remove Installation

STAGING FOR AN EXISING SITE (a current live site) NOT ON NAMEHERO
(Ex: Lucky7tees had its domain with GoDaddy and web hosting with Shopify, AviSight had its domain and web hosting with GoDaddy)

Phase 3: Migration

If you create a subdomain for the dev site (e.g. staging.medialyon.com), here are the steps to migrate the site to production.

1. Create the production site
   1. cPanel > WordPress Installer
2. Install the plugin 'All-In-One WP' to both the staging and production sites.
3. Export the site from staging and import the site into production.

GOING LIVE

On the WordPress site

1. Go to Elementor > Tools > Replace URL
1. Update Site Address (URL).  Enter old and new URLs.  Replace URL.
2. Install the plugin ‘Velvet Blues Update URLs’.  Go to Tools > Update URLs
1. Enter old and new URLs, select all check-boxes, click ‘Update URLs NOW’

On WHM

1. List Accounts > find the domain > click the + on the left
1. Change the primary domain from the dev URL to the go-live URL

On cPanel

1. Go to cPanel > phpMyAdmin > select the correct database > find the wp???_options file
1. Edit siteurl option_value to go-live URL
2. Edit home option_value to go-live URL
2. Go to cPanel > Redirects > 
1. Check for older redirects and delete them if necessary
2. Make a new redirect. Check both ‘redirect with or without’ and ‘wildcard redirect’.
3. Go to cPanel > SSL/TLS > Generate view upload or delete SSL Certificate
1. Delete old certificates.
2. Add new Self-sign and cPanel SSL through Auto SSL (in WHM)

On WHM

1. Add Auto SSL

On Domain Registrar (i.e. Google, GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.)

1. Point the DNS

   Name	Type	TTL	IPv4 address
   @	A	600	enter IP address of server
   www	CNAME	600	@

Confirm everything is set up correctly

1. whatsmydns.net - to check propagation
2. sslshopper.com - to check SSL

---------------------------------------------------------------------

 Once the client's side is ready to go live, there are several steps that need to be made:

1. Finalize Forms
   1. Make sure that the "Email" settings for each form on the site are set up like so:
      1. To field: set to the client's email address.
      2. Subject: depending on the form, it should say, 'New Message from "[field id="email"]". The important part is that the "[field id="email"]" is there. This makes it so that each email that goes to the client will be in a different email and not all in one long thread.
      3. From Email: set to "noreply@roystireshop.com".
      4. Reply-To: should be set to "Email Field".
      5. Meta [Data]: remove "Credit".
2. Update All Plugins
   1. After updating plugins, do a quick run-through on the front-end of the site to make sure nothing broke.
3. Change cPanel Domain
   1. This step may have to be done by a department manager using WHM. The domain for the cPanel account needs to be changed to correspond with the client's domain. Usually, when we start a client's build for a site, we'll use a dev domain such as, "project.pinfiber.com".
4. Reset AutoSSL
   1. This step may have to be done by a department manager using WHM.
5. Reset Redirect
   1. On the cPanel account, go to "Redirects" under "Domains". Delete any current redirects (this would be the dev domain... project.pinfiber.com).
   2. Go back to the Redirects page, change the "https?://(www.)?" dropdown from "** All Public Domains **" to the actual domain.
   3. In the "Redirects to" field, type in the full URL. For example, if the site is "roystireshop.com", the full URL should either be, "https://www.roystireshop.com" or "https://roystireshop.com". The "www" is dependant on the domain and if the client used www or non-www with their previous site.
   4. Select the "Redirect with or without www." option.
   5. Check the "Wild Card Redirect".
   6. Click "Add".
6. Check URLs in the WordPress Database
   1. On the cPanel account, go to "phpMyAdmin" under "Databases".
   2. Once in phpMyadmin, go to the WordPress database.
   3. Click on the "wp_options" table.
   4. The first two entries will be the "siteurl" and "home". Make sure these have been changed to the correct URL. You may need to change the "option_value" of these to the actual domain.
7. Point Domain
   1. Depending on the client, we'll either point their nameservers to us or just their A record. If pointing nameservers, MAKE SURE to bring over any other important records including MX records.
8. Reactivate Elementor Pro License Key
   1. This step may have to be done by a department manager.
9. Update ALL URLs (both Velvet Blues and Elementor need to be used)
   1. Using Velvet Blues
      
      1. After the domain has pointed, we need to have all URLs and links within the site point to the correct domain.
      2. Download the plugin, "Velvet Blues Update URLs".
      3. After the plugin is installed and activated, go to "Tools > Update URLs".
      4. Enter the old URL (needs to be exact, such as "https://roystires.pinfiber.com")
      5. Enter the new URL (needs to be exact, such as "https://www.roystireshop.com")
      6. Check all boxes for Step 2.
      7. Click on Update URLs NOW.
   2. Using Elementor
      1. Go to "Elementor > Tools > Replace URL".
      2. Enter the old URL (needs to be exact, such as "https://roystires.pinfiber.com")
      3. Enter the new URL (needs to be exact, such as "https://www.roystireshop.com")
      4. Click on "Replace URL".
10. Activate Wordfence Security
    1. After activating the plugin, you will need to set up where alerts should go to. Use, "development@702pros.com" as the email.
    2. Click "No" when it asks if you'd like to join their WordPress security mailing list.
    3. Check the box to agree to their terms and privacy policy.
    4. Click continue.
    5. The next step will ask to enter a premium license key. Just click on "No Thanks".
    6. After the initial set up, go to the Wordfence Dashboard. You may see a quick walkthrough on how to use Wordfence. You can exit the walkthrough if you'd like.
    7. At the top of the screen, there'll be a message to optimize the Wordfence Web Application Firewall. Click on the "Click Here to Configure".
    8. Download the ".HTACCESS" file and click "Continue". If the site breaks, be sure to contact a department manager.
    9. Also, be sure to enable "auto-updates" from the message at the top.
    10. Go to "Wordfence > All Options > Email Alert Preferences".
    11. Where it says, "Alert me with scan results of this severity level or greater", change from "Low" to "High".
    12. Uncheck "Alert when an IP address is blocked" and "Alert when someone is locked out from login".
    13. Scroll a little further down and you'll see "Activity Report". Uncheck "Enable email summary".
    14. Save changes.
11. Install Wordfence Login Security
    1. After activating the plugin, go to "Wordfence > Login Security > Settings".
    2. Scroll down and check the box for "Enable reCAPTCHA on the login and user registration pages".
    3. Copy over the reCAPTCHA V3 site and secret keys from the client's vault in PulseNest.
12. Install Autoptimize
    1. After activating the plugin, you will have to set up the options according to how it affects the site. When doing this, after you enable an option, save and check the front-end to make sure nothing broke. If something did break, chances are you can't use that option or you'll have to find another method, for example, "excluding scripts".
    2. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the options and uncheck the "Also optimize for logged-in editors/administrators?". If you don't uncheck this, the "Edit with Elementor" button will not show on the front-end when trying to edit the site.
13. Validate DKIM & SPF Records
    1. In order for the site to send emails out, you will need to copy two records from cPanel to the client's DNS records.
    2. On the cPanel account, go to "Email Deliverability" under "Email".
    3. You should see an error that the DKIM and SPF records are invalid. Click on "Manage".
    4. Copy the "Name" and "Value" records for each DKIM and SPF record over into the client's DNS records.
    5. When adding the records to the client's DNS, make sure the type is a "TXT" record. The "Host" should be the "Name", the "TXT Value" should be the "Value", and the TTL should be as low as possible.
    6. If you successfully added the DKIM and SPF records to the client's DNS correctly, that error you saw in the "Email Deliverability" page on their cPanel should change to be valid.
14. Final Site Test
    1. Go through the site one last time to make sure everything is working correctly and looks good.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Regenerate CSS in Elementor

Redirection for old pages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBD8wHy69WM

Reading Settings: Search engine visibility uncheck the box.

Clear Cache (Elementor cache, Server cache, Browser cache)

CDN

Google Chrome Inspect/console pages for errors