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Fill in page SEO, publish to staging and production, and connect your own domain.

User guide
Beginner15 min

You will build: A site with search settings filled in, tested on staging, live in production on your own domain

Read first: QuickstartBuild a landing page

In this tutorial you take a finished site live. You fill in the search settings of each page, test on staging, publish to production and connect your own domain. You need a site with at least one page, owner or admin access to it, and access to the DNS settings of a domain you own.

Go liveVideo coming soon. The written steps below cover everything.
Go live· 7 min

Prepare your pages

  1. Open the page settings

    Open the page in the editor and click an empty spot of the canvas so nothing is selected. The inspector now shows the Page section with the page Title and Path.

  2. Write the search title and description

    Open the SEO section below it. Fill in Title and Description: the counters under each field show when you go over the recommended length. The search preview at the bottom shows how the page will look in search results.

  3. Pick a social image

    Choose an image in OG image. This is the picture shown when someone shares the page. Upload it in the Assets tab first if it is not there yet.

  4. Hide pages that should not be found

    For pages like a thank-you page, turn on No index. The search preview then says "Hidden from search engines (noindex)".

Repeat these steps for every page, using the page switcher in the toolbar.

Test on staging

  1. Publish to staging

    Press Publish in the toolbar, keep Staging selected and press Publish to staging. If a list on the page would show nothing on the live site, the popover lists it first, so you can fix it before you publish.

  2. Open the staging site

    When the popover says Live on staging, press Open site next to the link, or Copy link to send it to someone for review.

  3. Click through it

    Open every page, click every link and button, and send a test message through your forms. Narrow the browser window to check the phone layout.

Checkpoint

The staging address shows your whole site, and every link and form works.

Publish to production

  1. Switch to production

    Press Publish again and select Production. If the option is greyed out and the popover says "Ask a site admin to publish to production.", ask an owner or admin of the workspace to do this step.

  2. Publish

    Press Publish to production. The whole site switches to the new version in one step, so visitors never see a half-published site.

  3. Open the production address

    When the popover says Live on production, press Open site. Until you connect a domain, production answers on its Malla address, which ends in -prod.

Connect your domain

  1. Open the domain settings

    Open the site menu (the site name at the left of the toolbar) and choose Site settings. Click Domains in the list of sections.

  2. Add the domain

    Under Add a domain, type the hostname, for example www.example.com. Keep Production selected, so the domain serves your production site, and press Add.

  3. Add the DNS records

    The domain appears with the status Pending and a table of records, each with a Type, a Name and a Value. Sign in to your domain provider and add each record. Use the copy buttons next to each name and value to avoid typing mistakes.

    The records do three jobs: one points the domain at Malla, one proves you own it and one issues the HTTPS certificate.

  4. Wait for verification

    Verification and the certificate usually take a few minutes. The status updates on its own; press Check status to check now. When it shows Active, the domain is connected with HTTPS.

  5. Publish again

    Publish to production once more. The domain now answers with your site.

Checkpoint

The domain shows Active in Site settings → Domains, and opening it in the browser shows your site with a lock icon in the address bar.

Check the live site

  1. Open your domain

    Open your domain in a private browser window, so you see what a new visitor sees. Check the pages on your phone too.

  2. Check the shared preview

    Paste a page link into a chat app. It shows the title, description and social image you set in the SEO section.

  3. Fix mistakes

    Found a problem? Fix it in the editor, publish to staging to check it, then publish to production. Each publish replaces the live version in one step.

  4. Roll back a bad publish

    If a publish broke the live site and you need the previous version back right away, press Publish and select Production. Recent publishes lists the latest publishes, with a Live badge on the one visitors see. Press Roll back on an earlier one, then Roll back again in the Roll back production? dialog. The popover says Rolled back production, and the site switches in one step.

Done

Your site is live on your own domain with HTTPS, and every page has its own search title and description.

What you learned

  • Each page has its own search title, description and social image in the SEO section of the page settings.
  • Staging is for testing and is hidden from search engines; production is what visitors see, and it needs an owner or admin.
  • A custom domain needs DNS records at your provider, and it serves the site after the next publish.
  • Recent publishes in the publish popover rolls an environment back to an earlier publish in one step.

Read the guides behind this tutorial:

PublishingStaging and production, instant publishes and how pages are rendered and cached.SEO and site settingsPage titles, descriptions, social images, sitemaps, robots and noindex.Custom domainsPoint your own domain at a site with a CNAME and get SSL automatically.Team and rolesWorkspace members, site members and what owners, admins, editors and content editors can do.