Publish Your Website
"Publish" is the action that deploys your designed website to the internet so visitors can access it. This article explains the publishing flow, effective time, and common issue handling.
Before Publishing
What Publishing Does
Publish = build the current design draft into a formal site and deploy it online. Before this, all content is visible only to you.
Publishing Operation
Entry Point
Top navigation bar on the right side of the site:
| Button Display | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Publish Website | Plan purchased, publish directly |
| Purchase and Publish | Not yet purchased (trial status), need to complete purchase first |
Prompt When Content Is Updated
If the site has been published before and has since been modified, the top will prompt:
The app has changes. Click update to publish the latest content.
This means the current online version is behind your design draft. You need to republish for visitors to see the new content.
After Publishing
Operations Provided by the Interface
| Operation | Description |
|---|---|
| Visit App | Open the live website directly |
| Copy Domain | Copy the visit address; shows "Copied" after clicking |
| Add Domain | Bind your own domain. Prompt: "After adding a domain, the site can be accessed externally through the domain for the long term" |
Access Effective Time ⏱️
This is the most easily misunderstood point. Please pay special attention:
Approximately 5 minutes after publishing, the HTTP site is accessible; SSL certificate is being configured; 10 minutes after publishing, the HTTPS site is accessible.
| Protocol | Approximate Effective Time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| HTTP | About 5 minutes | Accessible relatively quickly after deployment |
| HTTPS | About 10 minutes | Need to wait for SSL certificate issuance and configuration |
Therefore: If you visit with https:// right after publishing and get an insecure warning or cannot open it, this is normal. Please wait about 10 minutes and try again. Do not repeatedly republish at this stage — that will only reset the timer.
Impact of Caching
Even after deployment is complete, due to DNS and CDN caching, some visitors may need a few more minutes to see updates.
Version Management
Each Publish Creates a New Version
After a successful publish, the system records a version in "Management → Publish History," including:
- Version number
- Version name
- Publish time
- Whether it is the "current version"
Online Version vs Design Draft
Understanding the difference between these two concepts is important:
| Concept | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Design draft | Content you modify in the editor and AI conversation, changes at any time, visible only to you |
| Online version | The version visitors actually access, only updated when you click publish |
So: If you do not publish after changes, visitors cannot see them. This also means you can modify boldly without affecting the live running website.
Handling Publish Failures
Interface Prompt
Deployment failed. Please try again later. For emergencies, contact customer service.
The interface provides a "Go Now" button to submit a ticket.
Troubleshooting Steps
Please try in order:
Step 1: Retry Directly
Most failures are caused by temporary resource or network fluctuations. Wait a few minutes and click publish again.
Step 2: Check Site Status
If the site is in "Expired" or "Stopped" status, you need to renew or restore it first.
The system will automatically try to restore stopped status when publishing, but if the plan has expired, you must renew first.
If it prompts "Current status does not allow this operation," the site status does not support publishing. Please check the site status.
Step 3: Check Plan Capability Limits
If the site uses capabilities not supported by the current plan (database, premium plugins), it may cause publish anomalies. Check for pending upgrade prompts.
Step 4: Check Whether Resource Limits Are Reached
- Is storage space full? → Clean up media or upgrade plan
- Is database space full? → Clean up data or upgrade plan
Step 5: Contact Customer Service
If all the above are ruled out, please contact customer service and provide:
- Site name
- Publish order ID (available in publish records)
- Failure time
- Screenshot of failure prompt
Having the publish order ID significantly speeds up locating the issue.
Other Possible Prompts
| Prompt | Meaning and Handling |
|---|---|
| Failed to get publish order ID | Temporary system exception, try again later |
| Website link does not exist | Site may not have been deployed successfully; check whether publish actually completed |
| Instance released, unable to access | Site resources have been permanently reclaimed, cannot be restored |
| Service migrating… estimated 10 minutes, please wait~ | Platform is migrating service, wait before operating |
| System busy, please try again later | Platform temporarily busy, try again later |
Common Post-Publish Operation Paths
After publishing, the usual next steps are:
1. Bind your own domain → See "Bind Custom Domain"
2. Configure SEO (sitemap, robots) → See "SEO Management"
3. If visitor login is needed, configure authentication parameters → See "Authentication Configuration"
4. Daily content updates → See "Content Management"
Note: Some SEO features have prerequisites — "SEO-related features require the website to be published and a domain to be bound before they can be used." Therefore, we recommend binding a domain as soon as possible after publishing.
Difference Between "Publish" and "Update Content"
This is a frequently confused point, explained separately:
| Your Operation | Need to Republish? |
|---|---|
| AI conversation modified pages | ✅ Yes |
| Visual editor changed text/images | ✅ Yes |
| Created or deleted pages | ✅ Yes |
| Published a new article in the backend | ❌ No, content syncs to live immediately |
| Listed or delisted products in the backend | ❌ No |
| Uploaded new media | ❌ No |
| Manually uploaded sitemap file | ✅ Yes ("After manually uploading a file, a publish operation is required for the new sitemap to take effect") |
Rule: Changes to "website structure and pages themselves" require publishing; changes to "content data" do not require publishing.
When publishing an article in backend content management, it prompts:
Confirm to publish immediately? Content will sync to live and be visible externally.
Seeing this prompt means the operation will directly affect the live site and does not need republishing.