Website
From a blank canvas to a live site, in order
You do not need a developer to publish a site that looks credible. The wizard asks what kind of site and which theme, opens a freeform editor with the pages already there, and publishing puts the site on your own domain with a certificate. This guide walks the whole path in order.
4 min read · 5 stepsChecked against the product on
On this page
Step 1: Create your account and answer the wizard
Sign up with an email address. The wizard asks three things: what kind of site this is (eight kinds, from a business site to a portfolio to a landing page), which of the eleven themes it should wear, and which apps to keep. It then creates the site with the pages that kind of site needs already in place, dressed in the theme's palette and fonts.
Nothing is charged at this point. Building and previewing are free; publishing on your own domain is the plan, and you choose it when the site is ready.
Step 2: Open the editor and shape the pages
The editor is a freeform canvas: an element sits where you drop it, snap guides and rulers line it up, and the layers panel keeps the stacking order readable. Replace the placeholder images with your own, edit the text in place, and add sections and elements from the library when a page needs more.
The theme sets the palette and the type; change those in the theme, once, rather than recolouring elements one by one. Undo is there for everything, and every page keeps versions you can restore. Switch to the phone view before you finish each page: the phone layout is derived from the desktop one, and you can adjust it by hand where it needs it.
Step 3: Write the words before you polish
Write one sentence that says who you help and what they get; it becomes the hero headline. Every other page answers a question that sentence raises: what exactly do you do (Services or Work), who are you (About), how does someone reach you (Contact).
The contact form is already on the Contact page. Its submissions land in the form's inbox in the console, can create a contact with the page they came from, and can email you as they arrive. Send one yourself before you go further.
Step 4: Set the search fields
Open each page's settings and fill the four search fields: a title, a description, a share image and, on pages a stranger should not land on, the switch that hides the page from search engines. Keep one H1 per page and give every image its alt text from the image toolbar.
The sitemap and the robots file are served on your domain automatically, and a certificate is issued when your domain is connected, so there is nothing else to switch on. Submit the sitemap address to Google Search Console once the site is live.
Step 5: Connect your domain and publish
Pick a plan in Billing. In Domains, add your domain and create the two records it shows at your registrar, one for the bare domain and one for www; the console watches for them and issues the certificate when they resolve. If you have no domain yet, the site is reachable on its Cliux subdomain in the meantime.
Press Publish. From then on each publish is a version you can roll back to, and a password-protected preview link lets someone see the next version before it goes live. Traffic shows up in the site's own analytics without a cookie banner.
Going further
What you need before you start
A domain name, though not on day one: the site works on a Cliux subdomain until you connect one. Brand assets: a logo, a couple of colours if you have them, a handful of real photographs. And the one sentence from step three, written before you open the editor, because it decides what every page is for.
If you sell, take bookings, or run a blog, keep that app in the wizard; each one adds its page (Store, Bookings, Blog) to the site.
Essential pages every site should have
Home, About, Services or Work, Contact, and a Privacy Policy. Add a Blog only if you will publish at least twice a month; an empty blog costs more credibility than no blog. Every kind of site in the wizard starts with the pages it needs, so the list above is mostly a matter of filling them in.
Give the contact form a job on the Contact page and nowhere else, so every enquiry lands in one inbox and you can see the form's own conversion rate.
Common mistakes to avoid
Hero images uploaded at camera size (export them at the width the page shows). Buttons that say "Learn more" instead of what happens ("Book a call"). Publishing without looking at the phone layout. Never testing the form: submit one, confirm the notification arrives and the contact appears.
And the one that costs most: writing the pages before the sentence. A site that cannot say what it is for in one line will not say it in ten.
The features this guide leans on
Get started
Follow these steps on a site of your own.
Building and previewing costs nothing. Publishing with your own domain is $9 a month on a personal site, and the agency Starter plan publishes 2 client sites for free.