🗺️ What This Article Covers
This guide answers the most common questions about Website Studio — including how to share pages with a custom URL, how hosting and billing work, and what the platform can and cannot do today.
🚀 How to Access Website Studio
Go to Left Sidebar → Website Studio (URL: /website-studio). From there you can:
- Generate a PPC Landing Page
- Clone an Existing Page
- Build a Local Website
- Import a project
- Create a Brand Vault
🔗 Sharing Your Page With a Custom URL
Every Website Studio page gets a free Search Atlas preview URL the moment it is published. To share it under your own domain instead, follow these steps:
- Purchase or identify your domain — you must own the domain through any registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, etc.).
- Open the custom domain settings inside your Website Studio project and copy the DNS records provided.
- Add the DNS records at your registrar — typically a CNAME or A record pointing to Search Atlas servers.
- Wait for propagation — DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours to take effect globally. The platform will show a propagating status while it waits; this is expected.
- SSL is provisioned automatically after DNS is verified. If your domain shows as verified but SSL has not activated after 72 hours, please contact support using the chat widget (details at the bottom of this article).
Important: Do not remove or alter the DNS records while propagation is in progress. Changing records mid-process resets the clock.
⚠️ Known DNS and SSL Limitations
Please be aware of the following current platform behaviours:
- Silent domain disconnection: In some cases a previously connected domain can silently lose its connection. A fix is currently in development that will surface a clear propagating status and send email notifications when this happens.
- SSL provisioning delay: Occasionally SSL fails to provision even after DNS is successfully verified. If your site shows a security warning after 72 hours, open the chat widget and type human teammate — our team can manually trigger reprovisioning.
- Cloudflare users: If your domain is proxied through Cloudflare, set the DNS record to DNS Only (grey cloud) rather than Proxied (orange cloud) during initial setup. Proxying before SSL is provisioned can prevent verification from completing.
💳 Hosting and Billing
- Hosting is included in your Search Atlas subscription — there is no separate hosting fee for pages published within Website Studio.
- Your published pages remain live as long as your Search Atlas subscription is active.
- Custom domain registration and renewal fees are paid directly to your domain registrar — Search Atlas does not charge for or manage domain registration.
- Plan-level limits on the number of projects or published pages depend on your current subscription tier. Check your account billing page for specifics.
📊 Analytics Capabilities
- Basic page-view data is available inside Website Studio for published pages.
- For advanced analytics, connect Google Analytics 4 (GA4) by adding your GA4 Measurement ID in the page settings. This enables full session, conversion, and audience tracking.
- Search Atlas does not currently offer a built-in heatmap or session-recording tool — use a third-party integration for those use cases.
📝 CMS and Content Capabilities
- Website Studio is optimised for landing pages — PPC pages, local service pages, and lead-capture pages.
- It is not a full CMS (content management system). It does not support blog post archives, dynamic collections, or database-driven content out of the box.
- You can clone and duplicate pages to create multiple variations quickly.
- The Brand Vault lets you store brand colours, logos, and fonts so they are applied consistently across all projects.
🛠️ Technical Limitations to Know
- No server-side scripting: Custom PHP, Python, or Node.js back-end code cannot be deployed through Website Studio.
- Form submissions: Built-in forms capture leads within the platform. Custom webhook or CRM integrations may have limitations depending on your plan.
- E-commerce: Website Studio is not designed for shopping-cart or checkout functionality.
- Iframes and embeds: Most standard HTML embeds (video, maps, calendars) work fine inside the editor.
- White-label publishing: If you are on an agency plan, you can configure white-label settings under More Features → Agency Whitelabel before sharing client previews.
💡 Tips for a Smooth Setup
- Always verify DNS propagation using a free tool such as dnschecker.org before raising a support ticket — propagation delays are normal.
- Keep your registrar login credentials handy when setting up a custom domain; you will need to log in to add or edit records.
🆘 Need More Help?
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.