Preview, review and publish a site

Before you start

You need site edit access. Build the home page first, finish placeholder content and wait for AI work to stop. If Sites is absent from your menu, it isn't enabled for your workspace yet. A draft saved in the editor is not the same as a public website.

Review the draft

1. Open the site and select each page in turn.
2. Choose Preview, then check Desktop and Phone views. Read headings and business facts, inspect image cropping and verify buttons and destinations.
3. Test the form layout without treating it as a delivered inquiry: the editor reports Form preview complete. No lead was sent.
4. Check header/footer links and Site content because shared changes can affect several pages.
5. If needed, open Versions. Browse a page's history or Site-wide history. Restore version / Restore recovers an earlier version into the editing flow; check it again before publication. Restoring site-wide navigation, footer or colours affects every page.

The built-in preview is for checking draft work in the editor. Copy address and Open site refer to the visitor address, not a promise of a public draft-preview link. A Private site is not on the internet; its editor is visible only to people with the appropriate access.

Publish

1. Choose Publish or Publish changes in the toolbar. The review dialog lists changed pages and Site-wide changes.
2. Review exactly what is about to go live. The latest changed, built page versions and shared version are published together, or nothing is published. Untouched starter pages are not automatically finished by publishing.
3. On first publication, read Your privacy policy, select I've read the privacy policy and Confirm when asked. If it needs changes, use Edit policy before proceeding.
4. Confirm Publish. A private site becomes public. Wait for the review result rather than assuming the click succeeded.
5. On The site is live, use Open site, copy the address, or Share on WhatsApp. Open the visitor address to inspect the published result.
6. Later edits remain Unpublished changes until you repeat publication.

Understand the result

Result	Meaning and next action
The site is live	The reviewed versions are published.
Published · flagged for review	Publication succeeded, but the site is flagged. Read the displayed reasons; do not confuse this with a blocked publication.
Blocked	The review refused publication. Fix the identified page or shared item; the batch was not published.
Review unavailable	The review could not finish. Retry later; this is not successful publication.
Worth a look	Review warnings such as links to unpublished pages. Such links stay hidden until their targets are published.

Make a site private or share editing

Open Access to inspect Public, Private and Who can edit. Taking a site private asks Take the site off the internet?. This is different from hiding it from Google: a search setting does not make a public address private.

An owner can add a teammate through Add a team member where permitted. Workspace administrators can see every site but edit only sites they own or that are shared with them.

If something goes wrong

Symptom	Recovery
Publish is disabled	Check edit access, pending AI work, unbuilt home page and whether there are unpublished changes.
Site changed during review	Review the refreshed versions and confirm again. The earlier confirmation is not applied to unseen changes.
Unfinished placeholder text	Complete the affected pages and retry.
An image is no longer available	Replace it with an accessible image, then retry.
Privacy-policy confirmation blocks publishing	Read/confirm the policy, or edit it if the automatic check rejected it. If policy publishing is unavailable, try later.
Site taken down	The editor cannot republish a taken-down site. Follow the displayed reason rather than repeatedly clicking Publish.
Preview fails	Reopen the page. Do not interpret a failed preview as proof that the published address is down.

Related pages

• Edit pages
• Free addresses and custom domains
• Sites overview