Your comprehensive, step by step guide of how to build and publish your very own Force24 Microsite!
Before you start the process of building and publishing your microsite, you will need to have your landing page DNS records set up. Please refer to our article on Domain Configuration or contact the live chat support team for more information on this.
First of all, you will need to head to the Microsites tab of the platform:
This will take you to the microsite summary page. You will be able to create a new microsite by clicking the Add Microsite button:
This will open the 'Add new microsite' configuration box. This allows you to specify the 'Microsite name', apply a 'Favicon url' and apply tracking 'Scripts' to your Microsite.
Microsite name - this must be unique as this will form the basis of your URL.
Favicon URL - this is the icon that appears in the top of your browser tab:
Scripts - you can also apply custom scripts to the microsite. A common script used here is Google Analytics tracking which would look something like this:
<script>
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'XXXXXXXX', 'auto');
ga('send', 'pageview');
</script>Once you have completed all the sections, press Save. This will return you to the microsites homepage where your new site will be waiting to be built.
Building your microsite pages:
Click the down arrow next to the microsite name, and then click "Add new page" to build your first page.
The name you provide here will form the basis of the page URL:
Click 'Edit' on the far right of the page you have just added and you will be taken to the page editor in a new tab.
Within the page editor, the right-hand panel presents you with a number of 'Categories' folders used to categorise the variety of snippets available to use and edit within your Microsite page.
Selecting one of the category folders will present you with a list of snippet options available to drag and drop onto your Microsite page canvas.
From the right-hand panel, you also have the option to 'Search by Tags' for the snippets you wish to use within your Microsite page. Simply select which tag you wish to search and click the 'Search by Tags' button.
To build the page itself, you will need to drag and drop snippets onto the blank page. This will create the framework of your site.
Editing the microsite
When you click into the microsite, this will bring up the text editor:
This will allow you to edit text, format paragraphs, create links, insert icons and edit code.
When you click an image, you will be presented with a number of image update icons, including: ‘Replace’, ‘Align’, ‘Image Caption’, ‘Remove’, ‘Insert Link’, ‘Display’, ‘Style’, ‘Alternate text’, ‘Change size’ and ‘Advanced Edit’.
When saving the changes you have made to your Microsite page, you can manually select the 'Save' button or you can enable the 'Autosave' function on the right-hand side of the 'Save' button.
The 'Autosave' function will automatically save any changes made to your Microsite page to ensure that no changes are lost and even provide you with the amount of seconds that have past since the last time the page was saved.
If you do not wish for all of the changes you make to your page to be automatically saved, simply click the 'Autosave' button and disable the 'Autosave' function.
You may also change the properties of the page by clicking the 'Edit Page' link at the top of the page next to the page name.
This will give you the option to select the 'Read Only' tab and prevent others from making any changes to your Microsite page. You can also change the 'Page Name' which will also change the URL, supply a 'Page Title' which is the title that will appear in the browser tab and update the 'Page Description' which will help search engines rank your page.
Alternatively, you may elect to select the 'Include the no index flag' which will stop search engines from reading the page.
You may also wish to add the page as a 'goal page' or 'high value' page.
Once you have finished editing your page, you will need to press the Update button and then save your changes, as the Autosave feature will not automatically save these changes.
This will close your Microsite tab and take you back to your Microsite home page. If you now refresh the page using the 'Refresh page' icon on the top navigation bar, your most recently edited Microsite will appear at the top of the list.
If your page is part of a larger Microsite and you do not wish to publish it just yet you may set the 'In Test' state.
This will prevent anyone from publishing the page by mistake.
When you are ready and would like to publish your Microsite, ensure the pages you wish to publish are set to the 'Can Publish' state.
Click the three dots next to the 'Add new page' button and select 'Publish' from the drop down options.
This will pop up the 'Publish website' control box. Here you can select the 'Test Locations' tab or 'Live Locations'. This will allow you to publish your Microsite in the live or test location you have specified in the field below the tabs.
Then select which page you would like to be your default page, this is the page users will see if they type the root URL directly.
i.e pages.force24.co.uk/my-first-microsite
This is used rather than specifying the full URL in adverts and other marketing communications.
Remember: your page will not show in here if you have selected the 'In Test' status
Click 'Publish' and the process will begin.
As soon as the publish is complete a pop up box will confirm the Microsite was successfully published and is now live.
The Microsite summary page will then refresh.
Click the down arrow of the Microsite you have just published.
The 'active link' will now be specified within your Microsite page.
Should you wish to clone any page within your Microsite, click the three dots on the right of the page you wish to clone and select the 'Clone' option. This will then create a carbon copy of this page.
From this drop down you also have the option to; 'Create Template', if you wish to save the page as a template to use or edit in the future, 'Unpublish' if you wish to unpublish a page within your Microsite, and 'Delete' if you wish to delete a page within your Microsite.
If you wish to remove your Microsite from the live location but do not wish to delete it, simply place each page in the 'In Test' status as described above and re-publish. This will keep the page for editing but remove it from the live location.
Or if you wish to delete an entire Microsite as it is no longer needed, select the three dots icon next to the 'Add new page' button' and select the 'Delete' option, this will remove the Microsite from all locations and prevent any external users from seeing it.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us through the live chat function available at the bottom right, in your Force24 Platform. Our team is ready to assist you and provide support whenever you need it.