How to Build and Publish Your Website (Website Builder)

Last updated July 6, 2026 · Admins and office staff

This article walks you from nothing to a live website: create the site with the setup wizard, edit pages in the drag-and-drop editor, and publish. For a tour of everything the builder can do, see the Website Builder Overview.

Before you start

  • Access to Tools → Website in the left sidebar.
  • Your business basics handy: your business name, a one-or-two-sentence description of what you do, and a list of your main services. The wizard uses these to write a useful first draft of your pages.
  • Optional: a logo and a few good photos of your work (you can add these later on the Photos tab).

Steps

1. Create the site (setup wizard)

  1. Go to Tools → Website and click New Site.
  2. Work through the five wizard steps — everything can be changed later:
    • Business basics — enter your Business / site name (the only required field). Optionally expand Choose a custom website address to pick the address after /site/ (the field checks availability as you type); leave it blank and one is created from your name.
    • What you do — write About your business (one or two plain sentences) and list your Main services, one per line. Your starter pages’ About and Services sections use these automatically.
    • Starting point — choose Lawn Care Starter (recommended: 4 ready-made pages — Home, Services, About Us, Contact — plus a quote-request form) or Blank site (advanced: design every page yourself).
    • Look & feel — pick a color theme, or skip it for a friendly default. You can fine-tune colors, fonts, and buttons anytime later.
    • Review — check the summary and click Create my website.
  3. You land on the Build site tab of your new site, with a Website setup checklist showing what’s left before you can publish.

2. Get to know the Build site tab

  • Pages card — every page with its title, web address, and status. Actions per page: Edit, Duplicate, Set Home (published pages only), Delete (the home page can’t be deleted).
  • Site Header & Footer card — click Customize Header / Customize Footer to design the bar at the top and bottom of every page in the same editor. The header palette includes ready pieces like Full Header, Auto Nav Links (your menu, kept in sync automatically), Brand / Logo, Social Row, and Copyright Bar.
  • Navigation Menu card — reorder menu items with the arrows, add dropdown groups or custom links, and hide items you don’t want in the nav.

3. Add a page (optional)

  1. On the Build site tab, click Add Page.
  2. Enter a Page Title (required) and optionally a Web address (one is created from the title if blank).
  3. Pick a Start from template option — Blank page, Home, Services, About Us, Project Gallery, Reviews, Contact / Request a Quote, or FAQ.
  4. Click Create Page. The page is added to your navigation menu and opens straight in the editor.

4. Edit a page in the drag-and-drop editor

  1. Click Edit next to a page.
  2. Drag blocks from the panel onto the page — Landscaping sections (photo banners, services, pricing, before/after, quote forms and more), Basic pieces (Heading, Text, Image, Button), and Layout columns. Click any text to type over it; click images to swap in your own photos.
  3. Use Undo / Redo in the top bar as needed (Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z).
  4. Expand Search & sharing settings (optional) below the editor to set this page’s Google title, description, and share image.
  5. Click Save & Publish when you’re happy. Your work is also auto-saved as a draft while you edit — if you leave and come back, a banner offers to Restore or Discard the unsaved draft.

5. Publish the whole site

Pages and the site publish separately: Save & Publish in the editor makes a page ready, but visitors can’t see anything until the site itself is published.

  1. Finish the Website setup checklist essentials (describe your business, review your contact form and where its replies go, and save your home page). Click Finish setup & publish in the workspace header, or open the Business info & design tab.
  2. In the publish card at the top, click Publish site and confirm “Put this website live on the internet?”.
  3. Your site is now live. The workspace header shows a View live site button that opens your public site at /site/your-address.

What happens next

  • After creating the site: you land on the Build site tab with a success banner. If any starter content couldn’t be added, you’ll see “Site created: Some starter content could not be added. Review the setup steps before publishing.” — the checklist guides you through repairing it.
  • After Save & Publish on a page: if the site is already live, the change is public immediately (“Page saved and published.”). If the site is still a draft, you’ll see a reminder: “Your page is ready — but your website isn’t live yet.”
  • After Publish site: the status badge switches to Published, and every page marked “Ready” goes live. Unpublish takes the whole site offline (visitors see an error page until you publish again).

Tips & best practices

  • Edit words and photos before layout. The starter pages are already well-structured — replacing the placeholder text and images gets you 90% of the way.
  • Duplicate instead of rebuilding. A “Lawn Mowing” page you like can be duplicated and reworded into “Snow Removal” in minutes.
  • Keep your menu short. Five to seven items is plenty; use dropdown groups for the rest.
  • Publish early. You can keep improving after go-live — unpublished edits stay as drafts until you Save & Publish them.

Troubleshooting

  • “Can’t publish yet: Open the home page, review your first draft, then choose Save & Publish before publishing the website.” — the site won’t go live until you’ve opened the home page in the editor and saved it at least once.
  • “Can’t publish yet: Add a short business description / at least one main service under Business info & design before publishing.” — pages on your site use your business description or services list, and yours is still empty. Fill it in on the Business info & design tab under “What your business does”.
  • “Can’t publish yet: Add a reply-to email before publishing…” — one of your contact forms has no “Send Responses To” email. See Forms and the Inbox.
  • A page shows a “Not published” badge — the page has never been saved with Save & Publish. Open it in the editor and save.
  • My page edits aren’t on the live site — a Draft badge means you have unsaved editor changes. Open the page, restore the draft if offered, and click Save & Publish.
  • I can’t make a page the home page — only published pages can become the home page. Save & Publish the page first, then click Set Home.
  • The web address I want is taken — site addresses are unique across the whole platform. Try a variation (e.g. add your city).

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