Starting a site in the Website Builder

You start in cPanel. Open Sitejet Builder, choose your domain, then begin from a blank site, a template or its AI Website Generator. Edit at page level in the Pages manager, or on the canvas at section and element level. Before first publish you can save without going live. After you publish, any save updates the live site.

This picks up from a Hostworld cPanel account you can already access.

Before you start

• Sitejet Builder lives in cPanel. You open it at cPanel » Home » Domains » Sitejet Builder, pick your domain, then click Edit Site. Interface labels can change. If you do not see exactly that, look for Sitejet Builder under Domains in cPanel.
• If your domain will live with Hostworld, set nameservers at your registrar to: ns1.serverworld.uk, ns2.serverworld.uk, ns3.serverworld.uk, ns4.serverworld.uk. You can build without changing DNS. You only need DNS updated for the site to resolve here once you publish.
• Publishing replaces your document root. Sitejet publishes into your domain’s document root and may delete or overwrite files and directories there that it does not manage. Back up the document root before any first publish or republish. If you already have a site there, consider working on a subdomain or separate domain until you are ready.
• Saving after publish goes live straight away. There is no built‑in staging for published sites. Plan how you will preview changes if you are already live. A common workaround is to build on a subdomain, then move across later.
• On initial publish, Sitejet may refuse to proceed if the document root is not empty. Clear out or choose a different location before you publish if that happens. Do not delete anything without a backup.
• cPanel advises moving any existing robots.txt out of the document root before publishing a new Sitejet site, then moving it back afterwards. This avoids unintended indexing issues during the publish step.
• Disk quota matters. Publishing needs free space. If your account is close to quota, free space before you publish to avoid a partial deployment.
• cPanel’s old Site Publisher is deprecated and removed. If you used Site Publisher before, publishing with Sitejet will overwrite it. The legacy Site Publisher content and config files still exist in your home directories if you need to recover assets later.
• If you get stuck or your root already contains important files, open a support ticket so we can look at your cPanel account and advise on the safest route.

Step 1: Open Sitejet Builder in cPanel

In cPanel, go to Home, then Domains, then open Sitejet Builder. Choose the domain or subdomain you want to work on. Click Edit Site to open the editor.

To undo

Opening the editor changes nothing on your live site. Close the browser tab to leave. Nothing is published until you perform a publish.

Step 2: Pick a starting point

Sitejet supports three ways to begin:

• Template. Start from a ready‑made design. This is quickest if you want a solid layout you can adjust.
• AI Website Generator. Available inside Sitejet Builder in cPanel. Feed it a short description and it creates a first draft that you can edit.
• Blank site. Start from scratch and add sections yourself.

Important: switching to a new template later overwrites the current site’s content. Choose carefully at the outset. If you want to test a different template after you have real content, do it on a subdomain or separate domain first so you do not lose work.

To undo

• If you switched template by mistake and have not published yet, the safest rollback is to abandon that change and re‑open the editor, then choose your original starting point again.
• If you saved or published after switching template, there is no built‑in revert. Restore from the backup you took of your document root before publishing, or rebuild from your content. If you need help assessing what can be recovered, open a support ticket.

Step 3: Understand pages, sections and elements

Sitejet builds a page from two layers beneath it:

• Pages are the top level. Use the Pages or Page Manager area to add, remove and rename pages, set the URL, and configure per‑page options like metadata. These controls do not live on the canvas.
• Presets are pre‑built sections composed of multiple elements. Think of a hero, features grid, testimonial strip or a contact block. Adding a preset inserts a complete section on the page.
• Elements are the smallest editable items. Text, images, buttons and icons are elements. Editing an element changes only that element.

Use Design settings for site‑wide design. Colours, fonts, button styles and layout choices here affect the whole site unless a preset or element overrides them. Make your global branding decisions here first, then fine‑tune at section or element level.

To undo

• If you change a page‑level setting such as the URL or title and do not like the result, re‑open Pages and set it back. If you changed a URL and created a broken link, put the URL back to its original value.
• If you alter a global colour or font, note your original values before changing them. You can then re‑enter those values to restore the previous design.
• If an element edit is not right, change that element’s content or settings back. Because elements are isolated, this does not affect other parts of the page.

Step 4: Create or adjust your first page

Open Pages or the Page Manager within Sitejet. Add a Home page if one is not present, or select an existing page. Set:

• Page title for the browser tab and search results.
• URL such as “/about”.
• Metadata including description. This helps search engines understand the page.

Use the on‑canvas view to confirm the right page is selected before you begin editing sections.

To undo

• Change the page title, URL or metadata back in the Pages area if you mis‑typed something or want to revert.
• If you removed a page unintentionally and have not published, recreate it and name it the same. If you deleted and published, recovery depends on a backup. Open a support ticket if you need help assessing your options.

Step 5: Insert and edit a section

Add a preset to the page. Choose a section type that fits your goal, for example a hero with a headline and a call to action. Once the preset is on the canvas, click into its elements to edit content. Replace placeholder text with your copy. Swap images for your own assets. Update any buttons to point to the right page URL.

Keep changes local while you learn the tool. Edit the element in front of you rather than reaching for a global setting, unless you genuinely want a site‑wide change.

To undo

• To discard the section, remove that preset from the page. This does not affect other sections.
• To revert a headline, image or button, edit that element again and put the previous content back.

Step 6: Set global design once you have content

Open Design settings when you are ready to lock in branding basics. Set:

• Colours for text, backgrounds and accents.
• Fonts and sizes for headings and body text.
• Buttons for shape and style.
• Layout options that apply across the site.

Global design settings apply to every page, unless a section or element explicitly overrides them. This is the quickest way to achieve a consistent look.

To undo

• Note your current colour hex codes and font choices before changing them. If the new look is not right, put the old values back in Design settings.
• If a single section no longer matches after a global change, edit that section’s elements to bring them back into line.

Step 7: Save without publishing

Before your first publish, your site is in draft mode. You can save as you work and nothing is live until you actively publish. Use Save inside the builder regularly while you build out your pages.

Once you have published the site for the first time, saved changes go live immediately. There is no separate “save draft” for an already published site and there is no built‑in staging. Treat the editor as live editing at that point.

Workaround if you are live today: use a subdomain or a separate domain for editing. Create something like “staging.example.com” and choose that in Sitejet Builder. Build and save there. When you are happy, repeat the changes on your main domain, or publish to the main domain at a planned time. If you want advice on the cleanest way to organise this for your plan, open a support ticket.

To undo

• While still in draft mode, if you saved an unwanted change, edit the same section or element to restore the previous content, then continue. You have not affected the live site.
• After first publish, there is no draft save. If you saved something to live that you need to roll back, you must change it back manually or restore from a backup taken before the change. If you took a full backup of the document root before editing, restore that backup.

Step 8: Know what publish will do, then pause until you are ready

You do not need to publish now to keep working. When you are ready later, publishing will write your Sitejet site into the domain’s document root in your cPanel account. cPanel tracks Sitejet‑managed files, and you should assume Sitejet controls the document root it publishes to.

Before you publish:

• Back up the entire document root so you can restore it if needed.
• Move any existing robots.txt out of the document root, then move it back after publish.
• Check disk space. Free space if you are near quota.
• Expect that non‑Sitejet files or directories in the document root may be deleted or overwritten.
• If the root is not empty, initial publish can fail or prompt you to clear files first. Do not proceed without a backup.

When you click Publish in Sitejet Builder, do not reload or navigate back until it completes. If something goes wrong or the result is not what you expected, stop, do not republish repeatedly, and restore from your backup. If you need help deciding what to restore, open a support ticket.

To undo

• If publishing overwrote or deleted files you needed, restore the backup you took before publishing. If you do not have one, we can review the account with you to determine options.
• If your publish failed part way due to lack of disk space, free space first, then publish again when safe to do so.

What next

Next step: Publish your Sitejet site safely when you are ready. If your current site is live somewhere else and you need a staging place you control, a VPS gives you full isolation. Our London VPS range is here if you want that route: Linux VPS. If you go that way, see our VPS guides for planning and migration basics.

If anything in this guide does not match what you see in cPanel or you run into a risk case like a non‑empty document root, open a support ticket. We will check your account and advise the safest path.