Publishing Your Website

Website Studio uses a straightforward publishing system to give you control over what visitors see on your public website. Each page can be independently published or kept as a draft, and changes to design settings and content take effect as soon as they are saved.

Understanding Published vs. Draft

Every page exists in one of two states:

• Published pages are live on your website and visible to anyone who visits.
• Draft pages are hidden from the public. Only logged-in admins can view them by navigating directly to the page URL.

Tip: Draft pages are useful for building out a new page before making it live, or for temporarily hiding a page that needs updates.

Publishing a Page

From the Page Editor

1. Go to Website Studio > Pages.
2. Click a page to open it in the editor.
3. Click the Publish button in the upper right corner.
4. The page is immediately live and the status badge changes to "Published."

From the Page Settings

1. Open a page in the editor.
2. In the right sidebar, check the Published checkbox.
3. Click Save Settings.

Unpublishing a Page

If you need to take a page offline:

1. Open the page in the editor.
2. Click the Unpublish button in the upper right corner.
3. The page immediately becomes a draft and is no longer accessible to the public.
4. The page is also removed from the navigation menu.

What Happens Immediately vs. What Requires Publishing

Important: Website Studio does not have a separate "staging" or "preview" environment. Changes to published pages are live as soon as you save them. If you need to make significant changes to an existing page without affecting the live version, consider duplicating the page, editing the copy, and then swapping them.

Previewing Your Website

Preview a Specific Page

1. Open the page in the editor.
2. Click the Preview button (the eye icon) in the upper right corner.
3. The page will open in a new browser tab showing exactly how it appears to visitors.

Preview the Entire Website

1. From the Website Studio dashboard, click the View Website button in the upper right corner.
2. Your website will open in a new tab at its public URL.

Tip: Use incognito/private browsing to preview your site as a visitor would see it, without admin session data.

Publishing Workflow Best Practices

For New Websites

1. Set up your theme and design first. Choose your theme, colors, fonts, header style, and footer style before building pages.
2. Build your pages as drafts. Create all your pages with their sections and content, keeping them as drafts.
3. Configure navigation. Once your pages are ready, set up your menu order.
4. Review everything. Preview each page and check for errors, missing content, or formatting issues.
5. Publish all pages. Once everything looks good, publish your pages one by one (or all at once).
6. Set up your domain. Connect your custom domain if applicable.

For Ongoing Updates

• Minor content edits (typos, updated times, new announcements) can be made directly on the live page. Changes save immediately.
• Major page redesigns should be done on a duplicate page. Create a copy, make your changes on the draft copy, then when ready, unpublish the original and publish the new version.
• New pages can be built as drafts and published when they are complete.

Managing Multiple Pages

The pages list (Website Studio > Pages) gives you an overview of all your pages with:

• Title and URL slug
• Page type (Home, About, Contact, Events, Groups, Giving, Custom)
• Status (Published or Draft)
• Section count -- How many sections the page contains
• Last updated -- When the page was last modified

Use the filters at the top to find specific pages:

• Search by title or slug
• Filter by status (Published or Draft)
• Filter by type (Home, About, Contact, etc.)

Deleting Pages

If a page is no longer needed:

1. Go to Website Studio > Pages.
2. Click the delete (trash) icon next to the page.
3. Confirm the deletion.

Important: The Home page cannot be deleted. If you want to change your home page content, edit it instead. Deleted pages are soft-deleted in the database (not permanently removed). There is no admin restore UI today, but support can recover a soft-deleted page on request.

Duplicating Pages

Duplicating a page is useful for creating variations or backups:

1. Use the duplicate action on any page.
2. A new page is created with "(Copy)" appended to the title.
3. The copy is created as a draft with all the same sections and content.
4. The copy gets a new URL slug based on the new title.

Checklist Before Going Live

Before publishing your website to the public, verify the following:

• [ ] Church profile is complete -- Name, address, phone, email, logo, and description are all filled in.
• [ ] Theme and colors are set -- Your branding looks correct across all pages.
• [ ] All pages have content -- No placeholder text like "Enter your content here..." remains.
• [ ] Navigation is configured -- Pages appear in the correct order in the menu.
• [ ] SEO basics are done -- Default meta title and description are set.
• [ ] Service times are current -- Your service schedule is accurate.
• [ ] Staff directory is populated -- Staff photos and bios are uploaded (if using a Staff section).
• [ ] Mobile responsiveness -- Preview your site on a phone or use your browser's mobile view to check the layout.
• [ ] Links work -- Click through all buttons and navigation links to verify they go to the right destinations.
• [ ] Social media links are correct -- Verify the URLs in your footer settings.

Next Steps

• Website Studio Overview -- Return to the main overview
• Custom Domains -- Connect your own domain name