Preview addresses

Every website gets its own preview address the moment it is created. It works with HTTPS straight away, so you can build the site, test it and show it to a client before you touch your domain’s DNS.

What a preview address looks like

A preview address is a name on Netkeel’s preview domain, made from your site’s name plus a short random code, for example my-shop-a1b2.whitelabelstaging.com.

• If you created the website with a domain, the name comes from the first part of the domain: shop.example.com gives a preview address starting with shop-.
• If you created it without a domain, the name comes from the website name you typed.

Find a website’s preview address

• While the site is not live yet, the banner at the top of the website links to it.
• Under Domains & SSL, it is listed with the type Preview.
• Once the site is live, Open preview is in the website’s menu at the top.

What Netkeel handles for you

You don’t need to set anything up for a preview address:

• DNS and the certificate are managed by Netkeel. Under Domains & SSL, the preview address shows “Managed automatically”, and its SSL tab says “Certificate managed by Netkeel”.
• Search engines are told not to index the preview address, so it never competes with your real domain.

You can’t request a Let’s Encrypt certificate for a preview address. Connect your own domain to get one.

After you go live

When you connect your domain or take the site live, the preview address keeps working and sends visitors on to your domain. Links you shared during the build still land in the right place.

Staging copies

A staging copy of a website gets a preview address of its own. It is password protected and hidden from search engines, and needs no DNS changes. See Staging.

Next step

When the site is ready, connect your domain.