# Publish and unpublish

Choose what goes live in the Publish dialog, publish products on their own, see what is waiting, and take a site offline without deleting it.

For: Everyone publishing a website

## The first publish

Publish is the moment a website stops being private, and it needs a bought licence on the website: a trial website builds and previews but cannot publish. The first time, the dialog asks Put your site live? and lists everything that will go: the pages, the design and site settings, and the products if the website has any. The home page always goes with the first publish, so its tick cannot be taken off.

It also asks you to look for placeholder wording, the leftovers from templates and drafts like "Company A" or an example phone number, and offers a note for the version history. Once the site is live, the dialog shows the address to copy and share.

Walkthrough: The Publish dialog, top to bottom (Publishing a website)

1. **What is waiting**: A count of the changes, and how many are ticked to go live.
2. **The website**: Each page added, changed or removed. On the first publish the home page always goes.
3. **The placeholder check**: "Company A" and example phone numbers are the classic leftovers. Finding one on a live site is the small embarrassment this check exists to prevent.
4. **A note for the history**: Optional. It shows beside this version in Version history.

1. Press Publish in the editor, or Review and put live on the website's overview.
2. Read the list rather than clicking through it.
3. Publish, and open the live address in a new tab to prove it.

## Choosing what goes live

Every publish after the first opens Publish your changes: what is waiting since the last publish, in two groups. Website lists each page added, changed or removed, then Design and site settings, saying whether the theme, header, footer or settings changed. Products lists the products, categories and attributes changed since the products were last published.

Everything starts ticked. Untick anything that is not ready and press Publish selected: the rest stays in the draft for later, and the live website keeps its current version of anything you left out. Publish everything puts all of it live in one go. A removed page is taken off the live website when its row is published.

Walkthrough: Choosing what goes live (Publishing a website)

1. **Untick what is not ready**: It stays in the draft, and the live website keeps its current version.
2. **Design and site settings**: One row for the theme, header, footer and settings, saying which changed.
3. **Products**: Product, category and attribute changes, published together or left for later.
4. **Publish selected**: Only what is ticked goes live. Publish everything, beside it, takes the lot.

Note: Visitors never see half a page: each page, the design and the products go live whole, or stay as they were.

## Seeing what is waiting

The website's overview has a Waiting to publish card: a short list of what has changed, with Review and publish, and Publish products beside it when product changes are waiting. It says Everything is published when visitors already see the latest version.

The websites list shows how many changes are waiting on each card, and Live, changes waiting marks a website with work in the draft. That badge is not a mistake; it is the honest state of a site with work in progress.

Walkthrough: Where waiting changes show (The Websites page)

1. **Live, changes waiting**: The website has been published, and there is work in the draft.
2. **How many**: The count on the card. The website's overview lists each one under Waiting to publish.

Note: Blog posts publish with the site like everything else. A scheduled post still appears by itself at its time once the site is live.

## Publishing products on their own

Products can be published without touching any page. In the products area, Publish products shows how many product changes are waiting and lists them; publishing puts them live while the pages, the design and the settings stay exactly as they are. It appears once the website has been published, and says Products are up to date when nothing is waiting.

Prices, stock and offers are live as soon as they are saved, so they never wait for a publish. The shop section of this help centre has a guide of its own on publishing products.

Walkthrough: Products without the pages (Publishing a website)

1. **On their own**: Publish products, in the products area, puts product changes live without touching any page.
2. **Or with the rest**: Leave Products ticked here and they go live with the pages you publish.

## Taking a site offline

Take the website offline, in website Settings, replaces the live site with a holding page. Nothing is deleted and nothing is unpublished: the moment you publish again, the site returns as it was.

This is the right move for a site that should pause rather than vanish: a seasonal business, a company name change in progress, a domain being moved.

Walkthrough: Taking a site offline, and bringing it back (Website settings)

1. **Take the website offline**: The address shows a holding page instead of the site. One click, and nothing is deleted.
2. **A pause, not a delete**: Publishing again brings the site back as it was. For months rather than weeks, consider the password instead.

Warning: Search engines notice long offline periods and may start dropping the pages from results. For a short pause this is noise; for months, consider the password protection instead, which keeps the pages live but private.

## Do I need a licence to publish?

Yes. Each website is published on its own licence; the trial builds and previews one website but cannot publish it. Without one, the dialog says Choose a plan for this website and takes you to the Licences page.

## Can I publish one page and leave the rest?

Yes. Untick everything else in the Publish dialog and press Publish selected. On the very first publish the home page goes too.

## Can two people publish at once?

Publishes are quick and sequential. Each one publishes what was ticked from the draft as it stands at that moment.

## Related guides

- [Version history and staging](/help/publishing-and-domains/version-history-and-staging)
- [Publish products](/help/shop/publish-products)
- [The website did not publish](/help/troubleshooting/the-website-did-not-publish)
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