Editing an Existing Page

This article shows you how to open an existing page in Site Edit, update the settings available for that page, and publish your changes.

Before you begin: Site Edit lets you manage a page's title, URL slug, publish status, SEO, visitor access, layout, modules, and widgets. The main content of a page is built and edited through modules rather than a single rich-text body field, so there is no page-content text editor or formatting toolbar in the page settings.

Open Site Edit

From My Sites, find the site you want to update and select SITE EDIT.

The SITE EDIT button on a site card

Get to know the Site Edit workspace

Site Edit opens with a live preview of your website. Use the controls across the top to choose what you want to update.

The main controls in the Site Edit workspace
  1. Dashboard: Return to My Sites.
  2. Search: Find settings, modules, and widgets.
  3. Design: Update site-wide styles.
  4. Widgets: Manage widgets.
  5. Pages: Browse and open pages, areas, and blog posts.
  6. Add New: Add a page, blog post, module, or other content.
  7. Settings: Update the page currently shown in the preview.
  8. Ask AI: Ask Placester AI for help with your site.

Find the page

Use Pages in the toolbar, or use your site's navigation in the preview, to open the page you want to edit. Settings always apply to the page currently shown in the preview.

Using the site navigation to open a page
  1. Select a page in your site's navigation to open it in the preview.

You can also open Pages, find the page in the list, and select it to load it in the preview.

Confirm you are on the right page

Because Settings follows the preview, the page in the center of the workspace decides what you are about to edit. Load the page first, confirm the preview shows the content you expect, and only then open Settings.

Two cases are worth double-checking:

  • Similar pages. If your site has several pages with close titles, opening from Pages shows you the list so you can pick the exact one.
  • Blog content. Blog posts are not pages. Use the Blog Posts filter in Pages to open a post, and see Editing an Existing Blog Post.

Open the page settings

When the page is open in the preview, select Settings in the Site Edit toolbar.

The Settings button while viewing a page
  1. Select Settings to open the controls for the current page.

The first section of the drawer is labeled This Page. The Site tab next to it holds site-wide settings that apply to every page.

Check that label before you edit. This Page scopes your changes to the one page in the preview, while Site changes apply everywhere. If the drawer shows This Blog Post, a post is loaded in the preview instead of a page.

Page editor key

The This Page section includes four core tabs. Some page types, such as forms or listings pages, can show additional tabs for their specialized content.

The four tabs in the page editor
  1. General: Update the page title, slug, publish status, visitor access, and SEO.
  2. Modules: Open the Modules hub to add, reorder, or edit the modules that make up the page content.
  3. Widgets: Choose the sidebar position and manage the sidebar widgets on this page.
  4. Design: Control the page title display, content width, and background.

The clearest way to keep the tabs apart: General is about the page as an entry on your site, Modules is the content in the main area, Widgets is the sidebar beside that content, and Design is how the page is framed.

Choose the right tab

What you want to change Where to go
Page title, slug, or publish status General
Meta title, meta description, or No index General → SEO settings
Who can view the page General access and password controls
Text, images, and sections in the page body Modules, or edit on the preview
Sidebar position and sidebar contents Widgets
Page title display, content width, background Design

General settings

The General tab includes the following controls:

  • Page title: The name of the page.
  • Slug: The last part of the page's web address (for example, about).
  • Status: Set the page to Published, Draft, or Private.
  • SEO settings: Turn on to edit the Meta title, Meta description, and No index options that control how the page appears to search engines.
  • Accessible for logged in users only: Restrict the page to signed-in visitors.
  • Password protect: Require visitors to enter a password before viewing the page. When on, use Enter password to set it.

SEO settings and Password protect are toggles that reveal their fields. If the meta fields or Enter password are not visible, the matching toggle is still off.

Changing the Slug changes the page's web address. Anything that points at the old address — a navigation link you built by hand, a bookmark, or a link you shared — points at the old slug, so plan slug changes deliberately.

Edit the page content with modules

Open the Modules tab and select Manage modules to open the Modules hub, where you add, reorder, and edit the sections that make up the page. This is where you change the text, images, and other content on the page.

You can also edit many sections directly on the preview by selecting them and using the on-page editing palette. See Editing Content on the Page.

If you came here looking for a page-body text editor, the Modules hub and the on-page palette are the equivalent. There is no single rich-text field for page content.

Manage the sidebar with widgets

Open the Widgets tab to choose the sidebar position (Left, None, or Right) and select Manage widgets to open the Widgets hub for this page.

Setting the position to None removes the sidebar from this page, which also means the widgets you manage here have nowhere to appear. Choose Left or Right if you want the sidebar visible.

Adjust the page layout

Open the Design tab to control how the page is laid out.

The Design tab for a page
  1. Show title on the page: Show or hide the page title on the page itself.
  2. Content width: Choose Fullwidth, 2/3, or 1/2 for the main content area.
  3. Enable background image: Add a background image to the page.

Show title on the page only controls whether the title is displayed on the page. The page still has the title you set on the General tab, and that title is separate from the Meta title used for search engines.

Publish or discard your changes

Changes made in Site Edit are saved to a site-editing draft. They do not appear on the live website until you publish that draft.

The Site Edit draft bar with Discard and Publish actions
  1. Change summary: Shows how many page edits are waiting.
  2. DISCARD: Remove all unpublished changes in the current Site Edit draft.
  3. PUBLISH: Apply all changes in the draft to the live website.

A safe rhythm is to work one page at a time: open the page, make your changes, check the preview, read the change summary to confirm only the work you expect is waiting, then publish. If you are unsure about a change, you can leave it in the draft and keep reviewing the preview — nothing reaches visitors until you select PUBLISH.

Important: PUBLISH applies every pending Site Edit change to your live site. It is separate from a page's own Status setting. Use Status on the General tab to set an individual page to Published, Draft, or Private.

For more about applying or removing pending changes, see Publishing and Discarding Drafts.

Troubleshooting

What you see What to do
Settings show the wrong page Load the correct page in the preview first, then open Settings. Settings follow the preview.
The drawer says This Blog Post A post is loaded, not a page. See Editing an Existing Blog Post.
Your change applied to the whole site You edited on the Site tab. Use This Page for one page.
No Meta title, Meta description, or No index fields Turn on SEO settings on the General tab.
No Enter password field Turn on Password protect on the General tab.
You cannot find a text editor for the page body Page content lives in modules. Use Modules → Manage modules, or edit on the preview.
The sidebar widgets you set are not showing Check the sidebar position on the Widgets tab; None hides the sidebar.
The page title is missing from the page Turn on Show title on the page on the Design tab.
Your edits are not on the live website They are still in the Site Edit draft. Select PUBLISH.
The page is live-published but visitors cannot reach it Check Status on the General tab, plus the access and password controls.

Need more help?

For questions, concerns, or feedback, chat with our team at app.placester.com/chat.

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