Website Builder Overview

The Website Builder generates a complete business website for you and lets you refine it by chatting with the AI. You can build a site from a short description, or clone your existing site and rebuild it with your AI chatbot and contact form included. When you are happy with it, publish to a free Frontdesk subdomain or connect your own domain.

If you don't see Website/SEO AI in your sidebar, it isn't enabled for your account yet. Contact support to request access.

Generating your first website

Open Website/SEO AI in the sidebar. If you have no website yet, you'll see the creation screen with two modes:

  • Build from scratch -- describe the site you want in the text box (e.g., "a modern landing page for my plumbing business with a booking section") and click the send button.
  • Clone existing site -- paste your current website URL and click Clone & Build. Frontdesk pulls your content and branding, then rebuilds the site. This works best with publicly accessible sites; login-gated pages can't be read.

Generation takes a few minutes. A progress screen shows each stage, including "Designing layout & theme."

Editing with chat

Once your site exists, the builder shows three tabs on the left (Design, Versions, Domain) with a live preview on the right. You can drag the divider between them to resize the panels.

On the Design tab, type what you want changed and send it. Every edit creates a new version and updates the preview. You can also attach images to use on the site. If you're not sure where to start, click one of the Quick Suggestions, such as:

  • Make it look more premium
  • Add an FAQ section
  • Use a darker color scheme
  • Add a testimonials section

Each account has an edit allowance; the panel shows how many edits you have used.

Versions

The Versions tab lists every version of your site, newest first. The most recent one is labeled Latest, and the version currently on your published site is tagged as live. For each version you can:

  • Preview it in the right-hand pane.
  • Restore it (or Revert in the chat history) to bring an older version back as the latest draft. Restoring never publishes automatically; review it, then publish when ready.

At the bottom of the Versions tab, Start Over deletes the current website so you can generate a new one from scratch. Previous versions are preserved and can be recovered. Start-overs are limited per day, and the counter under the button shows your usage.

Publishing

Click Publish to put the currently previewed version live.

The first time you publish, the Choose Your Staging URL modal asks you to claim a permanent subdomain on .myaifrontdesk.com (e.g., your-business-name.myaifrontdesk.com). You can't change this later, so pick carefully. After you click Claim & Continue, the SSL certificate activates, usually within 1 to 3 minutes. The site publishes automatically once the certificate is ready, or you can click Check Status to trigger it manually.

On later publishes, a confirmation modal appears. Click Yes, Publish to replace the current live version.

Custom domain

The Domain tab manages where your site lives:

  1. Under the custom domain section, enter your domain (e.g., www.mybusiness.com) and click Connect.
  2. Frontdesk shows a CNAME record. Add it at your domain registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, etc.).
  3. Click Verify & Connect. DNS propagation can take a few minutes, so retry if it isn't detected immediately.
  4. After verification, the SSL certificate provisions in 1 to 5 minutes. Click Check Status to confirm, and you'll see "Your custom domain is connected!"

You can disconnect the custom domain or the staging URL from the same tab.

Troubleshooting

  • "This subdomain is already taken" -- another account claimed that staging slug. Choose a different one.
  • "DNS record not detected yet" -- the CNAME hasn't propagated. Wait a few minutes and click Verify & Connect again.
  • Clone fails on your URL -- confirm the site is publicly reachable and includes the https:// scheme. Protected or login-gated sites can't be cloned.
  • Publish button missing -- you need at least one generated version. Generate or restore a version first.