How to get feedback on a staging site before launch
The best time for a client to find problems is before the site goes live, on a staging copy. Here is how to set one up for review, keep it out of search results, and collect every note in one place.
Updated
Why review on staging
A design file or a screenshot shows how a page should look. A staging site shows how it actually behaves: real content, real speed, the forms, the menus and the client's own phone. Clients spot different things on a working site, and every problem found there is one your customers never see.
Staging also lets you keep working while the client reviews, and fix notes as they arrive without touching the live site.
Where your staging site lives
Most platforms give you a staging or preview address already:
| Platform | Staging or preview address |
|---|---|
| Webflow | The free webflow.io address, published alongside your own domain |
| Framer | The free framer.app or framer.website address |
| WordPress | Your host's staging copy, or a staging subdomain you set up |
| Shopify | An unpublished theme, shared with its preview link |
| Next.js, Vercel, Netlify | A preview deployment for each branch or pull request |
Pick one address per review round and send only that. Clients who get a new link every day end up reviewing an old version.
Keep staging out of search results
A staging site that Google finds can compete with your real site, or show unfinished pages to customers. Before you share it:
- Ask search engines not to index it. On WordPress, tick Discourage search engines from indexing this site under Settings, Reading on the staging copy only. Other platforms have a similar setting for their staging address, or you can add a
noindexrobots tag. - Put a password on it if the content is confidential. Send reviewers the password together with the review link.
- Don't link to the staging address from the live site, or from anywhere public.
Run the review round
- Freeze what's being reviewed. Finish the pages in the round before inviting anyone, so the client isn't commenting on work in progress.
- Say what to check and by when. "Home, About and Contact, on your phone too, by Friday" gets better notes than "have a look".
- Collect notes on the page. One note per issue, pinned to the thing it's about, with a screenshot.
- Fix, reply and resolve. Answer each note where the client left it, so they see progress on their next visit.
- Launch, then switch feedback off. Remove the review tools from the live site, or leave them in and hidden.
Staging reviews with Pinnote
- Add Pinnote's script tag to the staging site. Each install guide shows where it goes on your platform.
- In your site's settings in Pinnote, add the staging address under Other addresses. Preview deployments each have their own address, so add the ones clients review on.
- Invite the client by email or send the share link. Visitors see nothing; the people you invite see the Feedback button and comment with no account or extension.
- For a review round with a deadline, choose the pages and the date in Pinnote. Reviewers get a reminder the day before, and you get a summary with every note.
- When the site launches, keep the script on the live site with visitors set to No button, or switch feedback off. Invited reviewers can still report anything they spot after launch.