How to publish, republish and unpublish a site

Your edits save as you work, but visitors only see them once you publish. Publish puts the whole site live the first time; Republish puts your latest changes live after that.

How to publish and republish

1. Click Publish at the top right of the editor.
2. The first time a site goes live on a paid plan, a Publish this site? box shows the cost and says "Unpublishing later stops the charge from your next billing day (no refund for the current period)." Click Publish (or Cancel).
3. When it's done, any open publish or domain windows close and a green check shows Your site is live! with the live address. Click the address or View site to open it in a new tab, Copy link to copy it, or Done to go back to editing. After a site's first publish on its free subdomain, Connect your own domain opens the domain window. Once the site is live, the button says Republish. Click it whenever you want the latest changes online; you see the same Your site is live! box. If publishing fails, an error message says why and nothing changes on the live site.

Every publish saves an automatic backup, so you can go back to an earlier version. On a connected custom domain, changed pages are also sent to search engines that support IndexNow (such as Bing).

If a page still shows a template's testimonials (kept by Fill with Zeus because the client had no real reviews), publishing warns: "This page still shows the template's reviews". Those are another business's reviews, and publishing them as the client's is misleading. Choose Fix them with Zeus to open Zeus's list and go to them, Publish anyway, or Cancel. The warning goes away once you change the testimonials' words or remove the section. Publish this page warns the same way.

Sites in more than one language

Only languages set to Live in Settings → Languages go on the site; Draft languages stay in previews and share links. If a Live language isn't fully translated when you publish, a heads-up says so, for example "Spanish is 80% translated — 3 pages still have English text". Untranslated text shows in the main language. Click Publish anyway or Cancel. See Multi-language sites.

Keep a page as a draft

In Pages, click a page's ⋯ and choose Set as draft. The page shows a Draft badge. When you publish, it stays off the live site, out of the menu, the sitemap and llms.txt. Choose Ready to publish to include it in the next publish. The home page and folders can't be drafts.

Publish just one page

On a live site, click a page's ⋯ and choose Publish this page. Only that page's content and SEO go live, plus any renamed menu folders (a folder can't be published on its own). The theme, header, footer and other pages stay as they are. It works only for a page that's already live at the same address. New pages, changed page addresses and dynamic pages need a full Republish.

How to unpublish

Open Settings → Domain. Under Unpublish site (shown only while the site is live) click Unpublish. The confirm box says "Your site will go offline immediately. Visitors will see a 404 until you publish again. It stops counting as a hosted site from your next invoice." Confirm to take it offline. Your pages, domain and backups stay; publish again any time.

What goes live without a republish

Some settings are read live, so they don't wait for Republish:

• URL redirects: work as soon as you save them.
• Root files and Security → Allow site in an iframe: live within a few minutes.
• The Search Console code added by the automatic Search Console setup.
• robots.txt, the AI crawler setting and llms.txt settings: updated within about an hour (they're cached for up to an hour).
• Blog posts you publish, once the site itself is live.
• Domain and subdomain changes.

Everything else needs a republish, including page content, header and footer, the theme, Site icons, the 404 page, cookie banner and privacy settings, tracking codes, a Search Console code pasted by hand, custom code, languages and new custom widget versions. Those settings say "Saved. Publish the site to put it live." when you save them.

Billing

Each published site is a hosted site, billed on its own hosted-sites subscription (monthly or annual, your choice) on the same billing day as your plan. Draft (never published) and unpublished sites aren't billed.

• The first time a site goes live, a box tells you what it costs: "Publishing adds $X for the rest of this billing period (charged now), then $Y each month on the 19th."
• Publishing charges the rest of the current billing period straight away, then the site renews on your billing day.
• Unpublishing doesn't refund the current period; the lower count applies from your next billing day.
• During your free trial, publishing is free. Hosted-site billing starts on your trial's end date, with the sites published then.
• If the charge fails, the site stays live. Billing & credits shows a red banner until you update your card.

See Plans and hosted sites.

Examples

• Launch day: check the site in Preview, click Publish, confirm the cost, then pick a subdomain or connect the client's domain in the window that opens.
• A new page that isn't ready: set it as draft in Pages, republish the rest of the site, and set it to Ready to publish when the client signs off.
• A typo on one live page: fix it and use Publish this page so half-finished changes elsewhere stay offline.
• The client closed the business: unpublish the site. It stops counting as a hosted site from your next invoice.

Limits and what it can't do

• Template sites can't be published. They show Save Template instead.
• Publish this page only works on a page already live at the same address. New pages, changed addresses and dynamic pages need a full republish.
• The home page and folders can't be drafts.
• Publishing can't be scheduled for later.
• Unpublishing doesn't refund the current billing period.

Who can use it

• Agency people with the Mount Olympus tool can publish, republish and unpublish.
• Client people need Site publish to publish for the first time or unpublish. Site republish only lets them republish a site that's already live.

Troubleshooting

• My changes aren't showing on the live site: click Republish (the button says Republish once the site is live) and wait for "Site published". Then check:
  • the page isn't set as draft (a Draft badge in Pages);
  • the language is set to Live, not Draft, in Settings → Languages;
  • you're looking at the right address (the old subdomain stops working when you change it);
  • your browser isn't showing an old copy: reload, or open the page in a private window;
  • robots.txt, sitemap.xml and llms.txt can take up to an hour.
• "Templates can't be published. Create a site from this template instead.": you're in a template. Start a site from it in Custom Assets → Templates.
• "Publishing this site for the first time needs the Site publish permission": a client person with only Site republish tried to put a new site live. Publish it from the agency side, or give them Site publish.
• "Publish the site first. A single page can be published once the site is live.": use Publish for the whole site first.
• "This page is a draft. Set it to Ready to publish first.": in Pages, open the page's ⋯ and choose Ready to publish.
• "Dynamic pages are published with the whole site. Publish the site instead.": use Republish.
• "This page isn't on the live site yet. Publish the site to add new pages.": new pages need a full Republish.
• "This page's URL changed. Publish the site to change page URLs.": use Republish so links and redirects stay consistent.
• "A draft page can't be the home page. Set it to Ready to publish first.": set the page to Ready to publish before making it the home page.
• "Publish failed": nothing changed on the live site. Try again in a minute. If it keeps failing, contact support with the site name.
• "Failed to unpublish site": try again; the site is still live until it works.