Import from a live site

Copy a website you own, hosted anywhere, into one of your Sherman Studio sites as pages you can edit. Nothing changes on your site until you've seen a summary and confirmed.

Start an import

Admins and Owners of a site can do this. Open the site in the studio, choose ⋯ → Import into this site…, then Import from a live site…, and enter the website's address (usually its home page). Or ask the assistant or your AI client: “import www.example.org into this site”.

The copy reads the site's public pages through its sitemap and links: pages, images, stylesheets, scripts and PDFs. Pages that share a header, footer and menu become a shared layout, links between pages point to the new copies, and every page is checked against the original. A page that doesn't come back exactly the same is kept as an exact copy instead, and the summary says which. Videos, maps and fonts on other services stay linked where they are.

Show that the website is yours

Before a full copy, show that you control the website in any one of these ways. The studio shows the exact values to use:

DNS record: add a TXT record to the domain.
A file on the site: put a small text file at /.well-known/opus26-site-capture.txt.
A tag in the home page: add a <meta> tag to the home page's <head>.

Sites already hosted with Sherman Studio that you manage count automatically. If you can't do any of these (for example your current host doesn't let you, or you've lost access), choose Request an ownership review (free): it opens a support ticket, our team checks by hand and replies there, and the request shows as under review in the meantime.

Until ownership is confirmed you can copy a preview of up to 10 pages to see how the import will look. A preview can't be imported.

robots.txt

The copy follows the website's robots.txt: pages it asks crawlers to skip aren't read, aren't charged and are listed in the summary. Owners who proved ownership with a DNS record, file or tag (or a studio site) can ask the assistant to include those pages too.

Redirects

Follow 301 redirects (recommended) is on by default: when a page on the website permanently redirects (301 or 308) to another page on the same website, that page is copied too, and the redirect is kept on your site with its status. Turn it off to keep only the redirects themselves. Temporary redirects (302, 307) are always followed. Redirects to other websites are never followed; they stay as redirects to the outside address and are listed in the summary.

What to check afterwards

Analytics and tracking codes are left out by default, kept as unpublished drafts and listed in the summary. Tick Keep analytics and tracking code before you start to keep them.
Forms look the same but no longer send anywhere. The summary flags each one so you can connect it to a flow on your site.
Pages that only appear after a browser runs their scripts may not copy fully, and files over 10 MB stay at their old address.

Summary and confirm

When the copy is ready you see what was found: the pages and which layout each one uses, exact copies, forms, analytics, redirects and anything left out. Choose what happens with pages your site already has (keep yours, replace them, or keep both), then confirm. Imports only add or update; nothing on your site is deleted.

Price

1 credit for each address the copy reads (a page, image, stylesheet, script, PDF, file or redirect, plus the site's robots.txt and sitemap), and 1 more for every further started MB a file downloads: a 2.5 MB file is 3 credits. Addresses robots.txt rules out aren't read or charged. For example, our own 26-page documentation site took 32 credits.

Before you start you see an estimate: at least the pages the site's sitemap lists. Images, styles and scripts add to it.
While it runs you see the credits used so far. They come from the site's billing owner, as the copy goes.
If the credits run out, the copy pauses. Choose Add credits, then Resume: it picks up where it stopped and nothing is read twice.
A preview costs the same per address. The ownership check, the estimate and importing the summary are free.

The copied site counts toward your site's file storage while it's kept (up to 7 days, or until you cancel). See Billing & credits.