How to Create a New Site in SGEN
Provision a new SGEN site from SG-Dashboard — preconditions, two routes, what success and failure look like.
Creating a new site in SGEN is a structured operation, not a casual click. The site provisions both staging and live environments, attaches to your active subscription, consumes one unit of site capacity, and lands you back in Site Manager with the next setup actions surfaced. This guide covers everything from the preconditions you need before starting to the recovery paths when something does not go right.
The procedure assumes you have already oriented yourself in SG-Dashboard (see Getting Started with SG-Dashboard). If this is your first session, read that first, then return here when the recommended sequence asks you to create your first site.
What is this for?
Read this page when you are about to provision a new SGEN site. Use it to confirm you have everything you need before starting, follow the in-flow steps without guessing, recognize what success looks like, and triage failures with structured recovery paths rather than improvising.
The page is a how-to guide. It does not duplicate the Site Manager Reference or the per-area depth of subscription management; it walks the create-a-new-site procedure end to end and links out at each step.
Good use cases
- You are creating your first site after onboarding.
- You are adding another site to an existing account that has spare capacity.
- You are setting up a client account as an agency and want the procedure for repeated use.
- You hit "create site failed" and want the structural recovery path.
- You are reviewing what success means before promoting a domain to live.
What NOT to use this for
- Domain pointing — open How to Point Your Domain in SGEN.
- Adding subscription or site capacity — open How to Add a Subscription or Site Capacity in SGEN.
- Per-site setup after creation — open How to Complete Site Setup in SGEN.
- Billing operations — open Billing and Site Capacity in SGEN.
How this connects to other features
- Getting Started with SG-Dashboard — the orientation that routes here.
- How to Complete Site Setup in SGEN — the natural next step after creation.
- How to Add a Subscription or Site Capacity — what to do if you hit a capacity prompt.
- Billing and Site Capacity — the billing model behind site provisioning.
- How to Point Your Domain — the next step toward live readiness.
- SG-Dashboard Overview — full account-tier Reference.
- Environments and Site States — the staging-vs-live model the new site provisions into.
Before you start
Confirm all of the following before opening the create flow.
Account access
You can log in to SG-Dashboard at dashboard.sgen.com. If access is restricted, check billing health (Billing area) and your account-tier role assignment.
Active subscription with available capacity
The account has an active subscription, and the subscription has at least one unit of site capacity available. If capacity is full, the create flow will prompt you to add capacity rather than create the site.
Final production domain ready
The domain you enter at create time is the final production domain — the URL you intend to be the customer-facing one. The platform uses it for live-environment provisioning. Pick the real domain; do not enter a placeholder.
Business name ready
The Business Name field is required. Use the legal or operating business name; this seeds downstream surfaces (Site Settings, Locations) with the right identity.
dashboard.sgen.comWhere to start the flow
Two equivalent entry points open the same modal.
Route 1 — Quick Actions
- Log in to SG-Dashboard.
- Open Dashboard.
- In Quick Actions, click Create New Site.
This is the fastest entry point if you arrived at the dashboard with the intention of creating a site.
Route 2 — Site Manager
- Log in to SG-Dashboard.
- Open Site Manager.
- Click + Add Site.
This is the natural entry point if you are already inside Site Manager looking at existing sites and want to add another.
Use whichever route is more available to you in the moment. Both open the same create-site modal.
Steps inside the create flow
- Start the flow via Quick Actions or Site Manager (above).
- If the account has available site capacity, the create-site modal opens directly. If capacity is exhausted, you will be prompted to add capacity instead — handle that path through How to Add a Subscription or Site Capacity, then return here.
- In the modal, enter the Domain. This is the final production domain. The platform uses it for live-environment provisioning, so accuracy matters.
- Enter the Business Name. This seeds downstream identity surfaces.
- Review both fields carefully. Typos in the domain are the most common cause of having to recreate the site.
- Click Create Site.
- Wait for SGEN to complete provisioning. The platform creates the site record, attaches it to your subscription, and provisions both staging and live environments.
- On success, SGEN shows the message: "Tenant created successfully for site (domain)".
- SGEN redirects you back to Site Manager.
- Locate the new site card. Move directly into the next setup actions exposed there: Point Your Domain, View Staging Site, Log in to Stage, Manage Site Settings, Add Users.
What success looks like
Confirm all of the following after submission.
- Success message appears: "Tenant created successfully for site (domain)".
- You are returned to Site Manager.
- The new site card is visible.
- Staging and live environments are provisioned for that site.
- Setup actions for the site are available on the card or in related controls.
If any of these are missing after the success message, the creation may not have completed cleanly — refresh Site Manager and re-check; if still missing, treat as a failure and follow the recovery paths below.
What to do if it does not work
Use the structured response that matches the state you are in.
"You are prompted to add a subscription instead of creating the site"
The account does not have an active subscription, or has no remaining site capacity. Pause the create flow. Open How to Add a Subscription or Site Capacity, complete that, then return here.
"Site provisioning failed" message
Review the domain entry — was it valid, was it already in use? Re-attempt with the corrected domain. If the same failure persists on retry with a clean entry, contact support; do not loop on retries.
"The site was created, but live is not ready"
This is not a failure. Site creation provisions both environments; live readiness depends on DNS propagation and certificate provisioning, which take additional time. Continue setup in staging and complete the domain step. Live will become ready once DNS and certificate state are good.
| State you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription / capacity prompt | No subscription or no available capacity | Add subscription or capacity · then return here |
| Site provisioning failed | Domain invalid or already in use · platform error | Review + retry once · contact support if persists |
| Site created · live not ready | Not a failure · DNS + cert pending | Continue setup in staging · wait for live readiness |
Definition
Site creation in SGEN is the operation that provisions a new site against an active subscription. The operation creates the site record, attaches it to the subscription, consumes one unit of site capacity, provisions both staging and live environments, and returns the operator to Site Manager with the next setup actions surfaced.
The defining property is platform-managed. Operators do not provision servers, configure databases, or stand up infrastructure to create a site. The platform handles that as part of the create operation.
Purpose
The purpose of this guide is to make site creation a structured operation rather than a guessing exercise. Operators who follow this guide get a predictable result; operators who improvise without it sometimes recreate the site after typing the wrong domain or hit "subscription required" prompts mid-flow without a clear next step.
Scope
This page covers site creation at the how-to-guide level — the procedure rather than the platform internals.
The page covers:
- Preconditions before starting.
- The two entry routes into the create flow.
- The in-flow steps and field semantics.
- Success criteria and recovery paths.
The page does not cover:
- Per-site post-create setup — open How to Complete Site Setup in SGEN.
- Domain pointing — open How to Point Your Domain in SGEN.
- Subscription and capacity management — open Billing and Site Capacity.
- Per-release behavior change — open What's New or Changelog.
Examples
Example 1 — A clean first-site creation
A new account holder confirms preconditions (active subscription, capacity available, real domain ready, business name ready), opens Quick Actions, clicks Create New Site, fills the modal, clicks Create Site, sees the success message, lands in Site Manager, and moves to How to Complete Site Setup. Total elapsed: under five minutes. No retries needed.
Example 2 — A capacity prompt during the flow
The operator clicks Create New Site and gets the subscription/capacity prompt instead of the create modal. They pause, open How to Add a Subscription or Site Capacity, complete that, return to Quick Actions, click Create New Site again — this time the modal opens. They proceed normally.
Example 3 — A typo in the domain
The operator submits with exmaple.com instead of example.com. Submission succeeds (the platform does not validate spelling). The operator notices the typo in Site Manager and decides to recreate. They cannot rename the domain on the existing site without support; they archive the typo'd site, return to Quick Actions, create a clean one. The lesson — review the domain before submit — is captured.
Example 4 — A "site provisioning failed" retry
The operator submits and gets "Site provisioning failed". They check the domain — it is valid. They retry once. The retry succeeds. They proceed to Site Manager. The first failure was a transient platform error; the structured retry-once recovery worked.
Example 5 — Live not ready after creation
The operator finishes creation and opens the live URL — connection error. They check Site Settings and see DNS propagation in progress. They wait the recommended window, retry, and live resolves. The operating rule "live readiness depends on DNS + certificate" was the explanation; nothing in the create flow failed.
Example 6 — Agency creating multiple sites in succession
An agency principal creates three client sites in one session. Each create flow takes about five minutes; the principal pauses between to confirm each landed cleanly in Site Manager before starting the next. Total elapsed: about 20 minutes for three sites.
Documentation guidance
This page is the create-a-new-site procedure. Use it before each site creation to confirm preconditions, during the flow to verify you are at the right step, and after to check the success criteria.
For the next-step setup work after creation, open How to Complete Site Setup in SGEN. For domain pointing, open How to Point Your Domain in SGEN. For subscription management, open How to Add a Subscription or Site Capacity in SGEN.
Reading order
If this is your first site, read Getting Started with SG-Dashboard first; it routes you here when the recommended sequence reaches the create-site step.
Related reading
- Getting Started with SG-Dashboard — orientation.
- How to Complete Site Setup — next step after creation.
- How to Add a Subscription or Site Capacity — for capacity prompts.
- Billing and Site Capacity — billing model.
- How to Point Your Domain — toward live readiness.
- SG-Dashboard Overview — full account-tier Reference.
- Environments and Site States — staging-vs-live model.
Vocabulary cross-reference
- Site creation — the SG-Dashboard operation that provisions a new SGEN site.
- Tenant — the platform-internal name for a provisioned site; the success message uses this term.
- Site capacity — the count of sites a subscription provisions; one unit is consumed per site created.
- Subscription — the billing tier that provides site capacity; site creation requires an active subscription with available capacity.
- Domain (final production) — the customer-facing URL the site will serve at; entered at create time.
- Business Name — the legal or operating identity the platform attaches to the site at creation.
- Quick Actions — the dashboard card hosting the Create New Site button (Route 1).
- Site Manager + Add Site — the per-site list surface with an Add Site control (Route 2).
- Create-site modal — the form that captures Domain and Business Name.
- Provisioning — the platform-side work of creating the site record and standing up environments.
- Staging environment — the internal-review environment provisioned at create time.
- Live environment — the customer-facing environment provisioned at create time; reaches "ready" after DNS + certificate.
- Live readiness — the state indicating the live URL is serving; depends on DNS + certificate.
- DNS propagation — the time it takes for a domain change to reach DNS resolvers worldwide.
- Certificate provisioning — the platform's issuance of an SSL certificate for the live domain.
- Site Manager card — the per-site UI element holding next-step setup actions after creation.
- Setup actions — the controls on the Site Manager card (Point Your Domain · View Staging · Login to Stage · Manage Site Settings · Add Users).
- Capacity prompt — the alternative flow that appears when no site capacity is available; routes to subscription management.
- Provisioning failure — the structured failure state on submit; calls for retry-once then escalate.
- Retry-once recovery — the structured discipline of retrying a failed provisioning exactly once before contacting support.
- Typo recovery — the manual recovery path when a wrong domain was submitted; archive the typo'd site, create a clean one.
Where to find it
Open your SG-Admin and navigate via the sidebar group that owns this surface. For platform-level reference (this page), the entry point is the SGEN documentation index at docs.sgen.com. For the operator-facing configuration screen, the entry point is the corresponding SG-Admin module page linked in Related features above.