Create and publish a website

Until now with Acumbamail you could design and publish landing pages from the "Pages" section of the main menu. This section has been renamed "Websites" since, in addition to continuing to create landing pages, you can now also create complete websites (made up of a set of pages). Keep reading this article to learn all the details and steps to follow to create and publish your websites.

In this article:

• Access to features
  • Features according to plan
  • How to increase website visit credits
• Create a landing page
  • Choose a landing page template
  • Edit landing page settings
  • Design the content of the landing page
    • Internal links of the page
    • Add rows
    • Insert a form
    • Embed a survey
    • Include content from an external content source
    • General adjustments
  • Share the landing page
    • Customize your landing page domain
• Create a website
  • Choose a website theme
  • General website settings
  • Default home page
  • Edit website header and footer
  • Add new page to website
  • Duplicate an existing page
  • Edit page layout
  • Edit page settings
  • Delete a page from the website
  • Change the website home page
  • Website navigation menu
    • Pages automatically added to the navigation menu
    • Add page to navigation menu
    • Remove page from navigation menu
    • Add or remove external link to navigation menu
    • Reorder visible items in the navigation menu
  • Share the website
• See the list of my websites
  • Edit a website
  • Duplicate a website
  • Delete a website
  • Website preview
• View website report

Access to features

• Websites created and published. You can create as many websites as you want. However, depending on your plan, you can make more or fewer websites public.
• Website credits . You will have more or fewer website credits depending on your plan. Each credit is equivalent to one visit to any of the pages included in all your published websites. These credits are global to all your websites per month, that is, X credits are not assigned to each different website, but rather the total credits are spent indifferently as your websites receive visits.
• Acumbamail logo. Depending on your plan, the Acumbamail logo will also be included or not in the footer of each of your pages. If you don't want it to appear you will have to improve your plan.
• URL of your website. For all plans, a specific URL will be generated to load each of your website's pages under the showlanding.com domain. If you have a Pro or Enterprise plan and own your own domain, you can verify it and generate a specific URL to upload the survey under your own domain.

Features according to plan

How to increase website visit credits

If you exhaust your monthly website view credits, the URLs associated with all your websites will not load the designed content, but rather a message indicating that the website is temporarily disabled. Website credits renew at the same time as your email credits. If you need to be able to receive a greater number of visits per month, you will have to improve your plan.

In order to increase the limit present in the free and basic rates, there are two options:

• Upgrade your plans to a Pro or Enterprise plan
• If you're on a basic plan and aren't interested in upgrading to a Pro plan, you can turn on the website module upgrade as an extra. This extra is only accessible if you have a basic plan. For more information about how extras work, you can consult this article.

You will also see a button to see your extras in the Home section, within Websites, as long as you have an active basic plan.

Create a landing page

A landing page is a web page that your subscribers or audience land on after clicking on a link (it can be a link included in a newsletter email, for example). It is usually a separate page created specifically for the capture of leads, within the framework of a marketing campaign.

To create a landing page, in the Websites section, click on the "New website" button.

This will open a popup where you can choose what type of website to create: landing page or multi-page. You must choose the landing page type.

Choose a landing page template

A list will appear with all the available templates (with responsive design and fully customizable). If you don't want to start from a design but from a blank page, you can also click on the "Start from scratch" button.

Once the template is selected, you must name the landing page. This name is only for your internal management, it will not be visible at any time.

Edit landing page settings

Once you have chosen the template, the first step is to edit the general configuration settings of your landing page:

• Meta Title field . Value that the title meta tag will have, which is taken into account by search engines to display on search result pages.
• Meta Description field . Value that the description meta tag will have, which is taken into account by search engines to display on search result pages.
• UTM Values : Required if you want to track page performance through Google Analytics . You can use utm_source to check the source of traffic (for example, "landing_page") and utm_campaign to identify the specific landing page your users are coming from (for example, "my_first_landing").
• Additional scripts or styles : Anything you add here will be included at the end of the page header . They can range from scripts that perform other types of tracking to utilities such as a cookie management library or loading additional CSS styles. If you select this option, you must make sure to properly close all tags you include.

Design the content of the landing page

As a second step, in the Design section you can add the different content blocks you need for your landing page, including title, texts, images, buttons, separators, Social Media buttons, custom HTML code, video, stickers and animated GIFs.

You just have to drag the block you need to the editor, and modify it as necessary. In the case of images, stickers and GIFs, our editor has an internal search engine so you don't have to leave it. You can search for content by keyword and add it directly.

If you want to know more about how to design effective landing pages to increase your conversions, visit our guide on the matter.

Internal links on the page

If you double click on any of the content blocks included in your landing page you can add an internal link to the page, in the menu on the right at the bottom.

To do this, all you have to do is:

• Select the target module and activate the Block Identifier.
• Double click on the button where you want to add the link.
• In Action > Link Type , select Internal Link and in Navigate select the module.

Add rows

In the same way as in the email template editor, you can both modify the layout of the page using empty rows (only containing structures) and embed a series of predefined rows (with a series of contents distributed in a specific way).

In the same way, you can also reuse your own saved rows. For more details, consult the section included in the article dedicated to the email template editor .

Insert a form

In the content tab you will find a block called "Form". This allows you to include a classic subscription form that you have previously created in one of your Acumbamail lists .

To include the form you just have to drag this block to the position of the landing page where you want it to appear. You must click on the "Add form" button, within the block, to see a configuration popup. In this popup you just have to select which form you want to add and click on the "Confirm" button. Immediately after, you will see how the form is added in your design.

If you want to add a form that is not a classic type to your landing page, you can copy the integration script associated with the form and paste it in step 1 of configuration, in the field that allows you to add additional scripts.

Embed a survey

In the content tab you will find a block called "Survey". This allows you to include a survey that you have previously created.

To include the survey you just have to drag this block to the position of the landing page where you want it to appear. You must click on the "Add survey" button within the block, to appear a configuration popup. In this popup you will only have to select which survey you want to add and click the "Confirm" button. Immediately after, you'll see your survey cover page added to your design.

For more information regarding the inclusion of surveys on landing pages, review this article .

Include content from an external content source

General adjustments

Share the landing page

In the last step you can make your landing page public (visible) or private (not accessible).

You also have access to the generated URL associated with your landing page. If it is a free or basic account, you will not be able to change the URL associated with the page.

Customize your landing page domain

If you have the extra module of Websites active or have a Pro or Enterprise plan, you have the possibility to customize the domain of your landing page. To do this:

• First you will have to create a type A DNS record at your hosting provider (where you purchased your domain) with the value 185.2.150.182.
• Once done, you can enter your domain name (without https://) and click the " Verify " button. If everything is correct, your domain will become part of the URL associated with the page.
• Within your domain, each page must have a different slug. You can edit the slug and save the page changes (on the "Save draft" button) so that the new URL is generated with your custom domain plus the specific and unique path that you have chosen for the page.

Create a website

In the Websites section, click on the "New Website" button.

This will open a popup where you can choose what type of website to create: landing page or multi-page. You must choose the multi-page type.

Choose a website theme

A list will appear with all the available themes (with responsive design and fully customizable). If you don't want to start from a design but from blank pages, you can also click on the "Start from scratch" button.

⚠️ You must keep in mind that, once you have chosen a website theme, for an already created website you will not be able to change that initially chosen theme.

You can open a preview of the appearance of all the page types available within that theme by clicking on the theme thumbnail (when the magnifying glass icon appears).

This will open a popup where you can see the presentation of all the pages as a carousel.

Once you select the theme, you will need to name your website. This name is only for your internal management, it will not be visible at any time.

General website settings

In the configuration step, you can edit the internal name assigned to the website at any time.

Additionally, you can add additional scripts or CSS styles that you want to load globally on all pages of the website. All the tags you add here will be included at the end of the head of each page (for example, it could be javascript to load an external cookie management library or additional CSS styles). If you set a value to this field, you must make sure to close all tags you include correctly.

Default home page

Whenever you create a new website, by default it will be initialized containing only the main home page linked to the theme you chose.

You can start by editing the content of this page by clicking the "Edit design" button. This will take you to the "Design" step, from which you can edit the content of the previously selected page (not just the home page).

Edit website header and footer

You can edit the header and footer of your website from the design of any of its pages.

To do this, the first thing you should do is choose one of your pages and from the "Settings" step, click the "Edit design" button.

Once the specific page design opens, you should look at the following:

• The first row corresponds to the header of your web page and contains the navigation menu, whose content is generated automatically. This content will be present on all the pages you create.
• The last row corresponds to the footer of your web page. Unlike the navigation menu (which will always be present) in this row there is no auto-generated content. Just keep in mind that what you include in this row will appear on all pages of your website.

As it is special content and synchronized in the rest of the pages, you will see that these rows are not edited in the same way as the rest of the rows in your design.

By clicking on any element in the row, you can verify that it is not editable. You must click on the general area of the row and click on the edit row button (pencil) or the " Edit synchronized row " button in the options on the right.

Once you start editing, you will see that the editor reloads to show only the row that contains the header or footer, depending on which one you are editing. In this mode, you can apply all the changes you consider and click the " Save row " button.

This saving action may take a while as it involves a process of synchronizing the header or footer design across all pages of your website. Do not close the tab or browser or return to the page layout until the action has been confirmed.

Once you have finished applying the changes, you can click the " Return to design " button to recover the previous context and continue editing the content of your page. You will be able to check that the changes applied to the header or footer row are reflected on the page and when you edit any other page on your website, the changes to the header or footer will also be present.

Add new page to website

You can add as many pages to your website as you need.

Not all of them have to be linked from the navigation menu. You may be interested, for example, in creating privacy or terms of use pages that link from the footer. You can also create another series of pages that link from website content or a specific page that acts as a landing page and link from an email campaign.

To create a new page, click on the " New Page " button.

The next step is to choose the type of page you are going to create, which changes the layout from which you will start designing it. A popup opens where you must mark the type in the list in the left column. On the right you can see a preview image of part of the contents of the page.

You can also give the page a specific name, but it is not required. If you don't, it will be assigned the default name.

To finish, you must click on the " Create " button. This will redirect you to the design step, where you can change the content and layout of your new page.

Duplicate an existing page

To duplicate an existing page, you must go to the first step of "Settings" and, in the list of created web pages, locate the page you want to duplicate. You just have to click on the "More Actions" button and select " Duplicate Page ".

Once done, you will see that a new page appears (not included in the navigation menu) with the same name as the original, adding "_copy" in the name.

Edit page layout

As previously indicated in the home page section, you can edit the content of any page by clicking on the " Edit design " button, within the "Settings" step. This will take you directly to the "Design" step, from which you can edit the content of this page (in addition to the header and footer design of the entire website).

Edit page settings

For each page, individually, a series of settings can be made. To edit them, within the "Settings" Step, in "More actions", you must select " Edit settings ".

This opens a popup, where you can edit the following:

• Page name . Here you can update the name initially assigned to the page. This is the name that will appear in the navigation menu, if the page is included in it. You should also keep in mind that in this case, saving may take a little longer, since a synchronization process is applied to all pages to update the header.
• Slug . If you set up a custom domain in the Share step , here you can edit the specific slug associated with this page (to make up the unique URL for this page). Unlike the process of creating a landing page (where the domain and the slug are configured together), in this case the domain is configured globally to the website (since it will be shared by all pages) and the slug is configured specifically at the page level.
• Meta Title field . Value that the title meta tag will have, which is taken into account by search engines to display on search result pages.
• Meta Description field . Value that the description meta tag will have, which is taken into account by search engines to display on search result pages.
• UTM Values : Required if you want to track page performance through Google Analytics . You can use utm_source to check the source of traffic (for example, "website") and utm_campaign to identify the specific page or website your users came from (for example, "my_first_website").
• Additional scripts or styles : Anything you add here will be included at the end of the header of this page. This is similar to the field configured globally for the website, but the content you add here will only run in the context of this page and not on other pages on the website.

Delete a page from the website

To delete an existing page, you must go to the first step of "Settings" and, in the list of created web pages, locate the page you want to delete. You just have to click on the "More Actions" button and select " Delete Page ".

If the page was added to the navigation menu, the navigation menu will automatically update and the page will no longer appear linked in the menu. If this is the case, the deletion action may take a little longer, since the header synchronization process is launched on all pages.

Change the website home page

If for some reason you want to make any of your other created pages become the main page or home page of your website, you must go to the first step of "Settings" and, in the list of created web pages, locate the page that you want to act as the new home page. You just have to click on the "More Actions" button and select " Mark as home page ".

Website navigation menu

• Its content is generated automatically based on the configuration of your website.
• The first row of every page on your website will always include a navigation menu.
• This element cannot be deleted and its content cannot be edited within the editor itself. However, you will be able to freely edit its style in the editor.

Remember that to edit the style of the navigation menu , you must click on the first row (not directly on the menu item) and click the "Edit synchronized row" button, so that editing of your site's header is enabled website and from there it allows you to apply the style changes.

The following sections describe the actions that allow you to change the content of the navigation menu . You must keep in mind that these actions, although they may seem simple, involve a process of synchronizing the header on all the pages of your website. Do not close the tab or browser until the action has been confirmed.

Pages automatically added to the navigation menu

By default, the pages you create are added to the navigation menu until a maximum of 6 items are detected present in the menu.

This does not apply when it is a duplicate page or when you create a second page of the same type (for example, if you have already created a page of type "product", the second and subsequent ones you create of that same type are no longer automatically added ).

This limit only applies to the default behavior. You can choose to add more than 6 items to the navigation menu if you consider it necessary, but you will have to add them yourself as explained in the following sections. Even so, remember that to promote usability, it is recommended that the navigation menu contains between 3 and 6 items maximum.

Add page to navigation menu

By default, when you add a new page to your website, it will not be included in the navigation menu. You can identify which pages are not included in the menu because they have a crossed-out eye icon next to their name.

To add a page to the navigation menu, simply click the "More Actions" button and select "Add to navigation menu."

Remove page from navigation menu

If you added a page to the navigation menu and no longer want it directly linked there, simply click the "More Actions" button and select "Remove from navigation menu."

Add or remove external link to navigation menu

It is possible that you need to add a link in the navigation menu that is not to a page on the website but rather an external link. In this case, you must click on the " Add link to menu " button.

This will open a popup where you can define the visible name in the navigation menu and the URL associated with this item.

The new menu entry will also appear in the list of pages on the website. You can identify it by the "link" icon next to the name of the new menu item.

This, being a specific navigation menu item not associated with a created page, has fewer available actions. You can only copy the associated URL or delete it if you no longer want it to be present in the navigation menu.

Reorder visible items in the navigation menu

If you want to change the order of the items in the menu, you just have to drag the page or external link and place it in its final position.

You must keep in mind that pages not added to the navigation menu will appear at the end of the list and cannot be reordered.

Share the website

In the last step you can make your multi-page website public (visible) or private (not accessible).

You also have access to the generated URL associated with your website's home page. If it is a free or basic account, you will not be able to change the URL associated with the page.

Customize your website domain

• First you will have to create a type A DNS record at your hosting provider (where you purchased your domain) with the value 185.2.150.182.
• Once done, you can enter your domain name (without https://) and click the "Verify" button. If everything is correct, your domain will become part of the URL associated with the page.

Within your domain, each page must have a different slug. This is not edited globally in the "Share" step, but is done at the level of each page in its settings .

See the list of my websites

You can easily access the list of your created websites from the "Websites" section within "Websites" in the main menu.

You can filter websites by type (show only landing pages or only multi-page sites).

You can also filter websites according to their status (differentiating between public and private).

In combination with the previous filters, you can also filter by the name assigned to the website.

Edit a website

To edit an existing website, you must go to the "Websites" section and, in the list, locate the card corresponding to the website you want to delete. Now you just have to click on the "Edit" button, which appears when you hover over the website thumbnail.

Duplicate a website

To duplicate an existing website, you must go to the "Websites" section and, in the list, locate the card corresponding to the website you want to duplicate. Now you just have to click on the "More Actions" button ( [...] ) and select " Duplicate ".

Delete a website

To delete an existing website, you must go to the "Websites" section and, in the list, locate the card corresponding to the website you want to delete. Now you just have to click on the "More Actions" button ( [...] ) and select " Delete ".

Website preview

Each visit to your website results in a website credit being subtracted from your account. Additionally, that visit (along with the rest of the actions) is counted in the report associated with your website.

If you need to access your own website without it counting events or subtracting credits or preview it before you make it public, you can use the "Preview" button, which appears when you hover over the website thumbnail.

Hitting preview will open the final website in a new tab, but in a mode that blocks event detection and credit spending.

The URL that is generated is only valid if a session started in your Acumbamail account is detected. Otherwise it will not block. This means that if you copy the URL that opens in the new tab and open it, for example, in another browser, the block will not work.

View website report

Once you have published websites, you can check their reports in the "Reports" section under "Websites" in the main menu.

You will be able to see that all your websites are listed, indicating for each one:

• Name
• The state (if public or private)
• The type (if it is a landing page or multi-page)
• What date was the last event recorded?
• How many subscribers have been attracted (if it includes a subscription form)

In the event that it is a multi-page website, the totals (sum of all pages) are taken.

If you click on " More details " or on the name for a multi-page website, it will load a new list, this time showing the list of web pages included within the site as well as some cards that show the sum of all the data collected for all pages.

From this view, if you click on the name of a specific page, it will open the detail view for that page. This is identical to the view available if you click on the name of a landing page (since the landing page is a website with a single page).

The available totals are as follows:

• Visits that the page has received.
• Total clicks that have been made on the page. Below you can see exactly which links have been clicked.
• Total subscribers achieved, if you have included a subscription form .
• People who scroll or times the page has been navigated.
• People who read the page or times they have browsed the page and spent at least 10 seconds on it.
• Conversion rate or the conversion percentage of your page, if you include an opt-in form.
• Date of the last event detected on the page.