To add or set up a new website on the Silktide platform, go to the main screen by clicking either Websites or the S logo at the top left of the screen. When on this account overview screen, there is a + New website button on the top right under the profile avatar icon.

Clicking this will take open the New website interface. If you are unable to see the New website button, this is due to having insufficient permissions.

When adding a site to Silktide, all of the settings are exposed on the left-hand side of the website creation screen, the choices are the same options as what can be seen when making adjustments to a website’s settings, though only the website settings are required before the testing can be started:

This is the only required section that needs to be set up, however, it’s worth reviewing all of the steps and making sure everything is set up as expected.

“Website settings” requires the homepage of the website to be inserted. This is going to be the starting point when the website is tested, so be sure that the URL is correct. Once the URL has been set, hit “Go” for the URL to be verified, if the URL requires HTTP authentication the login details will be requested after the verification. Additional options will be presented in order to set up the website in full:

The General options do the following:

The Schedule set how often the website will be retested automatically. The minimum that can be set within the Custom duration is every 5 days.

Once all options have been set as required, it’s important to remember to press the purple Save button and confirm the settings. If the optional settings aren’t required, be sure to click Start testing at the bottom of the left-hand menu to get the website’s first test started.

The following settings are optional, so long as the website settings have been set up, the website can be tested and the default settings will be used. If tweaks to additional settings are desired, then continue reading for optional settings that can be adjusted.

Permissions tell Silktide what each user or group is allowed to do on the website. There are account-wide settings that can be set on an individual group or user basis, however, the options when creating a website are specific to this website. Additional information regarding permissions can be found in the permissions article.

At the top-right corner of the list of users and groups, there is a search bar that can be used to filter the list down.

Each of the options that are displayed along the top of the list adds to the option that is to the left of it. For example, if “Can test” is enabled, then “Can see” and “Can make decisions” will automatically be enabled as well.

The options give permission so that:

Once users and groups have been given the appropriate permissions, clicking the Save button will confirm and apply the settings.

When the website testing takes place, it’s important to be able to only allow websites that conform to specific URL pathways. This can prevent areas of a website from being tested, and also allows specific pages to be tested first, to ensure they are tested within the account limits.

The 3 rules that can be adjusted to limit the scope of the tests are:

Which pages are tested can only be limited based on the URL at this stage, as we have no way of knowing the contents of the page until it’s already been tested and by that point, it’s already been added to the inventory.

Additional information regarding what we test can be found in the How to specify which pages to test support article.

If different areas of a website are managed by multiple teams or departments, it may be easier to split the website tests into those areas as well. Sections will allow each of the teams to focus on their own areas of the website, without their improvements being drowned out by the improvements of the other teams.

New sections can be added by selecting the New section button, and settings similar to creating a new website will be present. A major difference between sections and websites is that because sections contain pages that will be being downloaded and added to the main website inventory, they can be filtered using more advanced options, such as HTML tags, page titles, languages, etc.

Additional information regarding sections can be found in the Sections support article.

Campaigns can be added to a website, so it’s possible to see how relevant keywords perform in different locations.

Select the Add campaign button and give the campaign a name so that it can easily be identified. Input the relevant keywords and select which locations should be tested against.

Additional information regarding setting up search campaigns can be found in the How to define your search campaigns support article.

Monitoring can be set up to alert users when the website cannot be accessed.

Multiple settings can be adjusted when creating a new monitor:

Once the options have been set, clicking the save button will confirm these changes.

Additional information regarding the Uptime monitors can be found in the How to configure uptime monitors support article.

Policies allow custom checks that are able to test your website for anything you want to test for. There are pre-made policies that are ready to use, policies can also be adjusted as needed.

Policies that already exist on the account can be seen in the table, some have which are enabled by default. To add these policies on the newly created website tick the relevant checkboxes to the left of the policy. Don’t forget to hit Save once the policies have been updated.

For more information on creating custom policies see the How to create your own policies support article.

Experiences allow elements of the website to be tested based on the location of the device, the type of device, and the type of connection that the device is using.

To create a new experience, click on the New page button.

The details required to create an experience are:

Select Add experience to start adding the Location, Device, and Bandwidth details.

After any relevant experiences have been created and added to the page, press the Save button to confirm the details.

The advanced settings should only be adjusted if you know what you’re doing and are looking to fix a specific problem.

The different options that can be adjusted are:

Once the settings have been adjusted to the requirements of the website, click the Save button to confirm the choices. If the settings have been adjusted as required, be sure to click Start testing at the bottom of the left-hand menu to get the website’s first test started.