Publishing and updating

Module 5: Going live and your own domain · Reading time: 9 minutes

Learning objective: After this lesson you can put your site online on the free WebOké address or on your own domain, publish later changes, take a site offline again and explain what happens to a free site.

Key concepts: Go live, Publish changes, Push changes live, free WebOké address, badge, noindex, saved version, placeholder text, Take offline

Building is not the same as being online

Everything you do in the builder happens in the preview first. You can change a text a hundred times, move a section or pick a different colour: visitors see none of it. Only when you click Go live does the builder turn your saved version into a real website with separate pages, your photos, a sitemap and a robots.txt, and put it on a web address.

That is deliberate. You can keep working calmly, try something out and undo it (lesson 3.5), without a visitor seeing half a site. It also means something beginners often forget: after every change you have to publish again. A changed opening time that you don't push live only exists in the builder.

One more important point: publishing always works from the saved version, never from a proposal that is still open. If there is a proposal from the AI that you haven't kept or thrown away yet, you can't publish. First choose Apply or Discard (lesson 3.1). And the chat doesn't put anything online: even if you type "put my site online", the chat won't do it. You always do that yourself with the button.

The Go live window

The Go live button is at the top right of the top bar. After your first publication, the same button is called Publish changes. When you click it, a window opens with a title such as "Put version 4 online" and the sentence "Visitors see the new version straight away. Your previous version is kept."

You choose where the site will be. There are two rows:

• Your own domain, with "Own domain, in" and the name of your package underneath. You can only choose this if you have an AI Builder package. Without a package this row is switched off and you read "For this you need the AI Builder package: your own domain, email and 50 edits per month." Below that is the Get the package button, or Switch package if you already have a web hosting package with one domain at WebOké. Lesson 5.2 explains how that works.
• The free WebOké address, in the form naam-nummer.weboke.site, with the line "On our address." underneath. For Schildersbedrijf Example that is schildersbedrijf-example-123.weboke.site.

If you have several domains or packages, you also choose Which package and On which domain in the window. Then click Go live. You see "Your site is going online." and after a few seconds "Your site is online", with how many pages and photos are ready, the address as a link and the View your site button.

Publishing is free: it doesn't cost any edits. A site can be at most 200 MB in size.

What else the window tells you

The window is also a final check. Look out for these messages:

• "Your site still contains placeholder text": a section you added yourself still contains a text such as "Heading of this section". You see per page where it is. As long as that's the case, you can't go live: fill in the spot or remove the section (lesson 2.4).
• "Your site still has blanks to fill in": somewhere there is still a spot between square brackets, such as [fill in] from the AI or [Add your company registration number here] in your privacy statement. You see per page which spots they are. Fill them in, or choose Go live anyway if you deliberately want that (lesson 2.4).
• Privacy statement: if your site collects data (a form, newsletter or a service from another party) and there is no privacy statement yet, you see a warning with the Create privacy statement button (lesson 7.1).
• "During the check I also noticed: ...": points from the builder's check. You can still go live, but do read them.

After publishing there are sometimes more messages under "Your site is online". For example, where the messages from your contact form go, or that a new address needs a moment.

The free WebOké address

Anyone with a free WebOké account can put one website online for free on our address. That site is live straight away. It does have a few deliberate limitations, and they are also spelled out in the window:

• at the bottom of every page there is a small badge with the text "Demo · made with the WebOké AI Builder";
• the site is not visible in search engines: every page gets a noindex, a line in the code that asks search engines not to include the page. That also applies if you switch on "Site visible in Google" in the SEO panel (lesson 6.1);
• the contact form is visible but greyed out and doesn't send anything;
• custom code from Settings and connections such as Google Tag Manager and Hotjar are not included; widgets from well-known services (video, maps, calendars, reviews, appointment planners) do work.

With a package these limitations disappear. By the way, a site from a package can also be on our address, then without a badge and with a working form.

How long does a free site stay online?

As of 10 November 2026: a free site stays online with no end date. You don't get a reminder and it doesn't go offline by itself after a month. If you still read about "30 days online" somewhere, that is an old rule. One thing does apply: one free site per account. If you want a second site, you need a package.

A new address on weboke.site needs a little time: after the first publication you see "Your address is new: it can take up to a minute before the site can be seen there." If you get an error page right away, wait a minute and reload.

Pushing changes live

Once your site is online, the button in the top bar is called Publish changes. The window is then called "Push changes live", tells you which address your site is on now, and the button at the bottom is also called Push changes live. You put the newest saved version live; the previous version is kept in Versions.

For example, the painter changes his price indication for interior painting, keeps the proposal and clicks Publish changes. Within a few seconds the new text is online. If he still sees the old text in his browser, that is almost always his browser's cache (lesson 5.4).

Two things happen automatically when you push changes live:

• If you have a second language with automatic translation switched on (lesson 4.4), new or changed texts are translated first, so every language is correct.
• If your site is on your own domain and may be found, changed pages get a new date in the sitemap and the builder reports them to search engines that support this, such as Bing (lesson 6.2).

Taking offline

On our address you can take your site offline again. In the Publish changes window there is then a red link Take offline on the left. You are asked "Take your site offline? Visitors will no longer be able to view it. Your site itself is simply kept." You can always put it online again afterwards.

If your site is on your own domain, that link is missing. The builder doesn't remove files there itself, because the web folder of your package may also contain your own files. If you want the site offline there but still keep it in the builder, delete the files via the file manager of your package. If you delete the whole website with the bin in My websites, that is final: the builder then also removes its own files from your package.

What can happen to your site later

Sometimes a site goes offline by itself. The Go live window then tells you why:

• your package is suspended, for example because of an unpaid invoice: the site goes offline and comes back by itself when the package is active again;
• the package is no longer active or no longer yours, for example after cancelling: after the end of the paid period the site goes offline, is kept in the builder and falls back to your free spot;
• there were more websites online than your packages allow.

In the builder: how to do it

1. Check that no proposal is open and that your last change has been saved.
2. Click Go live (or Publish changes) at the top right.
3. Choose your own domain or the free WebOké address.
4. Read the messages in the window and sort out placeholder text if there is any.
5. Click Go live (or Push changes live).
6. Read the messages under "Your site is online" and click View your site.

Summary

• A visitor only sees what you do in the builder after Go live or Publish changes; publishing is free and always works from the saved version.
• The free WebOké address is live straight away and stays online, but has a badge, a noindex, a form that sends nothing and no custom code.
• You can only choose your own domain with an AI Builder package.
• Placeholder text stops you going live; fill it in or remove the section. For open spots between square brackets you get a warning.
• Take offline only works on our address; on your own domain you delete files yourself via the file manager.

Quiz

Exercise

Exercise D5.1: Changing and publishing again. Put your site online (free address or your own domain, if you haven't done so yet), then change one thing and push that change live.

Checklist:

• [ ] no proposal still open in the builder;
• [ ] site put online with Go live, messages read;
• [ ] one visible change made, for example a sentence on the homepage;
• [ ] the change pushed live with Publish changes;
• [ ] the change seen on the real site, in a private window;
• [ ] checked in Versions which version is online now.

Questions:

1. Which address is your site on, and which messages did you get after going live?
2. How long did it take before you saw the change on the real site, and did you have to do anything in your browser for that?
3. Which limitation of the free address do you notice yourself, and is it a reason for your site to get a package?

After "done" you see a sample answer: the site is on schildersbedrijf-example-123.weboke.site; the messages mentioned the new address (up to a minute) and the limitations of the free option; the change was there within a few seconds, but in the normal window only after reloading; the greyed-out form is the painter's reason to get a package, because quote requests need to come in.

Further reading

• Force redirect visitors to https
• The AI Builder: what the package includes and the current price: https://www.weboke.nl/en/ai-website-builder
• Free course Getting found online 1.3: Indexing: what gets into the index and what doesn't