Manage Your Overall Site Settings

As you’re on the cusp of finalizing your website, it’s always good to double check to make sure you haven’t missed any important settings that might not be front and center to directly building your site. While there aren’t too many of these settings, there are a few key ones to address in order to ensure the best possible web browsing experience for your site - and to ensure people can find your site to begin with!

In this guide, we'll cover the following topics. Click on any one to jump ahead.

Note: While you can manage your Sitemap in your Site Settings, we explore this in our guide on how to Create Your Website Navigation Menu(s).

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Information

One setting for your website that can be easily missed is your SEO information. This is because it’s not directly tied to building out the website itself (i.e. the pages, the content on your site, what you can actually see, etc.) and your website can technically exist without any SEO information. (But we strongly advise against this!)

SEO is super important to consider when building a website. Not only does it affect how easily your site is found (based on the keywords you enter), but it also tells search engines (like Google) how to display your information in the search results.

There are a two different levels of SEO information to consider:

  1. Your Overall Site’s SEO Information - This is the general information search engines use to showcase your site in the list of results (by use of keywords) and display a description of your site in the list of search results. This information is also the fallback that any published (and searchable) page you create uses if you don’t input any SEO information for individual pages.
  2. Individual Page SEO Information - This information is what search engines use to showcase an individual page in the list of results (by use of keywords) and display a description of that particular page in the list of search results. This information will trump what you input in your overall site’s SEO information.

Note: You do not need to edit the SEO information for individual pages. Typically, adding in the SEO information for your site in general is more than enough to provide you with sufficient reach and searchability in search engines. (After all, all your pages will default to using your overall site’s SEO information if you don’t customize each page’s SEO information.)


But if you want to go above and beyond for all your pages, or even just a few really important pages - perhaps like a big event that’s coming up - by all means, go for it!


Note: This article will only explore how to edit your overall site’s SEO information. Click here to learn how to edit that information. (You’ll want to scroll down to Page SEO Information & Social Sharing Images.)

To give some context, below is an example of what a church's SEO information could look like on Google:

To edit your site’s SEO information, click Manage and then on Site Settings. You should automatically be taken to the SEO tab. (Click here for a quick link.)

The first aspect to consider for your site’s SEO information is the Browser Title.

By default, Nucleus has your Browser Title in the format of Page Title | Name Of Your Church

To change what and how this information is displayed, click Edit.

In the field that appears, you can manually input your own information, or you can click insert data and choose to insert a specific attribute (namely your page title and church name).

Next, you can write out a description of your church’s website that will appear alongside your SEO title in the search results. (This is your SEO Meta Description.)

If you’re coming from an old website, you might already have an SEO description you can copy and paste over. Simply search for your church’s website in a search engine, locate your church’s website in the search results, and see what SEO description appears.

Note: Because the SEO description is one of the first things people will see about your church website if they’re using a search engine, you may want to consider the opinions of other leaders in your church of what you want to include in your SEO description.

If you need any help with writing your site’s SEO description, we have some tips for you here.

Below your description is a field where you can input SEO keywords. Keywords are what search engines use to match with what people search for. While there are other factors at play whether your website will show up in search results (i.e. the location of where the person is searching from), keywords play a strong role in whether or not your site will appear in the search results.

You can add as many or as few keywords. Simply separate them with a comma. While you can add whatever words you think best describes your church, try to imagine what people might search for when looking for churches in their local area and include those words.

Below this is where you can upload a preview image. Many times when sharing a URL, there is a preview image that displays alongside the link. This is the image that will appear when people share your website’s URL (namely your homepage, or any page on your website that you haven’t added an image to for that page’s specific SEO information).

Simply drag and drop an image from your device, or click + Add image to open a browser to locate your desired image.

Once you’re done editing this page, click Save Changes.

Help With SEO Descriptions & Keywords

If you’re having difficulty coming up with your own SEO description and keywords, you can always try using an AI tool like ChatGPT to help provide you with inspiration.

For instance, below is an example of how you can prompt ChatGPT to generate both an SEO description and keywords.

Simply ask the AI to act as an SEO specialist who writes SEO meta descriptions and keywords for church websites. Then provide it with your specific web URL, the name of your church, and the location of your church.

While you’re more than welcome to copy and paste what ChatGPT generates for you (after all, no one is checking you for plagiarism with your SEO information 😅), feel free to take inspiration from the examples provided to construct your own.

Additional Icons & Logos

Another setting that can easily be missed is your Favicon and App-Style Icon. To begin, click on Manage and then on Site Settings. Then select Favicon. (Click here for a quick link.)


Now you might be wondering, What is a favicon?

Favicons are those tiny icons or logos you see in the tabs of your browser that help indicate the various websites you’re currently viewing (apart from the SEO name that also appears in each tab). They also typically show up whenever you bookmark or save a website.

While not necessary, favicons are just a small detail that most websites use, so you don’t want to be the odd one out and not have one.

To add a favicon, simply drag and drop an image from your device, or click + Add image to open a browser to locate your desired image.

Favicons typically mirror the logo of whatever company/organization has on their website. Feel free to use your church’s logo. Just make sure it’s no bigger than 512 x 512 pixels, with a minimum size of 32 x 32 pixels.

Note: If you choose not to upload a favicon, it will default to the Nucleus logo.

Below this, you can upload an app-style icon. Feel free to upload the same image as your favicon here, though for this specific icon, it’s best to either use the light version of your logo, or upload a logo with an opaque background. This is because on some devices, the background of the “app” button will appear in black, so if you have a dark logo, it might not show up well.

To add your app-style icon, simply drag and drop an image from your device, or click + Add image to open a browser to locate your desired image.

This icon will specifically showcase on devices that have saved your website to their home screen. Saving a website to a home screen makes it feel like you’re opening an app, all the while simply opening up the device’s browser and pulling up that specific website. (This is especially true if your website is dynamic and interactive - like a Nucleus site! - not just a yellow pages listing type of website.)

We have an entire guide that walks you through how to save a website to both an Apple and Android device’s home screen. Click here to view that.

When you’re done uploading your two icons, click the Save Changes button.

Status Pages

If you’ve already reviewed individual page’s privacy controls, you might have already viewed and edited your website’s various status pages. But it’s always a good idea to double check anyway that the wording on each type of status page reflects the type of verbiage and lingo throughout the rest of your website. (And that the actions available to take on each page are accurate.)

Below is an example of what a status page can look like 👇

To view and manage your website’s status pages, click on Manage and then on Site Settings. Then select Status Pages. (Click here for a quick link.)

There are three types of status pages: Unavailable (404), Sign In Required (401), and Unauthorized (403).

To see what the current messaging is and what actions are set for each status page, click the Customize button.

Here, you can edit the Headline and Body Text for the status page. You’re more than welcome to leave the standard, default text as is, or adjust it as you need.

Below this, you’ll see two actions you can set, one with a primary button and one with a secondary button style.

Depending on which status page you’re editing, the options for each button may differ, but the process is the same: select an option for where you want people to go when they click the button, and edit the text for each button.

Once you’re happy with your changes, click the Save Changes button.

Then, click on Back to all to view and customize the other status pages.

Note: We have an entire guide to help you Understand Nucleus Web Privacy Options. If you haven’t read this yet, it will help bring into context what the 401 and 402 status pages are for and why someone would encounter them, based on the privacy settings of an individual page.

Launcher Visibility

Lastly, if you’ve viewed a preview of your website any number of times, you’ll likely have noticed The Launcher loading in the bottom right or left corner of your browser. By default, The Launcher is enabled on your website. While your Nucleus website provides an incredible church website browsing experience, The Launcher provides a sleek and easy way for people to take next steps without ever having to leave your website.

As such, we recommend keeping The Launcher visible on your website at all times. Not only is it free, but it also powers Banners, Info Cards, and sign-in capabilities on your website.

However, we understand that in some rare cases, you may not want to use The Launcher. In that case, we provide an option to hide it on your website.

To do this, click on Manage and then on Site Settings. Then select Launcher. (Click here for a quick link.)

Then, select the option to Disable The Launcher Completely On My Nucleus Website.

If you’re certain you wish to do this, click the Save Changes button.

Note: If you disable The Launcher completely, you may break or change links on your website to Flows, Giving, Info Cards, displaying Banners on your site, as well as disabling Sign In so people can access private pages. Please be sure before you turn this off that you are not using any of this functionality of The Launcher by Nucleus.

What Next?

Creating a website is no easy task. Maintaining and updating your site is also not an easy feat. That’s why Nucleus offers flexible and specific admin access levels and permissions - to ensure you aren’t the only one to manage it all, but without giving others full rein on your website to change pages and design settings they shouldn’t be touching. If you’ve yet to invite other admins to access Nucleus Web, check out our guide below!

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