fastsite dashboard

Author: euayyelo

  • Migrating to FastSites From Another Platform

    Migrating to FastSites From Another Platform

    Moving your website to FastSites from another platform is a common step, and a little planning makes it smooth and stress-free.

    Start by taking stock of what you currently have: your pages, your content, your images, and importantly your domain. Knowing exactly what needs to move means nothing gets left behind.

    Your content — text and images — generally needs to be recreated or imported into your new FastSites site. It’s a good opportunity to refresh anything outdated rather than copying across old material wholesale.

    Your domain is the piece that makes your new site appear at your existing web address. You don’t usually need to move the domain itself; instead you point it at FastSites by updating its DNS records once your new site is ready.

    The golden rule is to build and review your new site fully before switching the domain over. That way your live site stays up on the old platform until the moment your FastSites version is ready to take its place, avoiding any gap in service.

    If you’d like a hand planning your migration, open a ticket describing your current setup and we’ll guide you.

  • Adding Analytics to Track Your Visitors

    Adding Analytics to Track Your Visitors

    Understanding who visits your site, where they come from, and what they do is invaluable — and adding analytics makes all of that visible.

    The most popular choice is a free analytics service, which gives you detailed insight into visitor numbers, popular pages, devices, and traffic sources. To connect one, you create an account with the analytics provider, which gives you a tracking ID or small code snippet. You then add this to your FastSites site through the relevant settings area.

    Once connected, it can take up to 24 hours before data starts appearing, so don’t worry if your dashboard looks empty at first. A good way to confirm it’s working is to use the provider’s real-time view and load your own site — you should see yourself appear as an active visitor.

    Be mindful of privacy rules: depending on where your visitors are, you may need a cookie consent notice when using analytics. It’s worth checking your obligations.

    If analytics isn’t recording any data after a day, open a ticket and include which provider you’re using and your tracking ID.

  • Connecting Integrations to Your Site

    Connecting Integrations to Your Site

    Integrations let your FastSites website work alongside the other tools you rely on — from analytics to payment processors — extending what your site can do.

    Most integrations are added through a dedicated settings area, where you connect an external service by pasting in a key, code, or account detail that the other service provides. The exact steps depend on the tool, but the pattern is usually the same: get a snippet or key from the third-party service, then add it to your FastSites settings.

    Before connecting anything, make sure you have an active account with the service you’re integrating, since you’ll need details from it to complete the connection.

    After setting up an integration, always test it. Make a small test purchase, submit a test form, or check that analytics is recording your own visit. This confirms everything is wired up correctly before you rely on it.

    If an integration isn’t working, double-check that you’ve copied the keys or codes exactly, with no extra spaces, and that they’re from the right account.

    For help with a specific integration, open a ticket telling us which service you’re connecting and what’s happening.

  • Updating Your Payment Details

    Keeping your payment information up to date is the easiest way to ensure your website never goes offline due to a missed renewal.

    You can update your card or payment method in your account’s billing area. It’s a good habit to do this as soon as you receive a new card or your existing one is about to expire, rather than waiting for a payment to fail.

    If a renewal payment has already failed, updating your details and retrying usually restores everything quickly. Most systems attempt the payment again automatically once valid details are in place, but you can often trigger it manually too.

    If your payment keeps getting declined even with a valid card, the issue is frequently on the bank’s side — some banks block online or recurring charges by default. A quick call to your bank to approve the payment usually resolves it.

    Always check that the billing address you’ve entered matches the one your bank has on file, as a mismatch can cause declines.

    If you’ve updated everything correctly and payments still won’t go through, open a ticket and we’ll look into it with you.

  • Managing Your Subscription

    Managing Your Subscription

    Keeping your FastSites subscription in order ensures your site stays live without interruption, and managing it is simple.

    Your subscription details — including your current plan, renewal date, and payment history — are available in your account area. It’s worth checking your renewal date occasionally so a payment never catches you by surprise.

    If your needs change, you can move between plans. Upgrading gives you access to more features, while downgrading suits a simpler setup. Changes typically take effect from your next billing cycle.

    To avoid any disruption to your site, make sure your payment method is always current. An expired card is the single most common reason a renewal fails, and a failed renewal can eventually take a site offline.

    If you’re considering cancelling, be aware of what happens to your site and domain afterwards, and check whether you’d like to back anything up first.

    For any billing question that isn’t answered in your account area — refunds, invoices, or plan advice — open a ticket and our team will help you directly.

  • Common Design Fixes That Take Seconds

    Common Design Fixes That Take Seconds

    Small design frustrations are usually quick to fix once you know where to look. Here are the most common ones and how to solve them.

    If your text or images look misaligned, check the spacing and alignment settings on that specific section. Inconsistent padding or margins are the usual cause, and nudging them into line instantly tidies things up.

    If something looks fine on desktop but broken on mobile, switch to the mobile preview and adjust it there. FastSites lets you fine-tune the mobile view separately, which is essential since most visitors browse on phones.

    If your colours look inconsistent across pages, you’ve likely set them manually in places rather than using your global brand colours. Setting them globally keeps everything uniform.

    If an image appears stretched or pixelated, it’s either the wrong shape for its container or too low-resolution. Replacing it with a correctly sized, high-quality image fixes it immediately.

    And if a change you made isn’t showing, do a hard refresh — you may be seeing a cached version.

    For anything that won’t budge, open a ticket with a screenshot and we’ll help you sort it.

  • Customising Your Template

    Customising Your Template

    Your template is the foundation of your site’s look, and FastSites makes it easy to shape it around your brand without touching code.

    Most design changes happen directly in the editor. You can update colours, fonts, images, and text to match your identity. A good first step is setting your brand colours and fonts globally, so they apply consistently across every page rather than adjusting each section individually.

    When swapping images, use high-quality files that are appropriately sized. Oversized images can slow your site down, while blurry ones undermine an otherwise polished design.

    If a section doesn’t look quite how you want, check whether it has its own settings panel — many elements offer spacing, alignment, and background options that give you fine control.

    Remember to preview your changes on both desktop and mobile. A layout that looks great on a wide screen sometimes needs small tweaks to feel right on a phone, where most visitors will see it.

    If you want to achieve a specific look and can’t find the right option, open a ticket describing the effect you’re after, and we’ll point you in the right direction.

  • Saving and Publishing Your Changes

    Saving and Publishing Your Changes

    Understanding the difference between saving and publishing helps you work confidently in the editor without worrying about losing changes or pushing something live too early.

    Saving stores your work so it isn’t lost, but it doesn’t necessarily make changes visible to the public. Publishing is what pushes your latest version live to your actual website. This separation lets you experiment freely and only go live when you’re ready.

    If your changes aren’t appearing on your live site, the most common reason is simply that they were saved but not published. Look for the publish button and confirm you’ve pushed the update.

    If you’ve published but still don’t see changes, your browser may be showing a cached version of the page. Do a hard refresh or check in a private window to see the true live version.

    If you’re getting an error when trying to save, it’s usually a connection issue — check that you’re online and try again.

    Still stuck? Open a ticket describing what you clicked, what you expected, and what happened instead.

  • Troubleshooting the FastSites Editor

    Troubleshooting the FastSites Editor

    If the editor is behaving unexpectedly — freezing, not responding, or displaying oddly — a few quick steps will resolve most issues.

    Start with a hard refresh of the page. On most browsers this is Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac). This reloads the editor cleanly and clears out any temporary glitches.

    If that doesn’t help, try opening the editor in a private/incognito window. This rules out browser extensions, which are a surprisingly common cause of editor problems — ad blockers and privacy tools can interfere with how the editor loads.

    Make sure your browser is up to date, too. The editor works best on the latest versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. An outdated browser can cause layout and saving issues.

    A stable internet connection matters as well, since the editor saves your work to the cloud. If your connection drops, you may see errors when saving.

    If the editor still won’t cooperate after trying these steps, open a ticket and tell us your browser, your device, and exactly what happens — a screenshot is incredibly helpful.

  • Fixing Common Email Delivery Problems

    Fixing Common Email Delivery Problems

    If your domain email isn’t sending or receiving properly, the cause is usually a DNS or authentication issue rather than anything broken with your inbox.

    First, confirm your MX records are correct. These direct incoming mail to your email provider, and even a small typo will stop messages arriving. Compare the records in your DNS settings against the exact values your provider supplies.

    If your outgoing emails are landing in recipients’ spam folders, the likely culprits are missing or incorrect SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. These authenticate your messages and reassure other mail servers that you’re legitimate. Adding them properly dramatically improves delivery.

    If you recently changed any DNS records, remember that updates take time to propagate — email can be intermittent for a few hours afterwards.

    Also check the basics: that your mailbox isn’t full, and that you’re using the correct incoming and outgoing server settings in your mail app.

    If you’ve verified all of this and email still isn’t flowing, raise a ticket. Include your domain, your email provider, and whether the problem is with sending, receiving, or both.