How to Edit a Website: A Plain-English Guide

How to edit a website depends on one thing: where the site was built. Almost every site today lives in a builder or a content system, like WordPress, Wix, Squarespace or Sitelas. You edit it by signing in to that builder, not by touching the page itself. Below: how to find out which one you have, and the five steps that work in all of them. Plain code sites are covered too.

Step 1: Find out what your site is built on

If you set the site up yourself, you already know. If someone else built it, try these in order:

• Search your email for "welcome to", "your website" or "receipt" from a builder. The sign-up email names it.
• Look at the bottom of the site. Many builders add a small "Made with…" line in the footer.
• Check who you pay. A monthly charge from Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy or Sitelas tells you where the site lives.
• Ask whoever built it. A web designer can tell you, and can add you as an owner or editor.

If none of these works, a free "what is this site built with" checker can usually name the builder from the web address.

Step 2: Sign in where the site lives

Editing happens inside the builder's dashboard. Sign in with the account that owns the site, then open that site from your list. On WordPress you open Pages. On Wix and Squarespace you open the site and press Edit. On Sitelas you open the site from your dashboard and press Edit.

No login? The person or agency that built the site holds it. Ask them to add you. Don't try to work around it: you'd be editing a copy, not the real site.

Step 3: Click the thing you want to change

Modern builders edit the page as it looks. You click a headline and type over it. You click a photo and replace it. You don't need to know any code for text, images, links or a new page.

Above is the Sitelas editor. The headline is selected and retyped right on the page. The amber strip at the top says the site isn't public yet.

Want to change colours or fonts? Look for a site-wide style or theme panel rather than changing each heading. One change there updates every page. On Sitelas that's the Theme panel (colours and fonts, step by step).

Step 4: Save, then check the preview

This is the step people skip, and it's where mistakes slip out. Saving and publishing are often two different things, and builders don't all work the same way:

Builder	Does saving change the live site?
Wix	No. Save keeps your work; Publish puts it live. You can keep editing after publishing.
WordPress.com	Once a page is published, its button reads Save, and saving updates the live page.
Squarespace	Edits to a live page show on the site. Drafting a page first is a Premium and Enterprise feature.
Sitelas	No. Save writes a draft that only your preview link shows. Publish puts it live.

Checked on each company's help pages, October 2026.

So before a big change, know which kind you have. If saving goes live straight away, make small changes and check the page right after.

Always look at the change on a phone-sized screen too. Most builders have a phone button in the editor. Most visitors will see your site on a phone.

Step 5: Publish

When it looks right, publish. On builders with a separate publish step, that one button is what visitors notice.

In Sitelas these four buttons sit at the bottom of the editor. Discard throws away unsaved edits. Save updates the draft. Preview opens the draft in a new tab, at a link you can send to a client. Publish site makes it live. After the first publish, new edits wait in the draft until you publish again. Changed your mind afterwards? Undo last publish in the Home panel puts back the version that was live before.

Before your first publish, run through this quick check of your site.

If your site is plain code

Some older or custom sites have no builder. They are HTML files on a web host. To change one:

1. Sign in to your hosting account and open its file manager, or connect with an FTP app.
2. Download a copy of the file you want to change (for the home page, usually index.html). Keep it as a backup.
3. Open it in a text editor, change the words between the tags, and save.
4. Upload it back in place of the old file, then reload the site.

If you're not comfortable with that, this is a good moment to ask a developer. Or move the site to a builder you can edit yourself.

How to edit a website in your browser (only you see it)

Many searches for "how to edit a website" are about a browser trick. In Chrome, right-click any text and choose Inspect. Then double-click the text in the panel that opens and type something new. The page changes on your screen.

It's useful for trying out a new headline or taking a mock-up screenshot. But it changes nothing for anyone else. Reload the page and your edit is gone. To change a site for real, you need to sign in where it lives (Step 2).

Or ask an AI to make the change

Some builders now let you describe the change instead of clicking. In the Sitelas editor, the AI panel takes a request in plain words and makes the edit on the page.

The edit lands in your draft, like a manual one. Nothing goes live until you publish.

You can also skip the editor. Add Sitelas to Claude or ChatGPT, then ask in a chat: "change the opening hours on the contact page to 8 to 5." Claude edits the draft and sends you a preview link. Here's how running a site from a Claude chat works.

For a full tour of every panel and button, see the Sitelas editor docs.

Questions people ask

How do I edit an existing website? Find out which builder it's on, sign in to that builder, open the site and press Edit. Then change what you need, save, check the preview and publish. If you can't sign in, ask whoever built the site to add you.

Can you edit a website after publishing? Yes, on every major builder. Wix, Squarespace, WordPress and Sitelas all let you keep editing a live site. On Wix and Sitelas your changes wait until you publish again.

How do I edit a website in Chrome? Right-click the text, choose Inspect, then double-click the text in the panel and type. Only you see the change, and it disappears when you reload. To change the site for everyone, sign in to the builder it's on.

Why don't my website edits show up? Usually one of two things. The change was saved but not published, or your browser is showing an old copy. Check that you pressed Publish, then reload with Ctrl+Shift+R (Cmd+Shift+R on a Mac).

Do I need to know code to edit my website? Not on a builder. You click text to change it, upload photos and add pages from a menu. You only need code for a site that is plain HTML files.

Can I edit my website with AI? Yes, on some builders. On Sitelas you can describe the change in the editor's AI panel, or ask Claude or ChatGPT in a chat. Either way the change goes into a draft for you to check first.

Try it

Have a Sitelas site? Open your dashboard, press Edit, change a headline and publish. No site yet? You can build one from a Claude chat and edit it the same way. Start at sitelas.com.