Your first site, start to finish
This walkthrough follows one business from an empty workspace to a public site, so you see every screen once before doing it yourself. The example is Larder Lane, a small bakery in York, built on the Free plan's 50 credits.
Before you start
Have three things ready: the business name, a paragraph about it, and a rough list of pages. Sam, who runs Larder Lane, wants a site that shows the bread, takes Saturday pre-orders and tells people where the shop is and when it is open.
Sam is on the Free plan, so he has 50 credits and room for 1 project. A new site holds 50 while it builds, so he starts with a full balance and does not spend any on anything else first. As the first site of a Free workspace, it is built in full even if it takes more than he has.
Step one: describe the business
You can also start from the prompt box on Home and press Continue. Either way you reach a short setup in seven steps: What are you making?, Describe it, Show what you like, Your brand, Pictures, How it is built and Review and create. A list beside it shows where you are, and Back and Next move between steps. What you enter is kept in this browser until the build starts, so you can leave and come back.
Choose the kind and name it
Where: What are you making?
Sam picks Website and types
Larder Laneinto Business or project name. The name also becomes the site's first address.Write the description
Where: Describe it
The box takes up to 25,000 characters and needs at least ten. You can type or speak. The panel under it lists what a good description says: who it is for and where, what it offers or does, how it should feel, and the pages or features it needs.
Skip the optional steps
Where: Show what you like, Your brand
Both are marked Optional, and with nothing filled in the button reads Skip. Sam has no sites he wants to follow and no fixed colours, so he skips both and lets Briks choose.
Keep the included pictures
Where: Pictures
The first choice, marked Included, takes fitting pictures from the studio's library and draws anything missing, with no charge for pictures. The other choices draw every picture new and add a price per picture to the build.
Check how it is built
Where: How it is built
Ask about what is unclear before building is on; leave it on. Sam leaves the approval switches and Check the published site off.
Review and build
Where: Review and create
Every choice is listed with a way back to change it. The note under it says the new project holds 50 credits while it builds, what your balance is, and that the first version takes a few minutes. When a project like this usually takes more than you have, a line under it gives the estimate. Sam presses Build it.
A small neighbourhood bakery in York, open Wednesday to Saturday. Sourdough, rye and pastries baked on site every morning. People can pre-order loaves for Saturday collection through a simple form: name, phone, what they want and a pickup time. Pages: home, our bread, pre-orders, visit us with opening hours and directions, and a short story about the two of us. Warm and plain-spoken. Cream and deep green, big honest photos of bread.
Step two: answer the questions
The project opens on its Studio tab, with the conversation on the left and the preview on the right. Before planning anything, Briks prepares a few questions; the label above the preview reads 'Waiting for your answers'. The full detail is in questions before building.
Tick the pages
Where: Studio
Briks suggests pages from your brief. Home is marked Always. Tick or untick the rest, and add your own in the field that reads 'Add a page, for example Careers'. A site can start with up to 10 pages, and each page you tick is built in full.
Answer the other questions
Where: Studio
Each one has a choice marked Recommended, already selected. Change any that are wrong, or choose Something else to write your own answer.
Send your answers
Where: Studio
Press Continue. Decide for me takes every recommended answer instead. You can also type your answers in your own words in the box below the conversation.
Sam kept Home, Our bread, Pre-orders, Visit us and Our story, and added
Wholesalefor the three cafés he supplies. One question asked how pre-orders should be taken; he kept the recommended answer.
Six pages, then Continue. The build started straight away.
Step three: watch it build
The conversation shows each stage as it happens, such as Planning the site and its pictures, Designing and building, Verifying build and Publishing. The first version takes a few minutes. You can leave the page while it runs; the build carries on and the result is waiting when you come back. Watching a build explains each stage.
When the site is published, the preview fills in and the label above it changes to Live preview. The buttons above the preview let you see it at desktop, tablet and phone widths, reload it, open it full screen, or open it in a new tab at its own address so you can click through every page as a visitor would.
Step four: open the preview
The first publish is a preview at an address made from the project name, here larder-lane.briks.live. If that name is taken, a few characters are added to the end. An Owner or Admin can change it later; see your site's address.
A preview is a real, working site that anyone with the address can open. It differs from production in two ways: search engines are asked to leave it out, and messages sent through its forms are kept in the studio but not emailed to you.
- Read every page on your own phone, not just in the preview pane.
- Open the menu and make sure each page you ticked is there.
- Send a test pre-order through the form, then find it in the project's Forms.
Step five: make one change
Sam notices the opening hours sit low on the Visit us page, and the home page photo shows croissants when he is known for sourdough. He writes one message in the box under the conversation, the one that reads 'Change the hero, add a page, adjust the colours…'.
Write the change
Where: Studio
Say what to change and where, in plain words. One message can carry several related changes, up to 6,000 characters, with up to six pictures or videos attached.
Decide on a check
Where: Studio
Under the box, Check the site after this change looks at the published site at four screen sizes and repairs what renders broken. It adds a few minutes and some credits, so leave it off for small changes like this one.
Send it
Where: Studio
Press the send button, Send. A change holds 5 credits while it runs. If a build is already running, the button becomes Queue: the message waits and runs when that build finishes.
On Visit us, put the opening hours at the top in large type: Wednesday to Saturday, 8am to 2pm. On the home page, swap the big photo for a close shot of sourdough loaves on a wooden board.
Briks built the change and published it to the same address, and the preview reloaded. The earlier version stayed in the project's versions in case Sam wanted it back.
Step six: publish to production
Production makes the site public in full: search engines can list it, and messages from its forms are emailed to you.
Press Publish
Where: Top bar
Once a site has been published, the top bar shows Preview and a Publish button. Press it.
Read the dialog
Where: Publish to production
It explains what changes. Briks checks the site first, including its links, and if something needs fixing, nothing changes and the studio tells you what.
Confirm
Where: Publish to production
Press Publish to production. When it is done, the button in the top bar reads In production.
Publishing to production, and going back with Back to preview, hold no credits. Once the site is in production, each change you send is published there too. More in publish to production.
Step seven: your own domain
On the Free plan the site stays at its briks.live address, which works in production too. Connecting a domain of your own, such as larderlane.co.uk, starts on the Starter plan.
There you type the domain under Your domain and press Connect domain. Then you add three records at the company where you bought the domain. Records are short settings that tell the internet where your domain points: here an A record, a CNAME for www pointing to edge.briks.live, and a TXT record named _briks that proves the domain is yours. Briks re-checks them every 2 minutes and issues the security certificate for you. Connect your domain walks through it.
If something goes wrong
The build failed. Was I charged?
No. A request that fails is not charged, and its hold goes back to your balance. The project shows Needs attention; read the last message in the conversation, then send your next message to carry on.
I do not have enough credits for a change.
The studio says what the change holds and what your balance is, and nothing starts. A change that adds pages can also be refused when it usually takes more than you have, with the estimate. Your site stays online. An Owner can move to a plan with more credits from the window that opens, or from Billing. See credits and plans.
Can I build a second site on Free?
No. The Free plan includes 1 project. Pro and above include more; see the plans table in credits and plans.
Someone else should see it before it goes live.
Send them the preview address. They do not need an account. See sharing a preview.