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Publishing, updating, and taking your website offline

Publish site puts your whole website online for free at your Creatures address, like yourname.creaturesite.com. After that, your edits wait as Unpublished changes until you choose Publish changes, so visitors never see work in progress.

Before you start: check your address

Your address is set in Settings (the gear), under Web address, in the Your Creatures address field. It must start with a letter, be 4 to 32 characters long, and use only lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens. It can't already be taken or be a reserved word like admin or www. Choose Save settings after you change it.

Your Creatures address field set to harper-lindgren, with the current live address and a Copy button

You don't need an ID check, phone check or payment to publish.

Publish for the first time

Choose Publish site at the top of the builder.
Check the address in Put your whole website online?, then choose Publish website.
Before it goes live, you may see a short review. A message like 1 finishing touch to review lists details such as Replace example text. Choose Publish now to go ahead, Review first to open the list in Your website goals, or a detail to go straight to it without publishing. If some pages are private, What visitors will see lists the pages that will stay hidden.

Put your whole website online? confirmation showing the website address, with Keep editing and Publish website buttons

A page with only a title and no content isn't published, and one that is already live comes off your website when you next publish. The review says Empty pages stay unpublished and names it. Add content, then publish again to put it online.

If Home page shows is set to Summary, you need a home-page introduction and a complete public story before you can publish. See Writing your website story.

When your website goes live, a message shows your address. Use View your live site, Copy link for an Instagram bio or Share on Facebook, or scan the QR code to open it on your phone. You may also see an offer to get your own domain. See Connecting or buying a custom domain for your website.

Published message saying Rowan Avery is live, with the website address and buttons to share on Facebook, view the live site and copy the link for an Instagram bio

Update your website

After your first publish, every edit saves to your draft and the header shows Unpublished changes.

Choose Unpublished changes to see your edits. Most have an Undo button. A new page with no content yet is listed as, for example, About us: waiting for content (not on your website) until you add content and publish.
Choose Publish changes to put all of them live at once.
In the page, post and story writers, Save and publish website changes saves and publishes in one step.

Unpublished changes list with Website design changed and Website menu changed, each with an Undo button

On a phone, Publish changes is the wide button at the top of the builder, with More and Settings below it.

Website header on a phone with the Unpublished changes button and a full-width Publish changes button above View live site, Unpublish, More and Settings

Privacy choices don't wait for publishing. These apply as soon as you save: an animal set to Hide from website, Site visibility, and a post or your story set to Only you.

Undo everything

To clear all your unpublished changes, choose More, then Undo all unpublished changes. The confirmation lists what will be undone. Private draft pages and posts are kept. If you change your mind, choose Restore what you undid within 30 days.

Banner saying your unpublished changes were undone, with Restore what you undid and Dismiss

Change your address later

You can change Your Creatures address after you publish. The new address waits for Publish changes, and your current address stays live until then. After that, your old public addresses keep forwarding visitors to your website.

Take your website offline

Choose Unpublish, then Take offline. Visitors get a not-found page until you publish again. Your Creatures profile is not affected, and a connected custom domain pauses too. Soon after a first publish, you may be asked Why?. Answering is optional.

Take your site offline? confirmation saying visitors cannot reach the site until you publish again and your Creatures profile is not affected, with Cancel and Take offline

When you're ready, choose Publish site to put your website back online. A connected domain reconnects when you do.

To hide your website from visitors without unpublishing, set Site visibility to Only you. See Website settings: search, announcement bar, contact details, and analytics.

If something looks wrong

This website changed on another device or tab. Choose Reload the latest before you keep editing.
Publishing stops with a message about your introduction. Add a Home-page introduction and a public full story, or set Home page shows to Full story.

Updated on: 02/11/2026

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