Optimizely offers many possibilties to control the editing process. Content is versioned and you can preview and verify it before publishing; meaning that specific content staging solutions are often not needed. Depending on where the site is in the deployment cycle, content is added in different environments as described below.

## Projects and the publishing flow

The _draft_ concept is central in Optimizely, and ensures that work in progress is never externally exposed until actively published. Using **Projects**, editors can group different sets of content and collaborate on drafts, preview the result, and then publish all content items instantly, or schedule for later publishing.

You can use business process workflows in the editing and publishing process, such as using access rights to restrict who can publish. See [Controlling the publishing process in the Optimizely User Guide](🔗).

## Deployment cycles and content authoring

Whether a new website is being set up, or if the website is already in full production, editors add content in different environments. See the [Environments](🔗) and [Deploying](🔗) sections for an explanation of environments and deployment scenarios.

### Create a new site with DXP

A new site is created in your local development environment. At some point, you will deploy the site and any content to the Integration environment for verification of functionality and integrations. Editors can create initial content in the **local development environment**, or in the **Integration** environment. Approaching launch time, the site and its content is first deployed to **Preproduction** for final verification, and then to **Production**.

### Move an existing site to DXP

Existing sites (with or without content) that you want to move to a cloud environment for the first time need to be deployed to the **Integration** environment as described in [Deploying an existing Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) site](🔗) and [Creating a new Optimizely Customized Commerce site and deploying](🔗). Editors can then add more content in the **Integration** environment, and then in the **Production** environment, once the site is deployed to that.

### Existing live site in DXP

For existing live sites using DXP, the main content authoring is done in the **Production **environment, using the publishing features available in Optimizely. Content should only be created in the **Integration** environment when creating new sites, and never in the **Preproduction** environment because it is overwritten in upgrades.

**Related blog post:** [DXP Automatic Image Optimization by Scott Reed](🔗)