# Enabling Digital Experiences and site statuses

*Experience Cloud Consultant Study Guide · Administration, Setup, and Configuration · Last updated October 24, 2026 · https://www.certifyforce.com/study-guide/experience-cloud-consultant/administration-setup-and-configuration/enabling-digital-experiences-and-site-statuses*

Turning on Digital Experiences (one way, with a My Domain-based site domain), creating a site, the Preview, Active, Inactive and Archived statuses, why activating is not the same as publishing, and the basics of site URLs, custom domains and SEO.

- Certification: Salesforce Experience Cloud Consultant
- Exam section: Administration, Setup, and Configuration
- Study guide: https://www.certifyforce.com/study-guide/experience-cloud-consultant

**Official exam objective:**

> Describe how to enable and activate an Experience.

## What the exam expects

- Enable Digital Experiences as the first step, knowing it can't be disabled and which access settings to review afterwards.
- Create a site from a template and know what the wizard sets up: the URL path, Preview status, default login pages and your own profile as a member.
- Move a site between Preview, Active, Inactive and Archived, and say what each status allows for members, admins, welcome emails and the 100-site limit.
- Share a Preview site with testers without sending welcome emails.
- Tell activation from publishing for Aura and LWR sites versus Salesforce Tabs + Visualforce sites, and plan a site URL change.
- Describe what enhanced domains and custom domains can and can't do for site URLs, and the basic steps that make public pages indexable.

Key terms: **Digital Experiences**, the org setting that enables sites; **Preview**, never yet activated; **Inactive**, deactivated but open to admins; **Archived**, offline and outside the limit; **custom URL**, a custom domain plus path that serves a site.

## Key facts

| Fact | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Enable Digital Experiences | First step for any site; needs Customize Application; can't be disabled | [Enable Digital Experiences](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?language=en_US&id=sf.networks_enable.htm&type=5) |
| Creating a site | Create and Set Up Experiences and View Setup and Configuration; starts in Preview | [Create a Site](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?language=en_US&id=sf.networks_creating.htm&type=5) |
| Site limit | 100 per org; Preview, Active and Inactive count; Archived don't | [Create a Site](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?language=en_US&id=sf.networks_creating.htm&type=5), [Site Statuses](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=networks_status.htm&language=en_US&type=5) |
| Archiving | Inactive sites only; Preview sites must be activated then deactivated first | [Site Statuses](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=networks_status.htm&language=en_US&type=5) |
| Preview welcome emails | None, even if Send welcome email is selected | [Site Statuses](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=networks_status.htm&language=en_US&type=5) |
| URL change | Allowed after activation; users aren't redirected | [Create a Site](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?language=en_US&id=sf.networks_creating.htm&type=5) |
| Aura/LWR activation | Sends welcome emails; required for SEO; publishing makes the URL live | [Activate Your Site](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?language=en_US&id=networks_publish.htm&type=0) |
| Custom domain | Salesforce CDN recommended; it can't serve a registrable domain | [Custom Domain Prerequisites](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?language=en_US&id=platform.domain_mgmt_prereqs.htm&type=5) |
| SEO orgs | Production only; not sandbox, Developer Edition or trial | [SEO for Experience Builder Sites](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?language=en_US&id=experience.networks_seo.htm&type=5) |

## Check yourself

- Why should a team explore Experience Cloud templates in a sandbox before enabling Digital Experiences in production?
- When does an admin choose Inactive rather than Archived for a temporary outage?
- Which statuses count against the 100-site limit?
- Why must members be told before a site URL change?

## Sources

- [Experience Cloud Site Statuses](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=networks_status.htm&language=en_US&type=5)
- [Enable Digital Experiences](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?language=en_US&id=sf.networks_enable.htm&type=5)
- [Create an Experience Cloud Site](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?language=en_US&id=sf.networks_creating.htm&type=5)
- [Activate Your Site](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?language=en_US&id=networks_publish.htm&type=0)
- [Publish Your Experience Builder Site Customizations](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=experience.community_designer_publish.htm&language=en_US&type=5)
- [Enhanced Domains](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.domain_name_enhanced.htm&language=en_US&type=5)
- [Custom Domain Prerequisites](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?language=en_US&id=platform.domain_mgmt_prereqs.htm&type=5)
- [Add a Custom URL](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?language=en_US&id=platform.custom_url_add.htm&type=5)
- [SEO for Experience Builder Sites](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?language=en_US&id=experience.networks_seo.htm&type=5)
- [Set Up Your Experience Builder Site for SEO](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=experience.networks_seo_setup.htm&language=en_US&type=5)
- [SEO Page Properties in Experience Builder](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=experience.networks_seo_tags.htm&language=en_US&type=5)

## About the full unit

The "Core concepts", "Exam traps" and "Worked scenario" sections of this unit, its 8 linked practice questions, and unlimited timed mock exams are included with the Experience Cloud Consultant pack (USD $19): https://www.certifyforce.com/practice-exams