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Hosted page branding and theme

Written by , Founder, AskVault · Reviewed by Aashiq
Last updated: · 4 min read

What the hosted page is

A standalone chat page lives at askvault.co/c/{slug} (or your custom domain). Useful when:

  • You want a shareable chat link without an embedded widget.
  • Your CMS doesn't support iframe-embedded widgets.
  • You're running a campaign and want a dedicated landing page.
  • You're rolling out the chat experience before adding it to your main site.

Same bot, same knowledge, same skills. Different surface.

Where to configure

Three settings panels:

  1. Branding. Logo, accent color, dark-mode behavior.
  2. Welcome. First-load greeting plus suggested chips.
  3. Theme. Layout style, footer links, CSS overrides.

All under Deploy Hub > Hosted Page.

Branding

Inherits from your workspace by default. Override per hosted page:

  • Logo. Top-left of the chat page. Recommended 256 to 512 pixels, transparent background, square aspect.
  • Page title. Browser tab text. Default: workspace name.
  • Favicon. 32 by 32 pixels.
  • Accent color. Hex string. Drives buttons and bot message background.
  • Background. Solid color or subtle gradient. White (light theme) or near-black (dark theme).

About 80% of teams stick with the default which inherits brand DNA automatically.

Welcome message and chips

The first thing visitors see:

  • Welcome message. Greeting (under 500 characters).
  • Suggested chips. Up to 4 clickable starter prompts.
  • Hero image (optional). Small illustration or photo at the top.

Most teams skip the hero image; reduces visual noise. Chips drive most engagement.

Layout styles

Three preset layouts:

Conversational (default). Single column. Welcome on top, chat input on bottom. Mobile-first design.

Sidebar. Two columns. Sidebar with categories or quick-links; main area for chat. Better for desktop knowledge bases.

Minimal. No header, no footer. Pure chat. Useful when embedded in a containing app.

Pick under Deploy Hub > Hosted Page > Layout.

Add up to 5 footer links:

  • Privacy Policy.
  • Terms of Service.
  • Back to main site.
  • Contact us.
  • Custom link.

Each link opens in a new tab. Useful for compliance (visible privacy link) and navigation back to your main site.

CSS overrides (Enterprise)

For deep customization beyond dashboard knobs:

  1. Open Deploy Hub > Hosted Page > CSS Override.
  2. Paste custom CSS.
  3. Preview live.
  4. Save.

Common overrides:

  • Custom fonts (loaded from Google Fonts or your CDN).
  • Custom button styles.
  • Border radius adjustments.
  • Spacing tweaks.

Available on Enterprise. The CSS is scoped to the hosted page so it doesn't affect the widget or dashboard.

Mobile responsiveness

Built-in:

  • Auto-adjusts to viewport down to 320 pixels wide.
  • Touch-friendly hit targets (44 pixels min).
  • Mobile keyboard handling (input scrolls into view, not covered).
  • iOS safe-area-inset support for notched devices.

Test under different viewport sizes from Deploy Hub > Hosted Page > Preview > Mobile.

Dark mode

Three modes:

  • Auto. Follows visitor's OS preference.
  • Always light.
  • Always dark.

Most teams default to auto. Brand-strict teams pick one.

Identity-verified branding

For authenticated visitors (via identity verification):

  • Personalized welcome: "Welcome back, Alice!"
  • Plan-specific theming. Enterprise visitors see a slightly different theme.
  • Account-aware suggested chips based on the visitor's recent activity.

Configure under Hosted Page > Personalization.

Audience-aware hosted pages

For workspaces using audience tags:

  • Public hosted page shows public content only.
  • Logged-in customer portal shows their tier-specific content.
  • Internal support page shows internal content only.

Same workspace, different audience scopes per hosted page.

Multiple hosted pages per workspace

For teams running campaign-specific or brand-specific pages:

  1. Deploy Hub > Hosted Page > Create New.
  2. Each page gets its own slug, branding, welcome.
  3. Up to 10 hosted pages on Business; unlimited on Enterprise.

Useful for:

  • A/B testing welcome variants.
  • Multi-brand operators (one workspace, multiple sub-brands).
  • Campaign landing pages (e.g., a holiday-specific theme).

Embedding the hosted page

Three ways to point visitors at it:

  • Direct link. Marketing campaigns link to askvault.co/c/yourslug.
  • Custom domain. chat.yoursite.co. See custom domain setup.
  • Iframe embed. Drop the page inside an iframe on your own site:
<iframe src="https://chat.yoursite.co" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Most teams use direct link or custom domain. Iframe is for tight-integration cases.

Performance

The hosted page loads fast:

  • First Contentful Paint under 1 second on a typical connection.
  • Interactive within 2 seconds.
  • Bot response within 2 seconds of first message.

Powered by a global CDN. Latency varies by visitor location; global p95 typically under 300 ms.

SEO

Hosted pages are crawler-friendly:

  • Static HTML. No JS-required content.
  • Meta tags auto-generated from workspace name and description.
  • Open Graph and Twitter Card for social sharing.
  • Sitemap entry if you submit it to Google Search Console.

Most hosted pages aren't intended to rank; they're conversion surfaces. But the SEO posture is decent.

Analytics

Per hosted page:

  • Page views. How many visitors saw it.
  • Conversation starts. Visitors who sent a message.
  • Conversions. Lead captured, demo booked, escalated.
  • Bounce rate. % who left without interacting.

Visible under Analytics > Channel: Hosted Page.

API access

For programmatic config:

Terminal window
curl -X PATCH https://api.askvault.co/v1/hosted-pages/hp_xxx \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ak_xxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"welcome_message": "Welcome to the holiday sale!", "accent_color": "#FF6B35"}'

Useful for campaign automation (e.g., update the page weekly).

Planned features (on the roadmap)

Documented for accuracy:

  • Visual layout editor. Today, three preset layouts plus CSS override. Drag-and-drop visual editor planned.
  • Multi-language hosted pages. Today, single language. Native multi-language with URL-based routing planned.
  • Embedded forms. Today, chat only. Inline contact forms or surveys planned.
  • A/B testing. Today, manual via multiple pages. Native A/B planned.

Limits

  • Hosted pages per workspace. 1 (Free, Starter), 3 (Growth), 10 (Business), unlimited (Enterprise).
  • CSS override. 20 KB max (Enterprise feature).
  • Hosted page assets size. Logo plus favicon under 100 KB combined.
  • Welcome message. 500 characters.

Common pitfalls

Logo blurry on retina displays. Source image too small. Upload at 2x size (e.g., 512 pixels for a 256-pixel logo).

Custom CSS breaks layout. Scope tightly. Test in preview before saving.

Mobile layout cuts off content. Welcome message too long. Trim under 300 characters for mobile.

Footer links go to broken URLs. Verify each link before publishing.

FAQ

Can I host the chat page on my own server?

For Enterprise customers, yes via static-site export. Standard plans use AskVault's hosting.

Does the hosted page work without JavaScript?

Partial. Initial HTML loads (visitor sees the welcome). Chat interaction requires JS.

Can I track hosted-page visitors in my analytics?

Yes. Add Google Analytics, Plausible, or other tracking ID under Hosted Page > Analytics.

Does the hosted page support PWA install?

Yes. The hosted page is installable as a Progressive Web App on mobile. Useful for customer-portal use cases.

Will the hosted page show up in Google search?

If you submit the URL to Google Search Console, yes. Most don't because they're conversion surfaces.

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