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Quick Start Guide: Setting Up Your Public Site

An intro to theme config, pages, menus, and blocks
Written by Sharlene Kowk
Updated 1 week ago

Overview
Selecting and Activating your theme
Theme configuration
Pages
Menu
Blocks

Overview

Quick Start Guide: Setting Up Your Public Site

Every Choir Genius site includes one public site theme at no extra charge. Your public site is a place where anyone can learn about your group, see upcoming events, buy tickets, or get in touch.

This guide walks you through how to enable and customize your public site.

Enable Your Public Site

To get started, head to:

Admin > Public Site

From here, you’ll choose your theme and access all the tools to manage your public site content and layout.

Want to Use Your Own Domain Name?

By default, your site lives at a subdomain like yourgroup.choirgenius.com. If you'd like to use your own custom domain (like www.yourchoir.com), we can help!

Here's what you’ll need:

  • Purchase your domain name from a registrar like GoDaddy or EasyDNS.

  • Contact support to connect it—we’ll take care of the hosting.

Selecting and Activating Your Theme

In the Basic Settings area, you can:

  • Enable your theme

  • Name your group site (this name will appear in various places across your public site)

  • Control public site visibility:

    • Turn the site on or off

    • Use construction mode to preview your site while hiding it from the public

Currently, one theme is available. Once you select it and save, more customization options will appear under new tabs in Basic Settings and on the Admin > Public Site page.

🎯 Don’t forget to click Save after making changes!

Theme Configuration

Once your theme is active, go to the Theme Configuration tab to start customizing.

Here you can:

  • Upload your logo (landscape logos work best)

  • Upload a banner image (should be high-quality and landscape-oriented)

    • For best results: use an image with 90 dpi resolution for a good balance of clarity and fast loading

  • Add social media links to your Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or other accounts—they’ll display as icons on your site

  • Choose your colours:

    • Accent colour: used for links, headings, and highlights

    • Action button colour: used for buttons like "Buy Tickets"

    • You can use a preset colour or enter a custom colour code

🎨 Choosing colours that match your group’s branding will help your site look polished and professional.

Creating and Managing Pages

Your public site starts with one page called About—a great place to introduce your group. You can add as many pages as you’d like!

Go to:
Admin Settings & Tools > Public Site > Pages
Then click Add page in the top right.

When you create a page:

  • It’s automatically added to the main menu

  • You can drag and drop menu items to rearrange them

  • You can create sub-menus by dragging pages under others

Want a page to appear on your homepage?
In the Pages list, mark the page as Promoted under the “Front page” column.

Useful Use-case!

Create a "Contact Us" Page

It’s a good idea to include a way for visitors to reach you!

Here’s how:

  1. Create a Form that is set to be visible to the public

  2. Include fields like:

    • Name

    • Email

    • Topic (with options like "Bookings," "Joining," or "Other")

    • Message text box

  3. Don’t assign the form to any roles or subgroups—it’s meant for the public to use!

  4. Make sure an account set is notified when the form is filled out!

Once set up, the form will automatically appear as a page option on your public site. Make sure it's set to display in the menu!

Organizing Your Menu

Go to:
Admin > Public Site > Menu

You can:

  • Reorder menu items by dragging them up or down

  • Create sub-menus by dragging pages under other pages

  • Disable, edit, or delete menu items

  • Reset default items if needed

Some menu items are added automatically—for example:

  • The Store menu will appear if your store is public

  • The Events menu will appear if events are open to “All accounts”

🔧 To create a new menu item, just create a new page and check the “provide a menu” box before saving.

Using Blocks on Your Public Site

Blocks are smaller content sections that appear in special areas of your site (like a banner or sidebar).

There are two types:

  1. Built-in blocks like the Banner block (displays your banner image)

  2. Custom blocks you can create with text, HTML, or images

⚠️ Some blocks are only meant for logged-in members, like "My Events" or "My Tasks." These won’t show useful info to public visitors, so avoid using them on your public site.

You can read more about blocks here.

Need More Help?

You can explore more articles in the Public Site Help Section, or contact support if you have questions.

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