🛠️ Using the Website Builder: HTML Import, Blog Pages, and Credit Usage Explained

📋 Overview

The Search Atlas Website Builder lets you create pages, import existing HTML, and publish a blog. This article explains how each of these features behaves so you can avoid common surprises, such as imported pages replacing your homepage, blog pages returning a 404 error, or credits being used unexpectedly.

📥 How HTML Import Works

When you import an HTML file, the Website Builder treats that file as a complete page. It is important to understand what the importer does and does not do before you upload.

✅ What to expect

• An imported HTML file is added as a new page, not merged into an existing one.
• Depending on your project settings, an imported page can be set as the homepage if it is the first or primary page in the upload.
• The importer does not automatically preserve your existing navigation menu or internal links.

🤔 Why importing can appear to "wipe out" your pages

If you import HTML into an existing project and your previous pages are no longer visible, one of the following usually happened:

• The import was performed on a new or empty workspace rather than your live project.
• The imported page was assigned as the homepage, so it now loads at your root URL and hides the original landing page from view.
• The existing pages still exist but are no longer linked in your navigation menu, so they appear "missing."

👉 Recommended steps before importing

1. Open your project and confirm you are working in the correct workspace.
2. Use Duplicate Project or export a backup so your current pages are saved.
3. Import your HTML file.
4. Go to Pages and confirm all expected pages are still listed.
5. If the imported page was set as the homepage by mistake, open Page Settings and reassign the correct homepage.
6. Review your navigation menu and re-add any links that were not carried over.

You can confirm a project was created through HTML import by the Imported badge shown on the builder dashboard. (Earlier versions sometimes labeled these projects "Free Mode" instead of "Imported"; this has been corrected.)

🚫 Why a Blog Page Shows a 404 Error

A 404 error means the page could not be found at the requested URL. With blog pages, this is almost always a configuration step rather than a defect.

🔍 Common causes

• The page is not published. Draft or unpublished blog posts return a 404 to visitors until they are published.
• The blog feature is not enabled for the project, so the /blog path has no destination.
• The URL slug was changed or contains a typo, so the live URL no longer matches.
• Changes have not been republished. Edits in the builder go live only after you publish.
• DNS or domain connection is incomplete, so the blog path cannot resolve on your custom domain.

🔧 How to fix it

1. Open Content → Content Genius ("What are we writing today?") and confirm the post status is Published in the articles list's Status column.
2. Verify the blog feature is enabled in your project settings.
3. Check the page slug for typos and confirm it matches the URL you are testing.
4. Click Publish to push your latest changes live.
5. Confirm your domain is fully connected under Domain Settings.
6. Clear your browser cache or test in a private window to rule out a cached error.

📝 Notes for imported projects

• Adding several blog posts at once on an imported project can take noticeably longer to process, so a post may appear missing or return a temporary 404 until processing finishes. Allow the operation to complete, then republish and retest.
• Previously reported issues where blogs did not publish on imported projects, or where blogs disappeared from an imported project after downloading the project ZIP, have been resolved. If you encounter this behavior, make sure you are on the current version and republish.
• Known issue (in progress): adding a blog to an imported project that already contains a blog section can produce duplicated blog sections on the published URL. Our engineering team is actively working on a fix. If you hit this, contact support and we can help you remove the duplicate section.

💳 How Credits Are Used

Credits are consumed when an action triggers processing on our servers, such as generating content with AI, building pages, or publishing. We understand it can be frustrating to see credits used when a feature does not appear to work, so here is how to think about it.

⚡ What consumes credits

• AI-generated content (such as blog posts or page copy).
• Bulk actions like generating multiple pages at once.
• Certain import and publishing operations that require processing.

⚠️ Important notes about credits and errors

• A credit is generally consumed when the action is processed, even if the resulting page is not yet configured or published.
• A 404 error after generation usually means the page exists but still needs to be published or linked, not that the credit was wasted.
• If a genuine system error prevented an action from completing, credits used for that failed action can be reviewed and refunded by our team.

💡 How to avoid unexpected credit use

1. Confirm your project and settings are correct before running AI or bulk generation.
2. Generate one page first to confirm the result before running large batches.
3. Publish and test each new page so you can confirm it works.

📞 When to Contact Support

Reach out to our support team if any of the following apply:

• Pages disappeared and are not listed under Pages after an import, even after checking the homepage setting.
• A published blog post still returns a 404 after republishing and verifying the slug and domain.
• You see duplicated blog sections on the published URL of an imported project.
• Credits were consumed by an action that failed due to a system error.

When you contact us, please include your project name, the affected URL, a screenshot of the error, whether the project was created via HTML import, and the approximate time the issue occurred. This helps us review credit usage and resolve the issue faster.