If you’ve ever undergone a website redesign, added additional pages, or reviewed proposed site updates, you might be familiar with content staging—your website’s safe space for previewing changes before going live. Our HubSpot website team has put together this quick-reference breakdown of the content staging tools offered within the HubSpot CMS and best practices for HubSpot content staging.
Content staging refers to a separate and private hosting environment designed to facilitate revisions and updates to an existing website. These tools allow you to duplicate your existing site to tinker with changes without impacting the live site. New pages can also be created in this staging environment. However, a brand-new website would simply remain unpublished until a domain is connected, pushing the site live.
Any website content added to the content staging environment is hosted on a separate domain—for example, your-domain.sandbox.hs-sites.com. Multiple changes can then be pushed live simultaneously, allowing for a seamless transition and reduced margin for error. Content staging tools are sometimes called “sandboxes,” as in a place where developers or website owners can play and experiment without any real-world impact.
When to use content staging:
When not to use content staging:
HubSpot’s content staging tools are super user-friendly. They allow you to make changes and updates to your website in-house, often without needing a developer.
To access HubSpot’s staging tools, navigate to ‘Content’ and ‘Website Pages’ on the far-left menu. Select ‘More Tools’ and ‘Content Staging’ from the top right corner dropdown options. If you manage multiple domains, ensure the correct domain is selected.
From here, you’ll be presented with three options to choose from:
Stage blank page: Use this option to rebuild a page from scratch using a new template or theme. This staged page will effectively replace the same existing page of your live website upon launch but keep the HubSpot page data and settings intact.
Stage cloned page: This option allows you to edit a page using the current content or template. Upon launch, this staged page will effectively replace the same existing page on your live website but keep the HubSpot page data and settings intact.
Stage detached clone: This option creates a brand new page using the current content or template. Unlike the ‘staged cloned page’ option, the HubSpot page data will be fresh.
Once you’re happy with the revised or new pages, you’ll be ready to launch this content on your live site. To publish HubSpot staged content,
Here are some important settings that are often overlooked when creating new pages within the HubSpot content staging environment. To access this section, navigate to ‘Settings’ at the top right of the page editor.
Maintain consistent internal page naming conventions: We generally recommend “Creation Year & Month_Company_Page”. This will only be seen by your internal HubSpot members.
Update the page title: This is the public-facing page name that will appear in Google, the browser tab and any shared links.
Input your desired URL: It’s generally recommended that this match your current URL unless otherwise specified.
Add your meta description: This component has a recommended character limit of 154 and should match the existing meta description unless otherwise specified.
Assign a feature image: You can toggle this on and select an image from your library or upload a new one. This image will appear when sharing a link on social media or via apps like Slack and Teams. Although having a unique image for every page is best, having a default version that can be applied to any page can be helpful.
For the complete how-to, download our free HubSpot Content Staging Guide here.
