SGEN dashboard tour

| Field | Value ||---|---|| Audience | new SGEN operators || Page type | guide || Area | Get Started || Updated | 2026-05-25 |

How to orient yourself in the admin dashboard in 10 minutes

The SGEN dashboard is not complex. It is organized. There is a left sidebar for navigation, a top bar for account and site controls, and a main content area that changes based on where you are. Every section of that sidebar corresponds to a job that needs doing — publishing pages, writing posts, handling form submissions, managing media, configuring the site. None of those jobs overlap. Each one lives in its own place.

The problem with a well-organized dashboard when you are new to it is that the organization is not obvious until someone points it out. That is what this guide does. It takes you through the dashboard in a single session — from the home view to the final section in the left sidebar — and tells you exactly what each area is for, what you will find there, and which tasks belong there.

The whole tour takes about ten minutes the first time. By the end of it, you will be able to answer the question "where do I go to do this?" for any common task in SGEN. You will also have at least five bookmarks set to the sections you expect to use most. That combination — spatial awareness plus direct access — is what makes working in SGEN fast from the second week onward.

SGEN's own team uses this tour for new hires. After the tour, new users stop asking "where is the thing for posting a blog?" and start asking questions about actual content decisions. That is the baseline this guide is written to reach.

What is this for?

This guide is a structured orientation to the admin dashboard. It is not a how-to for any specific feature. It is a map of the whole dashboard, explained in the order you encounter it when you log in.

Four situations bring people to this guide.

First-week orientation. You are new to SGEN. You have completed account setup and logged in. The dashboard is open. You know what you are supposed to do in your job — publish pages, manage content, handle forms — but you do not know where each of those tasks lives in this system. This tour gives you that spatial knowledge in a single session.

New-hire training. You manage or coordinate a team on SGEN. A new team member has been added as a user. Before they start touching content, you want them to understand the layout of the tool. This guide is the reading assignment or the walkthrough script.

Refresher after a hiatus. You stepped away from SGEN for several months. Updates may have added or reorganized sections. The layout is familiar but some things have shifted. This tour recalibrates your mental map before you start working again.

Demo to a stakeholder. You are showing SGEN to a client, a manager, or a new team member who will have dashboard access. You want a structured way to show them what the platform covers. This tour gives you a logical sequence and explanation for every major section.

Good use cases

The dashboard tour applies whenever you need to close the gap between having access to SGEN and knowing how to navigate it with confidence.

• A content editor joining a new team. A content editor

was added to SGEN by the platform admin on her first day. She had used other CMSes before but had never seen SGEN. She went through this tour and spent about twelve minutes clicking through each section. By the time she got to Blog and Pages, she recognized the structure and started working independently. No hand-holding from the admin.

• A marketing manager preparing for a client demo. A

marketing manager needed to show a new B2B client what SGEN could do before the client's team was onboarded. She used this tour as the walkthrough script. Each section of the guide maps directly to what you see on screen, so the demo followed the natural flow of the dashboard rather than jumping around.

• A founder taking over platform management. A founder

had always delegated SGEN work to the marketing team. When the marketing lead went on leave, he needed to post blog updates and handle form submissions himself. He went through the tour in one sitting and covered Blog, Forms, and Media — the three areas he needed for that period. He skipped the sections he did not need and came back to them later.

• An agency onboarding a client user. A digital agency

gave the client's operations manager limited dashboard access. She could see Forms and Media but not Pages or Settings. The tour still applied — every section she had access to was explained in sequence, and the guide told her clearly which sections she would not see due to her role. That prevented confusion when the sidebar did not match what a colleague described.

• A platform admin returning after a major update. SGEN

updates sometimes reorganize where settings live or add new sections to the sidebar. The tour gives returning admins a structured way to verify that their mental map of the dashboard is still accurate, rather than discovering changes mid-task.

• A new-hire completing structured onboarding. Many team

leads include this tour as a required first step for every new team member, regardless of role. It takes fifteen minutes and eliminates the most common questions new users have in their first week: "Where is the blog?" "Where do I upload images?" "Where do I see form submissions?" Every one of those has a clear answer after this tour.

What NOT to use this for

• **This guide does not teach you how to do specific tasks

in each area.** Publishing a page, writing a blog post, uploading media, configuring a form — each of those has its own documentation. This guide tells you where those areas live and what they contain. For step-by-step task instructions, use the documentation for that specific area.

• **This guide does not cover configuring site settings,

brand kit, or SEO defaults.** Those are admin tasks documented in the Settings and Brand Kit sections of the docs. The tour shows you where Settings lives and what it covers at a high level. The configuration work is a separate guide.

• This guide is not a reporting or analytics walkthrough.

If your SGEN plan includes analytics or traffic dashboards, those are covered in the analytics documentation. This tour notes where analytics-related panels appear in the dashboard but does not explain how to use them or interpret the data.

• This guide does not cover SG-Builder builds in depth.

The SG-Builder is the visual page-building environment. The tour shows you how to find it and what it is for. Actual building work is covered in the SG-Builder documentation and the relevant build guides.

• **This guide does not substitute for role-specific

onboarding.** Platform admins, content editors, and contributors have different responsibilities and different levels of access. After this tour, follow the role-based onboarding guide for your role. The tour gives you the map; the role guide tells you which roads you will use.

How this connects to other features

The dashboard is the entry point to every feature in SGEN. Understanding the layout connects directly to every other area of the platform.

• Account setup — Before this tour makes sense, you need

to be logged in with a complete profile. Account Setup and First Login is the prerequisite guide. If you have not completed that step, start there.

• Brand kit — Colors, fonts, and logo settings that apply

across your site. The Brand Kit lives in the Settings area of the dashboard, which this tour covers. After the tour, if you are a platform admin setting up a new site, Brand Kit is your next stop.

• Pages — The Pages section of the dashboard is where every

published and draft page on your site lives. The tour covers what the Pages section contains and how it is organized. The Pages documentation covers how to create and manage them.

• Blog — The Blog section manages posts, categories, tags,

and publishing workflow. The tour shows you where it is and what it contains. The Blog documentation covers writing, scheduling, and publishing.

• Forms — The Forms section shows all form submissions

and lets you create and manage forms on your site. The tour covers what you will find in Forms. The Forms documentation covers building and configuring forms.

• Media — The Media section is SGEN's central asset

library for images, documents, and files. Every image you use in a page, post, or form is uploaded and managed here. The tour shows you where it is and how it is organized.

• Custom Objects — A data-management layer that lets you

build structured content types beyond pages and posts. The tour introduces you to where Custom Objects lives. The Custom Objects documentation covers what it is and when to use it.

• SG-Builder — The visual page builder for advanced site

layouts. The tour shows you how to access SG-Builder from the dashboard. Building work has its own documentation.

• Settings — Site-wide configuration: site name, URL,

SEO defaults, integrations, and user management. The tour covers what lives in Settings. Admin setup guides cover the configuration tasks.

Before you start

Three things need to be true before this tour is useful.

You are logged in to the admin dashboard. The dashboard should be fully loaded — not the login page, not a loading screen, but the actual dashboard with the left sidebar visible. If you are not yet logged in, go to Account Setup and First Login first.

The dashboard loads completely. If you see blank sections or error messages in place of content panels, resolve those first. A blank dashboard usually means a session issue (try a hard refresh: Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, Command+Shift+R on Mac) or a permissions issue (contact your account admin).

You have a basic role assigned. Your role determines which sections of the sidebar you can see. If large parts of the dashboard are missing and you expected to have access, your role may be too restricted. Ask your account admin to confirm your access level before starting the tour. The tour explains which sections are visible to which roles, so you will know if something is hidden by design.

Where to go

The tour starts at the admin home view. Navigate to yoursite.com/sg-admin. After login, you land on the dashboard overview screen. This is where the tour begins.

The exact domain is specific to your site. If you are unsure of your site's domain, check the invitation email you received when you were added as a user.

You do not need to navigate away from the dashboard to complete this tour. Every step happens inside yoursite.com/sg-admin. Have your browser open and the dashboard visible before continuing.

How to tour the SGEN dashboard

This tour follows the natural flow of the dashboard — from the home overview screen, through each section of the left sidebar, to the Settings area at the bottom. It takes about ten minutes to complete the first time. After that, you will return to specific sections rather than the full tour.

Each step in this guide describes one section of the dashboard: what it contains, what you can do there, and what you should look at while you are in it. You are not making any changes during the tour. You are looking, orienting, and optionally bookmarking.

What is this for?

This How to section covers the tour itself — the active, step-by-step orientation. The H3 sections above this point establish context. If you are ready to start the tour, continue to Step 1.

Good use cases

Every use case described in the section above applies here. This is the guided walkthrough itself.

What NOT to use this for

Same as above. The How to section is the tour, not a configuration guide.

How this connects to other features

Same connection map as above. The tour leads you to the entry point for every feature in SGEN.

Before you start

Dashboard loaded, logged in, role assigned. Same as above.

Where to go

yoursite.com/sg-admin. Start on the home overview screen.

Steps — Tour every section of the admin dashboard

Work through these steps in order. Each step covers one section of the dashboard. You will click into each area, spend about one minute orienting yourself, and move on. Do not stop to make changes unless specifically noted.

1. Orient yourself on the home view

When the dashboard loads after login, you land on the home overview screen. Before clicking anything, take thirty seconds to look at the three structural areas of the dashboard.

The left sidebar is the main navigation. It is always visible. Every section of SGEN is accessible from here. The sidebar is divided into groups: content sections at the top (Pages, Blog, Forms, Media), structural sections in the middle (Custom Objects, SG-Builder), and configuration at the bottom (Settings, Users). Depending on your role and plan, you may see all of these or a subset.

The top bar runs across the top of the screen. On the left it shows your site name — a fast visual confirmation that you are in the right account if you manage multiple sites. On the right it shows a notification bell and your account avatar or name. Click the avatar to access your profile, notification settings, and the logout option.

The main content area fills the rest of the screen. On the home overview, it shows an activity summary: recent posts, recent form submissions, pages modified recently, and quick-link buttons to the main sections. This overview is your starting point for each work session — a snapshot of what has happened recently on your site.

Look at the overview content on screen. Note the numbers next to each item — published pages, total blog posts, form submissions. These reflect your site's actual state.

Do not click away from the home view yet. Read through the activity summary. After 30 seconds, move to Step 2.

2. Walk through the left sidebar — top to bottom

Click each item in the left sidebar in order, from the top item to the bottom. For each one, look at the screen for about 15 seconds before clicking the next item. You are building a mental map of what lives where. You are not reading every detail — you are establishing the layout.

Pages — A list of every page on your site: published, draft, and archived. Each row shows the page title, its current status (published, draft, scheduled), the date last modified, and who modified it. The toolbar at the top lets you filter by status or search by title. This is where you come to create, edit, publish, or unpublish pages.

Blog — A list of all blog posts with the same column structure as Pages. The sidebar on the Blog screen typically shows categories and tags. There is usually a sub-menu or tabbed view for Comments if your site has commenting enabled. This is where all post creation and publishing happens.

Forms — Two views depending on your SGEN version: a list of forms you have created, and a view of recent submissions. Some accounts have Forms and Submissions as separate sidebar items. Either way, this is where you see what visitors have submitted and where you manage the forms themselves.

Media — The central asset library. A grid or list of every image, document, PDF, and file uploaded to your account. You can filter by file type, search by filename, and upload new files directly from this screen. Every image used in a page, post, or form comes from here.

Custom Objects — A data-management area for structured content types you define yourself. If you are new to SGEN, this section may be empty or contain objects that your admin or developer set up. Do not make changes here during the tour. Custom Objects is an advanced area covered in its own documentation.

SG-Builder — The visual page-building environment. Clicking this opens a list of pages that use the SG-Builder layout editor. This is different from the standard page editor — it is a drag-and-drop canvas for building complex page layouts section by section. Clicking into a specific page from this list opens the builder for that page.

Settings — Site-wide configuration. You will look at this in more detail in Step 9 of this tour. For now, note its position at the bottom of the sidebar.

Users — Visible to admins only. A list of everyone with dashboard access, their roles, and when they last logged in. This is where new users are invited and roles are changed.

After clicking through each item, return to the home overview by clicking the site name or the home icon at the top of the sidebar. Move to Step 3.

3. Preview the Pages section

Click Pages in the left sidebar.

The Pages section lists every page on your site. Look at the columns on screen: page title, status (published, draft, scheduled), last modified date, and the name of the person who last modified it. If your site has many pages, use the search bar at the top to filter by title. Use the status filter to see only drafts or only published pages.

The Add Page button (usually in the top right of the Pages list) creates a new page. You will not use it now. Note where it is.

A typical Pages list has published pages across the main site sections — home, contact, services, landing pages — plus draft pages for upcoming campaigns being written but not yet published.

Look at the Pages list on your screen for about one minute. Note the status of each page and when the most recent modification was. You do not need to click into any individual page. Move to Step 4 when you are done.

4. Preview the Blog section

Click Blog in the left sidebar.

The Blog section lists all posts. The structure is similar to Pages — title, status, categories, date, author — but Blog adds category and tag columns that Pages does not have. If your site has multiple blog categories (News, Company Updates, Product Announcements, etc.), you can filter by category from this view.

Look for a Categories or Tags link in the Blog sidebar or in a secondary menu. This is where you manage the taxonomy that organizes your posts. You do not need to click into it now — note that it exists.

The Add Post button creates a new post. Like the Add Page button in the Pages section, note its location without clicking.

A well-maintained blog typically has posts organized across two to four categories. Teams that publish twice a week often make the Blog list their starting point every Monday morning.

Spend about one minute reviewing the Blog section on your screen. Move to Step 5.

5. Preview the Forms section

Click Forms in the left sidebar.

Forms in SGEN has two main views that you will use in different situations.

The forms list shows every form on your site: contact forms, newsletter signups, wholesale inquiry forms, event registration forms. Each form has a name, the page it appears on, and a submission count. Clicking a form opens its configuration — you can add fields, change the confirmation message, and set notification recipients.

The submissions view shows every form submission received. This is where you see what visitors have sent you. Most SGEN accounts also send submission notifications by email, but the submissions view is the authoritative list. You can filter by form, by date range, and by whether a submission has been reviewed or not.

If your SGEN account has Forms and Submissions as two separate items in the sidebar, click both and spend about 30 seconds in each view before moving on.

Many sites receive dozens of form submissions per week across a contact form, inquiry form, and signup. Checking the Forms submissions view at the start of each work day keeps leads from sitting unread.

Review the Forms section on your screen. Move to Step 6.

6. Preview the Media section

Click Media in the left sidebar.

The Media section is SGEN's central asset library. Every image, PDF, document, or other file you have uploaded to your site lives here. The grid view shows thumbnail previews of images alongside file icons for non-image formats. The list view shows filename, file type, file size, upload date, and who uploaded it.

Use the filter bar at the top to view only images, only documents, or only a specific file type. The search bar lets you find files by name.

When you upload files to Media, they become available for use across every area of the dashboard — in page content, blog post content, form attachment fields, and SG-Builder sections. The Media library is shared across the whole account.

Note the Upload Files button. You will use this whenever you need to add new images or documents to your account. SGEN supports WebP, JPEG, PNG, GIF, PDF, DOCX, and other common formats.

A well-organized Media library separates product photography, blog images, campaign materials, and document downloads. A consistent naming convention — such as site-[year]-[type]-[subject] — helps team members find files without scrolling through hundreds of thumbnails.

Review the Media section for about one minute. Move to Step 7.

7. Preview the Custom Objects section

Click Custom Objects in the left sidebar. If this item is not visible in your sidebar, your role does not include access to Custom Objects. Note that and move to Step 8.

Custom Objects is a structured data layer that lets you create content types beyond pages and posts. Examples: a product catalog, a team member directory, a location list, an event schedule. Each custom object type has a defined set of fields, and each entry is a record in that type.

If Custom Objects has been configured on your account, you will see a list of object types on the left and a list of records when you click into a type. If it is empty, that means no custom object types have been defined yet.

Custom Objects is an advanced area. If your role is content editor or contributor, you may have read-only access or no access to Custom Objects. That is by design. The data structure is typically set up by a platform admin or developer and then populated by the content team.

Custom Objects is often used for structured directories — wholesale partner lists, team members, product catalogs. Each record is one entry in the defined schema. Content teams typically have view or edit access; schema changes are reserved for admins.

Spend about one minute in Custom Objects. If it is empty or inaccessible, note that and move to Step 8.

8. Preview the SG-Builder section

Click SG-Builder in the left sidebar.

The SG-Builder section lists every page on your site that has been built or is eligible to be built using the visual layout editor. Clicking a page title from this list opens the SG-Builder editor for that page — a full-screen canvas where sections are built, arranged, and styled visually.

If you are not a platform admin or designated builder for your account, you may have read-only access to SG-Builder or no access at all. That is by design. SG-Builder builds are typically done by a specific person or team.

Do not click into the editor during the tour. The SG-Builder editor is a separate environment with its own rules and workflow. Opening it during this general tour session is not necessary. Note where it is and what the page list looks like. That is enough for this step.

A typical site has several pages built with SG-Builder — the home page, product category pages, and campaign landing pages. Build work is usually done by a developer or designated builder; the content team edits text and images within SG-Builder sections but does not add or remove sections themselves.

Review the SG-Builder page list for about 30 seconds. Move to Step 9.

9. Preview the Settings section

Click Settings in the left sidebar. If Settings is not visible, your role does not include settings access. Note that and continue to Step 10.

Settings is where the site-level configuration lives. It is not a single screen — it is a section with sub-items. The exact sub-items depend on your SGEN plan and configuration, but the core categories are consistent across accounts.

General — Site name, primary URL, timezone, language, and basic SEO defaults (meta title pattern, meta description template). Every site should have these configured before publishing any pages.

Brand Kit — Colors, fonts, and logo. This is the visual foundation for your entire site. Changes to Brand Kit propagate to the global styles used in pages, posts, and SG-Builder sections. If your account is already in use, Brand Kit is already configured — review it but do not change anything during the tour.

Users — Some SGEN configurations show Users under Settings rather than as a separate sidebar item. This is where you add new users, set their roles, and deactivate accounts. Admins only.

Integrations — Third-party connections: email service providers, analytics platforms, CRM integrations. Integrations that are active show as connected; those that are configured but inactive show as paused.

Custom CSS — A design-system level override for site styles. This is an advanced area. Do not make changes here during the tour. Changes here affect the entire site.

A typical Settings section covers General, Brand Kit, Users, Integrations (email service + analytics), and Custom CSS. Reviewing Settings monthly confirms nothing has drifted.

Look through each sub-section of Settings without making changes. Move to Step 10 when done.

10. Set bookmarks for the sections you will use most

You are now familiar with every major section of the SG-Admin dashboard. Before finishing the tour, set bookmarks for the sections you will return to most often.

Bookmarks eliminate navigation friction. Instead of clicking to the dashboard home and then to the section you need every time you start a work session, you open a bookmark directly to that section.

To set a bookmark in Chrome or Edge on Windows: Navigate to the section (click it in the sidebar), then press Ctrl+D. The browser's bookmark dialog appears. Give the bookmark a clear name — "Your Site — SGEN Blog" is more useful than "Blog" when you have multiple dashboards bookmarked. Place the bookmark in a folder named "SGEN" or by your site's name.

To set a bookmark in Chrome or Safari on Mac: Navigate to the section, then press Command+D. Same naming and folder convention applies.

Repeat for each section you expect to use regularly. Based on your role:

• Platform admins: bookmark Home, Pages, Blog, Forms, Media, and Settings.
• Content editors: bookmark Home, Pages, Blog, and Media.
• Form managers or operations staff: bookmark Home and Forms, plus Media if you handle file attachments.
• Marketing managers: bookmark Home, Blog, Media, and Forms.

Set at least five bookmarks before finishing this step. You can always add more later. Move to Step 11 when done.

What success looks like

When the tour is complete, these things should be true.

• You can name every section in the admin left sidebar

and describe in one sentence what each one is for. If you cannot, go back to Step 2 and repeat the sidebar walkthrough.

• You know which area to go to for any common task: publishing

a page, writing a blog post, reviewing form submissions, uploading a new image, inviting a team member, adjusting a site setting.

• You have at least five bookmarks set for the dashboard

sections you will use most in your role. Those bookmarks are named clearly enough that you could pick them out of a bookmark list that also contains your other work sites.

• If someone on your team asks "where do I post a blog?"

or "where do I see form submissions?", you can answer without opening the dashboard to check.

• You know which sections are restricted by your role and

which ones you need to contact the admin about if you need access.

After completing the tour, the next step depends on your role. Platform admins should confirm Site Settings and Brand Kit are fully configured. Content editors and marketing managers should open Blog or Pages and start with a real piece of content. If your team has a role-specific onboarding guide, that is the next document to follow.

What to do if it does not work

Sections are missing from the left sidebar. Your user role controls which sections you can see in the sidebar. Editors typically cannot see Users or Settings. Contributors may only see Blog and Media. If sections that your colleagues can see are not visible to you, your role may be more restricted than intended. Contact your account admin and ask them to review your role in the Users section of the dashboard. They can update your access without requiring you to log out.

A section is labeled differently than what this guide describes. SGEN updates sometimes rename or reorganize sections. If you see a section labeled differently — "Content" instead of "Pages," or "Submissions" as a standalone item instead of under "Forms" — the function is the same. Click the section that seems most relevant to the one described in this guide. The screen contents will confirm whether you are in the right place.

The search bar does not find what you typed. The search bar in each section searches that section only. Typing a page title in the Pages search will not return blog posts. If you are looking for something and cannot find it, confirm you are in the correct section first. If you are in the right section and search is not returning results, check that you are searching by the correct field — some sections search by title only, not by content or category.

The dashboard is slow on first load. A slow first load after login is usually temporary. SGEN caches the dashboard view after the first load, so subsequent navigation within the same session is faster. If every section takes more than five seconds to load, try a hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, Command+Shift+R on Mac). If the issue persists across multiple sessions on different networks, contact your SGEN support team — consistent slowness sometimes indicates a configuration issue on the account.

You navigated away from the dashboard and cannot find your way back to the home view. The SG-Admin home is always at yoursite.com/sg-admin. Navigate there directly. Clicking the site name in the top bar of the dashboard also typically returns you to the home overview screen. If the site name is not clickable in your SGEN version, use the direct URL.

You can see the dashboard but the main content area shows an error or blank screen. This sometimes happens after a session timeout or a failed page load. Do a hard refresh first. If the issue is limited to one section — for example, Forms loads an error but Blog and Pages load normally — it may be a data loading issue specific to that section. Log out and log back in, then try again. If the error persists in that section, contact support with the URL and a screenshot of the error message.

A few habits that make the tour stick

These are the things that separate users who feel fluent in the dashboard from users who are still searching for things three months in.

Return to the home overview at the start of every session. The overview screen shows you what has happened on your site since you last logged in. Making it a habit to start there — rather than jumping straight to Blog or Pages — means you catch form submissions, new activity, and anything that needs attention before you start working. Bookmark the dashboard home URL, not section-specific URLs.

Use the sidebar, not the browser back button. Clicking the back button in the browser sometimes returns you to unexpected states in the dashboard. Navigate between sections using the left sidebar. The sidebar is always visible, always accurate, and never puts you in a broken state.

Name your bookmarks by site and section. If you work on more than one SGEN site, or if you have bookmarks for other CMS tools as well, "Blog" is not a useful bookmark name. "Your Site — Blog" is. The extra few words of context save you from clicking the wrong bookmark when you are in a hurry.

Note which sections are restricted for your role and why. If Settings or Users is not visible in your sidebar, that is a deliberate access restriction, not a missing feature. Understanding what you can and cannot access — and why — prevents confusion when a colleague mentions something in the dashboard that you cannot see. If you need access to a restricted section, the conversation with your admin is much faster when you can name the exact section and explain why you need it.

Do the tour again after a major SGEN update. SGEN updates sometimes add new sections, rename existing ones, or reorganize the sidebar. Running through this tour after a significant update — even quickly, in about three minutes — recalibrates your mental map before a new layout catches you off-guard mid-task.

## Related reading

Topic
Account setup and first login
SGEN setup wizard walkthrough
Brand kit setup
Pages overview
Blog overview
Role-based onboarding for platform admins
Role-based onboarding for content editors