Build your website with the website builder
Website in the dashboard sidebar is the website builder: a full website for your business that shows your live wait, services and prices, team and hours straight from your NextUp Walk-in account, so it stays up to date on its own. You decide the pages, the words, the pictures and the look. Nothing goes live until you press Publish.
Every business with a location gets a draft site automatically, with a free address. If yours hasn't appeared yet, open Website, pick a style kit to start from (Classic, Bold, Minimal, Warm, Studio, Noir, Clinic, Bistro, Garage or Playful) and press Create website, or Create with an AI draft to have the first draft written for you.
The editor has four parts:
- The top bar: your site's status (Draft, Live or Held for review) and address, a save badge (Saved, Saving, Unsaved changes or Couldn't save), the Page picker, the preview sizes (Desktop, Tablet, Phone), Undo and Redo, Publish, and More actions (Draft with AI, Version history, Download my site).
- The panels on the left: Pages, Add, Layers, Design, Content and Settings. Press one to open it and press it again to close it.
- The page in the middle: a live preview. Click anything on it to edit it; double-click to jump straight to its first field.
- The inspector on the right: the fields for whatever you clicked.
Press Tutorial at the top of the editor for a narrated video walkthrough with chapters, and a step-by-step guide you can click through. Its "Show me in the editor" button points at each control in the editor itself.
Add a page to your website
Open Pages in the website builder. Under Add a page, pick a ready-made page: Locations (each place's address, hours, map and the wait now), Team, Services (services and prices from your account), Contact (a message form, hours and a map) or Gallery (pictures from your media). It opens straight away, laid out and filled in from your account. For a page of your own, pick Blank, type its name in Page name (for example "About us") and press Add page. You can also pick "+ New page" from the Page picker in the top bar. A site can have up to 20 pages.
Rename, reorder, hide or delete a page on your website
To rename a page, open it, open Pages and change its Name: what it's called in your site's menu. Its web address stays the same. Turn off Show in menu to keep a page out of the menu (for a page you only link to). The home page is always called Home and always comes first.
Your menu follows the order of the Pages list: use the up and down arrows beside a page, or select it and press Alt+Up or Alt+Down.
To delete a page, open it, open Pages and press Delete this page, then confirm. The home page can't be deleted.
Set a page's search title and description (SEO)
Each page has its own search settings, in the Pages panel of the website builder:
- Search title (up to 70 characters): the title in search results and on the browser tab. Keep it plain and include your town.
- Search description (up to 160 characters): the line or two under the title in Google and other search engines. Say what the page offers and where you are. A preview below shows how the result will look.
- Hide from search engines: keeps the page out of search results and out of your sitemap. It still shows in your site's menu.
- Search checklist: what Google and your visitors may find missing on the page, with a Fix button where the editor can fix it for you. It never stops you publishing.
Your published site has a sitemap and robots.txt automatically, so search engines can find every page you haven't hidden. Your changes save on their own; press Publish for them to reach your live site.
Add your website to Google Search Console
Google Search Console is Google's free tool for seeing how your site shows up in search. Publish your site first, then open Settings, then Google, in the website builder and follow the steps there: in Search Console choose Add property, then URL prefix, and enter your site's address (the editor has a button to copy it). Under other verification methods choose HTML tag, copy what it shows, and paste it into Verification code in the editor, then save: the code is added to your live home page. Once Search Console says verified, open Sitemaps there and add your sitemap address, which the editor also lets you copy.
Add sections and blocks to a page
A page is a stack of sections, and sections hold blocks. Open Add in the website builder:
- Sections: Top (big headline, live wait and a join button), Content (a heading and a few paragraphs), Services (your services and prices, kept up to date), Team (who works here, by first name), Visit (opening hours and a map) and Contact (details, a message form and sign-ups).
- Basics blocks: Headline, Text and Image.
- Live blocks: Live wait, Now serving, Join button and Book button. They update by themselves, so your site shows the real wait right now, and the Join button puts visitors in your line.
- Your business blocks: Services, Products, Team, Hours and Map.
- Engage blocks: Contact form, Newsletter, Questions (a list of questions and answers), Reviews (your real reviews), Numbers (big figures or your live rating), Call to action (a bold band with up to two buttons), Features (icons with a heading and a line), Video (a YouTube or Vimeo video), Announcement bar and Sticky buttons.
- More blocks: Plans (your real memberships or packages with their prices and a link to join or buy; shown only when your plan includes them and nothing is hidden online), Before and after (two pictures with a slider), Logos (a row of logos, gray unless you turn that off) and Timeline (up to 8 moments in your story).
Click a section or block to add it (a section goes below the one selected, or at the end; a block goes into the selected section), or drag it onto the page where you want it. A page can have up to 30 sections, and a section up to 20 blocks.
Layers lists the page's sections with their blocks inside: drag a row to move it, or select it and press Alt+Up or Alt+Down. Each row has Duplicate and Delete. Deleting asks first, and Undo brings it back.
Hide a block on phones or on desktop
Click a block and set Show on to Every screen, Desktop only or Phones only. A block hidden on a device is still on your page in the builder, faded and tagged, so you can find it; visitors on that device don't see it. Phones means screens 640 pixels wide or narrower.
Save a section to use again
Select a section and press Save section, then name it. In Add, the Saved tab lists your saved sections: press one to put a copy on the page you're editing, or delete it. A site keeps up to 30. Saved sections are copies, so changing one on a page doesn't change the saved version.
Change a section's layout, background and spacing
Click a section (or its name at the top of the inspector) and open Layout. Each card is a small drawing of where the picture and words go; press one to switch, and the current one is ticked. Top sections can be centred, a photo on the right or left, a full photo, a photo collage or a big statement; Content sections can be stacked, text with a picture, two or three columns, bento tiles or a feature grid; Services can be a price list, cards, tabs or a compact list; a Gallery can be a grid, masonry, a carousel or a photo strip; Team can be a grid, a sliding row or a list; Reviews can be cards, a slowly moving strip or one large quote; Visit can put the map beside your hours; Contact can put the form beside your phone and address; and the bottom of the page can be simple or in columns. Your blocks stay when you change the layout.
In a layout with several columns, click a block and use Column to say where it goes (Left, Right, Column 1, Tile 1 and so on). In Bento tiles you can also make a tile wide.
Under Layout, Background can be plain, a card, your brand colour, the inverse (light text on dark) or a photo. For a photo, choose the picture and use Darken the photo to make it darker; the words stay easy to read whatever you choose, because we never go below what is needed. Spacing is compact, normal or roomy, and Motion can fade a section in as it scrolls into view (switched off for visitors whose device asks for less motion). Your changes save on their own and show on the page as you make them.
Choose a style kit and fonts for your website
Open Design. A style kit sets your fonts, the shapes of buttons and cards, the spacing and which layouts new sections start on: Classic (serif headings, clean), Bold (dark, condensed capitals), Minimal (airy, one sans), Warm (soft serif, rounded buttons), Studio (editorial serif, big photos), Noir (black with one gold accent, a cinematic photo), Clinic (calm sans, cards), Bistro (warm serif, menu first), Garage (near-black with safety orange and square corners) and Playful (bright, rounded and friendly). Each card shows the kit's real heading font. Changing the kit restyles the whole site but leaves the layouts of sections you already built.
Under Fonts you can pick your own Headings and Body fonts from ten (Inter, Manrope, DM Sans, Space Grotesk, Archivo, Fraunces, Playfair Display, DM Serif Display, Oswald and Bebas Neue), or leave them on Kit default. The fonts are served by your own site, so visitors' devices make no request to Google. Colours and corners can be changed on top of any kit.
Put photos on your website: focus point, crop and style
Click a Headline with a photo, an Image, or a Text block with a picture. Choose a picture, and describe it (the description is required to publish). Then:
- Focus point: click the small picture where the face or the work is, or use the arrow keys (5% a press). When the picture is cropped on a phone or in a narrow column, that point stays in view. Centre puts it back.
- Crop: Original, Square, 4:5, 3:4, 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 or 21:9.
- Treatment: None, Rounded, Framed, Duotone or Black and white.
A Headline with a photo shows it in the Photo on the right, Photo on the left, Full photo and Photo collage layouts (the collage takes three photos); the centred and big statement layouts show the words only. Under the headline you can add up to two buttons: Join the line, Book a visit, a page on your site or Call, each with your own words if you like.
Add questions, reviews, numbers, features, a video or a call to action
Open Add, then Engage:
- Questions: up to 20 questions with answers that open when tapped. Search engines can read them. The example answers are only a start; replace them with yours.
- Reviews: your real public reviews, newest first, as cards, scrolling or one big quote. Choose a location, the lowest rating to show and how many (1 to 12). Reviews are never made up, and nothing shows until a customer has left one.
- Numbers: up to 6 big figures with labels ("10 years", "In business"). Turn on live figures to add your average rating and number of reviews from your real reviews.
- Call to action: a bold band with a heading, a line and up to two buttons.
- Features: 3 to 8 items, each with an icon, a heading and a line.
- Video: paste a YouTube or Vimeo address and choose a cover picture. Visitors see the picture and tap to watch; nothing loads from YouTube or Vimeo until they do.
Add items with the button under each list, remove them with the bin, and drag the handle (or press Alt+Up or Alt+Down on it) to reorder.
Add an announcement bar or sticky buttons
Announcement bar is one short line above the header on every page, with an optional link and optional dates: it appears on the first day and goes after the last. Sticky buttons is a bar at the bottom of phone screens with Join the line and, if you like, Book a visit; it follows whether you are open. A page can have one of each.
Show your next open times, live wait and buy buttons on your website
Booking times is a block (Pro plan) that shows up to six of your next open times for a location as buttons. Each one opens your booking page on that time, if it is still free. It is filled in when the page loads, and it disappears on its own when online booking is off or nothing is free, so visitors never see an empty box. In the headline block, switch on "Show the live wait and when you open" to put the wait right now, who is being served, and "Open now, closes 7 PM" or "Opens at 9 AM" next to the buttons (from the location's hours, in its time zone). Price cards get a Buy or Join button that opens your memberships and packages page, where the visitor pays; packages you only sell at the counter say "Ask for it at your next visit". Settings, then Insights, counts how many times visitors pressed Join the line, Book, Memberships and Packages in the last 30 days. Those buttons leave a small cookie on the visitor's device that holds only the number 1, so the site can recognise a returning visitor; it is listed on the Cookies page.
Edit the words, colours and pictures on your website
Click a heading or paragraph on the page and its fields open in the inspector on the right: a Headline has Heading and Subheading, a Text block has Heading and Text (leave a blank line between paragraphs). The preview follows as you type. Headings and buttons can carry an icon, picked in the inspector.
To style a whole section, click it (or its name at the top of the inspector). Under Colours, set its Background, Text and Buttons, or leave them on the site's colours. Words always stay readable: if the text or button text wouldn't stand out enough on the colour you pick, the section uses white or near-black text instead. Section type switches it to another type and keeps its blocks; Layout, Background, Spacing and Motion are under it. At the bottom of the inspector are Move up, Move down, Duplicate and Delete.
Pictures: open Content, then Media, and press Upload a picture (PNG, JPEG or WebP, up to 2 MB; the library holds up to 300). Drag a picture onto the page or press Add. On an Image block, Choose a picture picks from your library; fill in Description (alt text), which screen readers read aloud and search engines read too. Free photos, when it's available, searches stock photos credited to the photographer; don't use ones with recognizable people or logos in promotions.
Content also lists Services & prices, Products, Team and Hours & locations from your account. Add one to the page and it stays linked: change a price or your hours in the dashboard and the site shows it. Detach (static copy) in the inspector turns a linked block into words you edit by hand. Team members show by name only; their photos stay private.
Change your website's design: template, colours, fonts
Open Design in the website builder. It sets the look of every page at once:
- Template: Classic, Bold, Minimal or Warm. Each sets the fonts, spacing and shapes; your words and pictures stay as they are.
- Colours: Buttons, Button text, Background, Cards and Text. Click the swatch or type a hex code; left on Auto, each follows the template. Sync from app branding copies the colours from your Branding page, so your website matches your check-in screens and TV.
- Type: the Headings and Body text fonts (Template default, Modern sans, Classic serif, Condensed, Rounded or Typewriter).
- Corners: Square, Subtle, Soft, Round or Pill, for buttons and cards.
Use the preview sizes in the top bar (Desktop, Tablet, Phone) to check every page at each size before you publish. Most visitors will see your site on a phone.
Save, publish, undo and restore an earlier version of your website
Your draft saves on its own a moment after each change; it doesn't change your live site. A badge beside the status (Draft or Live) shows Saving…, then Saved (hover it to see when), or Unsaved changes for the moment before a save or when you're offline. If it says Couldn't save, hover it for the reason and click it to try again; your edits stay on screen meanwhile. Undo and Redo step through your changes, and an undo is saved too.
Press Publish, then Publish now, to put your draft on your live site (your latest changes are saved first). A new site's first publish is checked before it goes live: the status says Held for review, it usually takes a few minutes, and you can keep editing meanwhile. If a person needs to look, it's usually within a day. After that, every publish goes live straight away.
Every publish is kept (the last 30). Open Settings, then Versions (or More actions, then Version history), and press Restore on one to put it back on your live site straight away; your draft isn't changed. Unpublish takes the site down; you can publish again any time. Download my site saves your whole site as a file.
Keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl or Cmd + S saves right now, Ctrl or Cmd + Z undoes, Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + Z (or Ctrl + Y) redoes, Ctrl or Cmd + D duplicates what's selected, Delete deletes it (it asks first), and Escape clears the selection. They don't fire while you're typing in a field.
Your website's address, or connect your own domain
Every site has a free address ending in .nextupshops.com. To change it, open Settings, then Address, in the website builder, edit Site address and press Save address. It can be 3 to 63 lowercase letters, numbers and single hyphens, starting and ending with a letter or number. Reserved names and names that look like another company's are refused.
To use a domain you own (for example www.yourbusiness.com), type it in Your own domain and press Connect. The editor then shows the records to add at your domain provider: a CNAME record pointing your domain at your site, and a TXT record that proves you own it. Most providers don't allow a CNAME on a bare domain (yourbusiness.com without www): use their ALIAS or flattening option, or connect www and forward the bare domain to it. The status goes from Waiting for DNS to Checking DNS to Connected, and a secure (https) certificate is set up for you. DNS changes can take a while to spread; NextUp Walk-in keeps checking for 14 days and emails you reminders. Once it's Connected, Make main address makes your domain the one visitors see. A site can have up to 2 of your own domains, and the free address keeps working either way.
Website insights, messages and sign-ups
Open Settings, then Insights, in the website builder to see your site's page views for the last 30 days, your top pages, and the messages and sign-ups your site brought in.
The Contact form block (or the Contact section's "Show a contact form" switch) lets visitors send you a message, which is emailed to you. The Newsletter block (or "Show a newsletter sign-up") collects email addresses with the visitor's consent, recorded with the words they agreed to.
Draft your website with AI
Draft with AI (in More actions, at the top of the website builder) writes a first draft of your home page from what's in your account. It replaces the home page after you confirm, and you can change every word afterwards. The draft is checked before you see it for made-up claims, such as awards, ratings or prices. If the AI writer isn't available, or its copy doesn't pass the checks, you get starter copy to edit instead, and the editor says so.
Does the website builder cost extra?
While the website builder is in early access, building a site, publishing it and using your own domain cost nothing. Settings, then Plan, in the website builder shows "Free during early access" and will show any price before one applies.
Say something different to returning visitors and test two headlines
In the headline block, "For people coming back" lets you write a different heading and line for visitors who have used your join or book button before. They see those words instead (with a default such as "Welcome back" and "Join the line again" if you leave one empty), and your join or book button comes first. Everyone else sees your usual words.
"Test a second version" shows half of your visitors a different heading, line and first button label. Only one test runs on your whole site at a time. Settings, then Insights, shows for the last 30 days how many people saw each version, how many pressed Join the line or Book, and the rate. Press Use this version on the one you want: your draft keeps it and the test ends; publish to put it live. Search engines always see version A. The two small cookies involved hold only a letter or the number 1, no name or ID; they are listed on the Cookies page.