Your website is drafted from what you've already set up, so building it is a few minutes of choosing and tidying rather than a project. Here's how to get it live.
Build it
- In your dashboard, open Website.
- Pick a look. You'll see four, each shown on an example website from your industry that you can open and walk through.
- Add photos if you have them, answer a short brief about your business, and link your socials or an existing site so the writer has material to work from.
- Let it draft your pages: home, services, about and more, with booking built into every page.
- Edit anything you like in the editor, with a live preview beside you.
- Press Publish when you're happy.
Nothing goes live until you publish. Your draft and your live site are separate, so you can tinker freely.
Changed your mind? While your website is live, Discard changes in the editor, or on the Website page, takes your draft back to what's live, saved changes included. It asks first, as it can't be undone. Before your first publish there's nothing live to go back to, so it drops the changes you haven't saved.
The editor has three tabs: Content, Pages & menu and Site settings. In Content, click a page at the top (or choose it in the Page list once your website has more than 8 pages), and its sections show under Sections: a page with just one shows it open, ready to edit. Otherwise click one to open it, and the preview shows where it is on the page; the link above it (‹ Home, or the page's name) takes you back, with your changes kept. You can also click a section in the preview to open it. Site settings works the same way: a list in three groups, each showing where it stands.
Add, move and remove sections
Under a page's list, Add section shows every kind of section: Text, Photo and text, Photo, Gallery and Testimonials, and from your business, Services, Featured services (up to 3 services you choose), Team and Contact. Sections marked Pro, such as Three photos, Before and after, FAQs and Video, are part of Website Pro. Pick one and choose Add section: it goes at the end of the page, ahead of Contact, and opens so you can fill it in. A Banner goes at the top of a page that doesn't have one. A page holds up to 12 sections.
To move a section, drag it by its handle, or use ⋮ › Move up or Move down. ⋮ › Remove section takes it off the page with whatever you wrote in it; your photo library, services and team don't change. Your home page's Banner always stays at the top.
A new section shows as an empty box in the preview until you fill it in, and doesn't show on your live website while it's empty. Text sections start empty: we never write those words for you. Your live website changes only when you publish.
Your prices stay right on their own
Your services, prices, team, hours and phone number show on your website straight from your dashboard. Change a price in Services and your website shows the new price immediately, with no republish step and no way for the site to fall out of date.
Your colours and logo
In the editor, Site settings › Colours sets your website's colour. It starts as your brand colour from Settings › Business and follows it until you pick another here. A colour picked here is for your website only: your booking page and emails keep your brand colour, and Use your brand colour goes back to it. Your header, footer and sections keep the look your template gives them, in your website's colour. With Website Pro, you can colour them yourself.
Site settings › Header shows your website's logo. It starts as your logo from Settings › Business, and Change logo and Crop change it for your website only: your booking page and emails keep your brand logo, and Use your brand logo goes back to it. Crop always starts from the whole picture. Logo size makes it bigger or smaller on a computer; on a phone it stops at a size that leaves room for the menu button and Book now. Logo position puts it on the left or centred. When your header is dark, as on the Bold template, you can add a Logo for dark backgrounds: a light version of your logo for that header.
To change your logo or colour everywhere, booking page and emails included, use Settings › Business.
Your colours, your website's logo, its size and position and the logo for dark backgrounds change your live website when you publish.
Your pages and menu
Pages & menu lists every page, with your home page first: your logo links to it. The pages under In the menu show in your website's menu in that order. Drag a page, or use ⋮ › Move up or Move down. ⋮ › Hide from the menu moves a page under Not in the menu, and it still opens from its link. ⋮ › Rename changes the page's name in the menu, and ⋮ › Remove page takes it off your website. Click a page to open it.
Add page adds one of the ready-made pages. With Website Pro, Blank page adds pages of your own, up to 30 pages in all, and Add dropdown groups pages under a name in your menu. Packages and gift cards show last while you sell them online, and when the menu doesn't fit, the rest goes under More. Each page's details say whether it's in the menu, with Change to open Pages & menu. Your pages and menu change on your live website when you publish.
About your photos
Use your own photos wherever you can; they're what customers believe. Until you have them, the Studio library covers the ambience shots. Gallery and Three photos sections only ever show your own photos, and testimonials are only ever ones you add.
Your Banner and About sections work with or without a photo. In the editor, Add a photo puts it beside your words (behind them in the Warm template's Banner), and Remove photo switches the section to its text-only layout. Nothing changes on your live website until you publish.
Photos up to 7MB work, and your library has room for 60 of them, so a gallery page has space for your work.
Removing a photo takes it out of your library straight away. If your live website shows it, it stays there until you publish a version without it.
FAQs
Is the website really free?
Yes. Your website is included on the free plan, along with online bookings. Paid plans add things like your own domain and website analytics, and Website Pro adds advanced builder features on Solo and Team. See Plans, your trial and billing.
Can I change the look later?
Any time: in the editor, open Site settings and choose Change template. Pick one of the four and choose Use this template. Your pages, sections, words and photos stay as they are, in the new look, and the header and footer take the new template's look. Your website's colour and logo stay. Every template can have more than one page, Solo included. Your live website doesn't change until you publish.
Can I start again with new words?
In the editor, open Site settings and choose Start over. You answer the questions again and get a new draft, replacing your pages, sections and design, so your website uses the logo and colour from Settings › Business again. Your Phone number and Street address switches and your own privacy policy stay as you set them. Your live website doesn't change until you publish.
I'd rather not publish my home address.
In the website editor, turn off the Street address switch. Your website shows your suburb only, with no map or directions, and search engines don't get the street. Customers who book still see it on their booking so they can find you. If customers never come to you, leave the street out in Settings → Business instead.
I'd rather not show my phone number on the website.
In the website editor, turn off the Phone number switch. Your website, its footer and search engines stop showing the number, while customers who book still see it on their booking page and confirmation so they can reach you about their booking.
Can I use my own domain?
Yes, on a paid plan. See Connect your own domain.