--- title: "Take your website live (and how fast changes appear)" url: "https://mycommunitysync.com/take-your-website-live" community: "CommunitySync" description: "The difference between a draft site and a live one, the three things that must be true for a page to show publicly, and why changes can lag a few minutes." updated: "2026-07-18T18:45:00.616+00:00" --- # Take your website live (and how fast changes appear) *Website Publishing* Building your site and putting it in front of the public are two different steps. A site can look finished in the editor and still show nothing at its public address until you flip it live. This article explains the three things that must all be true for a page to appear publicly, how to switch your site on, and why a change you just made can take a few minutes to show. ## The three gates for a page to appear publicly A page only shows at your public web address when all three of these are true at once: 1. **The page is published.** Each page has its own draft and live version. Editing and saving a page updates its draft; publishing pushes that draft to the public. See [Preview, save drafts, and publish your website](/preview-save-and-publish-your-website) for the editing loop. 2. **The site status is Live.** The whole site has one on/off switch. While it's Draft, nothing serves publicly no matter how many pages you've published. 3. **The community is Live.** Your community itself has to be live. If it's still in Draft, the public site host stays dark even when the site and its pages are ready. If any one of the three is still Draft, the public address won't show your site. All three green means visitors can reach it. ## Switch your site to Live You do this from the Website **Overview** page, not the full-screen editor. 1. Open the Website **Overview** for your community in the orange platform panel. 2. Find the site status control near the top and switch it to **Live**. 3. Your public address now serves every page you've already published. ![The Website Overview showing the site status and public URL](https://iaktsmonietvbikzietg.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/site-assets/kb/overview-01.png "Flip the site to Live on the Website Overview — its status and public URL live here.") One thing to watch: going live does **not** publish your draft pages for you. The status switch turns the site on; it doesn't push page drafts public. Publish each page you want visible (see [Preview, save drafts, and publish your website](/preview-save-and-publish-your-website)), then confirm the site status is **Live**. Your public site lives at the "-site" host — `-site.mycommunitysync.com` — which is a different address from your member portal at `.mycommunitysync.com`. ## Before you're live: use the preview link Until the site (and community) are Live, the bare public address will show a "Site not found" message to anyone who visits it. That's expected for a Draft site. While you're still building, share the private preview link instead. It lets you and your team review the site as it will look, without switching anything public. ## Why changes can take a few minutes The live site is cached at the edge — roughly a five-minute window — so it loads fast for visitors. When you publish, that cache is cleared automatically, so your changes show up promptly rather than waiting out the full window. If everyone else sees the new version but **you** still see the old one, that's your own browser holding onto a cached copy. Force a fresh load: 1. Open the live page in your browser. 2. Press **Ctrl+Shift+R** (hard refresh) to pull the newest version. ## Troubleshooting ### The public URL says "Site not found" The site or the community is still in **Draft**. Open the Website **Overview** and switch the site status to **Live**, and confirm your community itself is Live. Until then, use the private preview link to review the site. ### I published but still see the old page Publishing clears the shared edge cache automatically, so this is almost always your own browser cache. Hard-refresh the page with **Ctrl+Shift+R**. If it still looks stale, wait a couple of minutes and refresh again — the edge cache clears within about five minutes even without a manual purge. Also double-check you actually published the page (not just saved its draft) and that the site status is **Live**. ### Website Publishing - [Get your website into Google — Search Console and your sitemap](https://mycommunitysync.com/get-into-google-search-console.md) - [See what Google sees — your page's structured data](https://mycommunitysync.com/see-what-google-sees.md) - [Connect your social profiles to your website — for search engines](https://mycommunitysync.com/social-profiles-search-engines-connect.md) - [Why your site isn't in Google yet — and what actually moves it](https://mycommunitysync.com/why-your-site-is-not-in-google-yet.md) - [Optimize a page for search (SEO title, description, social image)](https://mycommunitysync.com/website-seo-basics.md) - [Set up redirects for moved or renamed pages](https://mycommunitysync.com/set-up-website-redirects.md) - [Set your website's favicon (browser-tab icon)](https://mycommunitysync.com/set-a-favicon.md) - [Delete and restore your website](https://mycommunitysync.com/delete-and-restore-website.md) - [Connect a custom domain to your website](https://mycommunitysync.com/connect-a-custom-domain.md) - [What is schema markup — and what your site adds automatically](https://mycommunitysync.com/what-is-schema-markup.md) - [Where FAQ schema works today — and where it doesn't](https://mycommunitysync.com/faq-schema-where-it-works.md)