# What can I edit on my homepage?
Looking at your homepage and wondering what you can change yourself versus what requires a support ticket? This guide is a region-by-region map.
💡 Best-Practice Adoption Tip — Design Agent Availability: The Edlio Design Agent is available for homepage edits as Early Access—contact [email protected] for details or access. If Design Agent is active on your CMS dashboard, you can request homepage visual updates conversationally without opening a support ticket! You can point directly at homepage elements using the Target tool, attach design reference images, and select suggested color swatches. For standard sites without the Design Agent, theme-baked color, logo, and section order changes continue to be fulfilled via an Eddy support ticket.
Self-Serve vs. Theme-Baked Changes: Every school website has a unique theme design. Some elements (such as site logo, brand colors, layout order, and embedded Instagram feeds) are theme-baked into your site's template and traditionally require an Eddy ticket for Technical Support (unless using the Design Agent on Early Access sites). Other elements (such as rotating Shuffles, Featured Videos, Spotlight Messages, News, Events, and Links) are self-serve in your CMS dashboard. Special features like "At a Glance" callouts or statistics may be self-serve via Links or Spotlight Messages on some designs, while theme-baked on others—always check your dashboard first!
📍 Jump to a homepage region:
• Quick Reference Table
• A. Header (Logo & Top Bar) | B. Site Navigation Menu
• C. Hero Section (Shuffles & Featured Video) | D. Spotlight Messages
• E. News Block | F. Events Block | G. Social Media
• J. Footer (Address, Logo & Links) | Tricky Cases & FAQs
Video: Anatomy of a Website Homepage
📺 The 8 core building blocks of an Edlio homepage: Watch the 40-second animated overview above, or jump directly to the setup guides: 1. Spotlights | 2. Infographics | 3. News | 4. Quicklinks | 5. Calendar | 6. Videos | 7. Photo Shuffles | 8. Social Media Widgets.
Your homepage is made up of several regions. Some are self-serve — you can edit them from your CMS admin. Some are theme-baked — they're part of your site's design and only Edlio Support (or the Design Agent on Early Access sites) can change them. The diagram below shows the most common layout; your site may look different, but the regions are usually the same.
Schematic of a typical Edlio homepage. Your site may look different — these are the most common regions.
Quick reference: what can you edit?
What you want to change | CMS Feature | Where to manage it |
Homepage rotating photos / banners | Hero Shuffle (Self-serve) | Media → Shuffles |
Mission statement, Principal's welcome, About text | Spotlight Messages (Self-serve) | Page Management → Spotlight Messages |
Homepage popup alert banner (e.g., "Apply Now", "Registration Open", urgent alerts) | Homepage Alert (Self-serve) | Announce → News (create a news story, then promote to Homepage Popup Alert with a custom CTA button; set expiry date as far into the future as you want for ongoing banners). See Set up Homepage Alert. |
Call-to-action floating button or email signup form | Homepage Widgets (Self-serve) | Page Management → Homepage Widgets |
Google Translate or language dropdown | Theme Integration (Support-configured) | Edlio Technical Support (open a ticket via Eddy) |
Navigation bar dropdown links | Site Navigation (Self-serve) | Page Management → Site Navigation |
Homepage Stat Badges / Metrics (e.g., "At a Glance" metrics, graduation rates, attendance, student-teacher ratio) | Theme Infographics / Badges or Links | Depends on your website design! Check your CMS dashboard first: many schools can edit their "At a Glance" numbers directly using Links (under Page Management → Links in a designated topic) or via a Spotlight Message. If your stat numbers do not appear in Links or Spotlight Messages, they are theme-baked directly into your template graphic assets—open an Eddy ticket and Technical Support will update them for you. |
Region | What you'll see | Can you edit it yourself? |
A. Header — Logo | School logo (top-left) | ❌ Ticket (or Design Agent on Early Access sites) — theme asset |
A. Header — Top Bar Links | Small links/icons above the main menu (e.g., "Quicklinks") | ✅ Usually self-serve — Links Feature |
B. Site Navigation | Main horizontal menu (About, Athletics, Contact, etc.) | ✅ Self-serve |
C. Hero Media | Large rotating image area, OR Featured Video | ✅ Self-serve — Media → Shuffle / Featured Video |
D. Spotlight Messages | Content sections (Mission, About-style paragraphs with optional video) | ✅ Self-serve — Spotlight Messages |
E. News block | "Recent News" cards | ✅ Self-serve — News & Alerts |
F. Events block | "Upcoming Events" list with dates | ✅ Self-serve — Calendars |
G. Social media area | Facebook/Twitter/Instagram feeds or icon row | 🔵 Depends — see section below |
H. Homepage Video | Video beyond the Hero — could be standalone or embedded in a Spotlight Message | ✅ Self-serve — Media → Featured Video OR Spotlight Messages |
I. Homepage Widgets | Floating button or signup form overlaid on the homepage (client-led add-on) | ✅ Self-serve — Button widget & Form widget |
J. Footer — Address | School address block in the footer | ✅ Self-serve — Settings → Contact → Address |
J. Footer — Useful Links / Helpful Resources | Link rows in the footer (e.g., "Events", "Directions") | ✅ Self-serve — Links area |
J. Footer — Social bar | Row of social icons in the footer | 🔵 Depends — see section below |
K. Edlio bar | "Powered by Edlio" + language selector + login | ❌ Theme-managed by Edlio (not editable) |
General Theme | Fonts & colors (anywhere) | ❌ Ticket (or Design Agent on Early Access sites) |
General Theme | Background colors, section spacing, layout structure | ❌ Ticket (or Design Agent on Early Access sites) |
A. Header — logo and top bar
The header is the top strip of your homepage. It contains two things, edited in different ways:
School logo (left side): This is a theme asset baked into your site design. The same logo file is used in your footer — there is only one logo image, used in two places. On standard sites, you cannot edit it from the admin panel directly (submit an Eddy ticket with your new file, or use Design Agent if active on your site). See Update your site logo and header image.
Header Links (the small links/icons above the main menu — sometimes labeled "Header Links", "Social Media Links" or "Quicklinks"): These are usually self-serve from your admin. See Links overview. If they are not found in your dashboard under Page Management → Links, open a ticket and our team will help you.
B. Site Navigation
The main horizontal menu (About Us, Academics, Athletics, Parents, etc.) is fully self-serve. You can add, rename, reorder, hide, or remove items, and create drop-down sub-menus.
C. Hero section (Shuffle & Featured Video)
The large rotating image area at the top of your homepage is called the Hero section. It can show either a Shuffle (rotating images with optional captions) or a Featured Video. Both are self-serve.
D. Spotlight Messages (Mission, About, content sections)
The text sections on your homepage with headings like "Our Mission", "About Us", "Welcome from the Principal" are Spotlight Messages — a self-serve content tool. Each Spotlight Message has a title, a body, an optional image or video, and an optional "Read more" link to a longer page.
E. News block
The "Recent News" cards on your homepage are populated by your News & Alerts entries. Self-serve — write a news story and it appears here automatically.
F. Events block
The "Upcoming Events" list pulls from your Calendars. Self-serve — add events to your calendar and they appear here.
G. Social media
Social media appears on Edlio homepages in three ways:
Social icon row: Clickable icons in the header or footer (often managed via Links or theme).
Instagram and Social feeds: Live grid feeds are theme-baked into your template and require a support ticket (or Design Agent on Early Access sites) to configure.
Site Management → Settings → Social Media: Push news stories automatically out to social channels.
H. Homepage Video (beyond the Hero section)
If your homepage has a video below the Hero section, it is completely self-serve via Spotlight Messages or Media → Featured Video. See Make a video featured.
I. Homepage Widgets
Floating button and slide-up form overlays are self-serve under Page Management → Homepage Widgets. See Homepage Widgets overview.
J. Footer (logo, address, links, social bar)
Footer logo: Theme asset (same as header logo).
Footer address, phone, fax: Self-serve under Settings → Contact.
Useful Links / Helpful Resources: Self-serve under Site Management → Links.
Full footer layout redesign: Handled via support ticket or Design Agent.
Fonts, colors, and layout structure
On standard sites, site fonts, brand colors, and section layout orders are theme-locked and require an Eddy ticket. If your school has Early Access to the Design Agent, you can adjust these visual elements interactively. See Fonts, colors, and visual customization.
Still not sure?
If you've checked the regions above and still can't tell whether something is self-serve or theme-baked:
Check your CMS admin first: Check Shuffles, Spotlight Messages, News & Alerts, and Links. Over 80% of routine homepage updates live in these four areas!
If you have Design Agent: Open Design Agent to adjust visual styles and colors directly.
Open an Eddy ticket: If not found in your dashboard and you do not have Design Agent, submit a ticket via Eddy in the bottom right corner of your admin dashboard.
💡 Best-Practice Adoption Tip: Before submitting a ticket for homepage content updates, check Media → Shuffles, Spotlight Messages, and Page Management → Links. Over 80% of routine homepage updates (announcements, banners, phone numbers, and button links) are completely self-serve in these three areas!