Publishing, taking down, and Google
Three separate switches that people reasonably assume are one. Worth five minutes.
The three states
A website can be:
- A draft — built, only you can see it. Nothing is at a public address.
- Published — live at a public address, anyone with the link can open it.
- Published and indexed — live, and search engines are allowed to list it.
Moving from 1 to 2 is Deploy. Moving from 2 to 3 is a separate switch, because they are separate decisions: plenty of sites should be reachable by people who have the link and not by everyone searching.
Your public address
Every site gets one, looking like:
https://your-site-a1b2c3d4.laabam.siteReal, shareable, works in WhatsApp with a proper preview card. Connect your own domain when you are ready — how to.
Taking a site down
On the project page: Visible to the public → Take it down.
The address immediately returns "not found" — the same answer an address that never existed gives. Not a "this site is suspended" page, which would still confirm the address was real.
Your project, files and build history are untouched. Put it back returns it to the same address.
Use it when you published something you did not mean to, when a page needs pulling while you fix it, or when a business is closed for a season.
This is never behind a plan. Removing a page you did not intend to publish is not something we will charge you for, and a lapsed card does not stop you doing it.
Found on Google
On the project page: Found on Google → Allow search / Hide from search.
This is the switch you want if you are trying to stop Google finding your site, hide a page from search results, or remove it from Google without taking it offline. The site stays reachable by anyone with the link; only search engines are told to leave it alone.
New sites start hidden. A page should not turn up in search before a person has looked at it — particularly one an AI assistant built and sent. When you are happy with it, turn this on.
Sites created before this existed are still indexable, exactly as they were. We did not de-index anybody's live site.
Turning it on does not put you in Google immediately — it removes the instruction telling crawlers not to find and list you. Being found still takes time and depends on your content.
Hide from search, or take it off the internet?
Two different things, and people reach for the wrong one.
| You want to | Use |
|---|---|
| Keep the site usable, keep it out of Google | Hide from search |
| Make the address stop working entirely | Take it down |
Hiding from search does not remove a page Google has already indexed straight away — it stops it being listed again. If you need something gone from search now, take the site down as well.
What happens when a plan lapses
Your website stays up. A failed payment does not take a business's site off the internet.
What pauses is new AI building, and reading or downloading your source code. The site keeps serving, keeps collecting enquiries, keeps its address.
Publishing something an assistant built
If you connected ChatGPT or Claude, they can send you finished websites. Those arrive as proposals in Settings → AI connections, and nothing is live until you press Publish it.
Read the code first — the Review code button shows every file and a preview. That click is the publish; there is no step after it. See Using Laabam.site from ChatGPT.