Go live: publish your first SGEN site
You have built a site in Sandbox. Going live is three moves: run the pre-launch checklist (content, SEO, and links verified before you go public), connect your domain (point your address at SGEN), and promote your Sandbox to live (the one action that makes your site visible to visitors). Each step below links to its full guide.
Three moves, in order
Run the pre-launch checklist, connect your domain, then promote your Sandbox to live. Skipping the order means redoing work later.
Nothing to install
SSL, a web firewall, and ongoing security patching ship with the Foundation Pack on every plan — set up and renewed automatically once you connect your domain.
Public the moment you promote
There is no soft-launch middle state. Up to the promote step everything is private; after it, your site is public and search-eligible.
The launch in three moves
Three steps, in order. Do not skip the pre-launch check.
1 · Confirm the site is ready
Run the pre-launch checklist — content, SEO, links, and settings all verified before you go public.
2 · Connect your domain
Point your domain at SGEN so visitors reach your site at your own address.
3 · Promote Sandbox to live
Move the built site from your private Sandbox to Live — now it serves visitors.
The three launch steps
Run these in order — connecting a domain before the checklist just means checking it twice.
1
Run the pre-launch checklist
Before you point a domain at anything, walk the pre-launch checklist. It covers everything from content and SEO defaults to redirects and settings, so you do not discover a missing page or a broken link after launch. This is the single most useful thing you can do before going live. See the SGEN pre-launch checklist.
- Content reviewed — every page reads correctly and links work
- SEO defaults set — titles, descriptions, and social previews
- Redirects in place for any old URLs you are replacing
- Forms tested and notifications wired so leads do not arrive silently
- Previewed on desktop and mobile
The full 23-step list lives in the pre-launch checklist guide above — this is only a preview of what it covers.
2
Connect your domain
A live site needs a real address. Connecting your domain points your address at SGEN so visitors land on your site. This involves a few DNS settings at your domain registrar, and the guide below walks each one. See Connect your domain to SGEN and, for the full custom-domain setup including SSL, Set up a custom domain for your site.
You don't provision a certificate or configure HTTPS yourself — SSL ships with the Foundation Pack on every plan and is set up and renewed automatically once your domain is connected. The same goes for the platform-level protections that come with going live: a web firewall and ongoing security patching are part of that base, so there are no plugins to install or updates to chase.
Settings
Connect your domain
Dashboard → Settings → Domain. Enter the domain you own, then update the DNS records shown on screen at your registrar to complete the connection. SSL stays on by default, so your site is served securely as soon as the domain verifies.
Screenshot pending. A capture of the Domain settings screen will be added here once pulled from SG-Admin — see the image manifest for the exact source.
3
Promote your Sandbox to live
This is the publish moment. Promoting moves your built site out of the private Sandbox and onto your domain, where it serves real visitors. Up to this point everything was private; after this, it is public. See Stage and live: move site changes from preparation to public.
If you have not chosen a plan yet, you will at this step. SGEN is one platform, priced by sites: every plan includes the entire platform — all 23 modules, the Foundation Pack (hosting, SSL, a web firewall, security patching, and the multi-site dashboard), and the full dashboard. There are no suites to assemble and no add-ons to buy — nothing is gated behind a separate purchase. Plans differ on one thing only: how many live sites you run.
| Plan | Live sites included |
|---|---|
| Indie | 1 |
| Studio (most popular) | 3 |
| Scale | 10 |
| Enterprise | Unlimited |
Annual billing saves about 15% versus monthly. Every paid plan opens with a two-week free trial you can cancel anytime, prorated; the Sandbox tier stays free forever with no trial clock. You can move between plans later from SG-Dashboard → Billing → Subscriptions, with changes prorated and applied immediately. For current plans and prices, see Choose your SGEN plan.
Your site is live. Visitors can now reach your site at your domain. Open a private browser window and verify the full page before sharing the address.
Before you share the address, confirm three green lights:
Status
Pre-launch checklist
Complete.
Status
Domain connected
Complete.
Status
Sandbox promoted to live
Complete.
What going live changes
Until you promote it, your site lives in Sandbox — a private space only you and your team can reach. The Sandbox runs on an SGEN staging subdomain with no custom domain, and is deliberately blocked from search engines. It is free forever, with no time limit and no visit cap. Going live flips four things at once, which is why the pre-launch checklist matters.
Visibility
No soft launch
Anyone with your address can now load the site. There is no in-between state once it's promoted — it's public. Up to this point the Sandbox and any unpublished drafts were never reachable by visitors.
Domain
Your own address
Visitors reach the site at your own address instead of the temporary Sandbox subdomain. The connection is served securely by default — SSL is part of the Foundation Pack on every plan, provisioned and renewed for you, so there are no certificates to manage.
Search
Eligible to be found
The Sandbox was blocked from indexing. Once live, your pages become eligible to show up in search results — so make sure the content is final first, and confirm you have not left the discourage-search-engines option enabled on any page you want indexed.
Analytics
Real traffic starts counting
Real visitor traffic starts counting toward your dashboard. The Sandbox served from a staging address that visitors never reached; now your live plan governs the published site, with the number of live sites you can run set by the plan you chose.
Heads up Nothing here is irreversible — you can keep editing after launch, and changes you make in your working copy only reach visitors when you publish them. But the moment of going live is the moment the site stops being private, so treat the pre-launch checklist as the gate, not a formality.
After you go live
The first week after launch has its own short list — confirming everything looks right in public, cleaning up anything left from the build, and watching your first traffic. See Post-launch cleanup.
Common issues after launch
A short list of the most common first-time hiccups and their fix.
| Issue | Fix |
|---|---|
| My domain does not resolve to the site yet | DNS changes can take time to propagate — recheck the steps in Connect your domain and wait, then verify again |
| A page looks different live than in preview | Reload the public page in a private/incognito window — your browser may be showing a cached version |
| A form submitted but no notification arrived | Confirm form notifications are wired — see the pre-launch checklist's forms step |
| An old URL now shows a not-found page | Add a redirect from the old address to the new one |
These are covered along with other first-time issues in a broader troubleshooting guide.
Where to go next
First-time launch nerves? See Common first-timer questions.