Create a Microsite/Landing Page

This tutorial shows you how to create a Microsite or Landing Page on your current site.

The purpose of a microsite is to create a new site with limited functionality. There are many uses, including sites for individual products, adverting messages, and inbound marketing nurturing.

Microsites can be created as stand-along site or as part of your existing site. This tutorial shows you how to create one as part of your site.

Create a Template for the Microsite

1. Go to Navigator >> Manage Designs >> click on Templates
2. Click Add to create a new template.
3. Give it a name.
4. Using the edit in either html or wysiwyg mode, paste your template. You must include the "Content Box" addon to show where the content should be placed.
5. If needed, add optional javascript and styles in their respective tabs.
6. Leave the domain name section blank for now.
7. Click OK to save and exit.

Create a Landing Page for your Microsite.

1. Go to Navigator >> Manage Content >> click on pages.
2. Give it a name.
3. Enter the copy for the landing page.
4. On the Features tab, select the template you created earlier.
5. Click OK to save and exit.

Create a Home Section for the Microsite

A site is a collection of sections that each have one or more pages. In addition to helping organize the site, sections carry some of the site permissions.

To disable the section permissions so you do not need a section

1. Go to Navigator >> Settings >> Advanced >> click on Site Properties
2. search for the property with the name "ALLOW PAGE WITHOUT SECTION DISPLAY".
3. Set this to true
4. Click OK to save and exit.

To create a home section

1. Go to Navigator >> Manage Content >> click on Sections
2. Click Add to create a new section.
3. Give it a name.
4. On the Features tab, select the landing page and default template
5. Click OK to save and exit.

Add a Domain Name to the Site

1. Determine the site's IP address. If you do not know if already, you can ping your current domain name. Ping will give you the IP.
2. Setup your DNS to point the new name to the site's IP address. If the domain is in use, you can do this last.
3. Connect to your webserver and setup an IIS binding for the domain and the IP address on your site.
4. Log on to your website and create a new domain record.
   1. go to Navigator >> Settings >> click on Domains
   2. If the new domain is not in the domains list, click Add to create a new record
   3. In the name field, enter the domain name. If you want to use "www." be sure to include that as well.
   4. Set the Type to Normal
   5. Set the Landing Page to the page you created.
   6. Set the Default template to the template you created.
   7. If this is a Landing Page site, leave the Page Not Found page empty and your landing page will be used. For other types of microsites you may want to create a Page Not Found page
   8. Click OK to save and exit.
5. If you want both the domain name, and the "www." version of the domain name, add a second domain record. If you make them both "Normal" type domains, the site will work for both. If you want the second domain to always forward to the first, set its type to "Forward to Replacement Domain". 
   1. Google and other search engines will penalize you if they find the same content on multiple sites (your name, and your domain plus www).
   2. If you are collecting analytics on the landing page and you choose to forward to another domain, you may lose information about the source of the link.

You should now be able to enter your domain name into a browser and see your new microsite.