Intro Weebly Free Website Examples
With More than 40M sites under its belt, Weebly is one of the world’s hottest web builders on the market. Unlike particular competitors, they seem less interested in flashy advertising campaigns than enhancing their platform’s technologies. Weebly Free Website Examples
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This all sounds pretty good on paper, right? Well let’s find out how it looks in practice. In this review, we will look at their drag and drop editor and see if it is any good for creating a web site, site or online store.
What Is Weebly?
On The wide spectrum of site building alternatives, Weebly lives on the end that’s all-inclusive and provides all you want to begin and develop your website. It’s in contrast to options where you purchase, install, and handle all the”bits” of your site separately.
It is Like trading off a few control for greater convenience.
Utilizing Weebly is sort of like renting and customizing an apartment in a nice development instead of getting and owning your own residence. You are still in control of decoration, cleaning, and everything living-wise — but you leave the construction, plumbing, safety, and infrastructure into the house owner. That point is key because there’s typically a direct tradeoff between convenience and control.
All The design and functionality that are included with Weebly work seamlessly together as a platform. That is what allows them to own drag and drop layout, layout, and content.
As Much as rivalry, Weebly competes directly with comprehensive website builders such as Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress.com.
Site Builders as a team compete with choices like WordPress.org (which offers the totally free software to build a site that you own & control — see my WordPress setup guide here) all the way to choices like typing actual HTML code into a text document. Make sense? Awesome, let’s dive into the Weebly review.
One Other fast aside — a disclosure — I get referral fees from all of the companies mentioned in this post. My remarks & research derive from my experiences as either a paying client or consultant to a paying client.
Weebly’s Business Travels.
What Makes Weebly So Easy to Use?
Good question. First thing you’ll notice Is how nicely the drag and drop interface was created. Just choose the element you need on the left, and place it on your layout on the rightside.
You might find that elements snap into place And arrange themselves perfectly on the page. Other solutions, such as Wix, forego the grid , so it is very possible to end up with overlapping components. With Weebly, no probability of that occurring.
Working with text can also be a breeze in Weebly. You simply click what you would like to edit and type your words in the box. Some other solutions use”entry masks” which are somewhat more abstract and not necessarily easy to utilize.
The navigation system also works miracles. It’s possible to dig deep into menus and submenus. Weebly handles them just like a charm.
Ultimately, if you get stuck everywhere, the Weebly knowledge base may answer a lot of questions through tutorials that are clear and step by step guides. Failing that, the support is exceptional, whether by email, chat, or telephone. Weebly Free Website Examples
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So are there Any drawbacks? This is different. If you want to have more freedom with your designs, then you might feel frustrated by the rigid grid system. You should go for Wix. This competitor also has an automated solution (Wix ADI) that can build the web site for you by itself. You can possibly shave off a couple of minutes of your site building time.
There are also two things we’d love to see. First is a global undo button. It is possible to undo everything you type in text boxes, but it would be wonderful to erase mistakes when you move or add components. Secondly, Weebly doesn’t have an overall media database which keeps all of your pictures. You’re going to need to re-upload pictures for every element that needs them.
Which Weebly Pricing Program is Ideal for Me?
We’d say the main question to ask is. Do I wish to sell online? Quite simply, if you do, we recommend you go for Weebly Business.
For other kinds of websites, Weebly Starter Is usually enough. It will offer all you need for displaying info about your services, portfolio or business details. However, the Starter plan misses out on a few Pro attributes.
· Fancy header with slideshow or movie background.
· Integrated video / audio player
· Password-protected pages
· Membership module — to let users register and get private sections of the Site
If any of those Above are must-haves for your site, you’ll need to upgrade to Weebly Pro. And for a more complete breakdown, please consult with our full Weebly pricing comparison page.
SEO. How Can My Weebly Website Rank On Google?
Let us get one thing out of the way . if You are an advanced SEO specialist who absolutely must rank #1 on search engines for a very competitive keyword, you might have a tough time with Weebly. It is not impossible, but there are limits.
· Your headings are limited to H2. There is a free program which lets you insert key words from h1 to h6, however, it messes a bit with your formatting. We wonder why Weebly does not incorporate it into their system.
· Particular pages (categories and product pages) include a compulsory string for your URL. You get things like www.yoursite.com/store/p1/my-product/yellow. Not a massive issue unless your website is not in English. Same with the blog articles, they’ll have’/blog/’ in the URL structure, which can’t be changed.
· Adding structured data ( Rich Snippets) is done via source code. But you are on your own as Weebly does not help.
On the plus side, Weebly does things actually Well when it comes to.
· URL, Title tags & meta-descriptions. You can customize them, along as Alt texts for images. This is especially important to rank your images. Weebly Free Website Examples
· 301 redirects. You can command them to avoid broken links when a page URL has been changed. Google deeply dislikes 404 pages.
· Image optimization. Weebly does a great job at compressing the pictures you upload. This enhances speed, always a boon for SEO.
Still a bit Confused about SEO? Don’t forget that we’ve got a full guide on the topic here.
Security & Backups. How Safe and Secure is a Weebly Site?
As far as we Know, really safe. The business takes safety very seriously. They market strong passwords, and offer SSL encryption on all plans. The free tier will run on https that offers an extra layer of safety. Especially crucial for onsite personal data exchange (e.g. credit card or email address).
Unfortunately, we wish Weebly offered more in the way of backup and restore systems. You’ve got to look after it manually by saving your website for a .zip file frequently. And there’s no restore function if disaster strikes. Wix, for example, tracks new adjustments and lets you jump back in time to a previous version of your website.
Weebly Design Options and Templates. Making it Look Great
We have a Detailed article about Weebly’s templates where you can read the main pros and cons. But, we want to provide you a quick overview of the key features here.
The First thing to note is that Weebly doesn’t have a ton of template designs (approximately 50), but you should easily be able to find one you like. There are various categories out there. Online Store, Business, Portfolio, Personal, Event and Blog.
They mechanically look great on each Apparatus (by being reactive ), and they may be adapted to match your own personal requirements, using the templates as a foundation. No need for you to receive a web design diploma!
Of course, if You’re all about design, and absolutely need to have the ability to personalize it down to the last pixel, so you need to check out Wix in addition. Their template choice is unmatched and they have a much more elastic editor…
… unless you’re confident using coding. This Is since Weebly, contrary to other builders, provides you access to the template source code.
Want to dig under the hood and modify the CSS and HTML? You’ll have free reign here, because you can see in the picture above.
Ecommerce. Is a Weebly Online Store Worth it?
We would say yes, with a caveat. It’s great to Sell digital and physical products for small and medium-sized shops, but maybe not for big ones. Although you can use the import and export function to handle many items, you might find Weebly lacking in features for massive stores.
For Example, we don’t like this there Are not any offline payment choices (only credit card, PayPal, etc). At $30 CAD per month it is also rather expensive. Wix’s Online Store is just $20 US for instance (but also has less features). Weebly Free Website Examples
Ultimately, it’s worth noting that although You’re able to create a shop using the Starter and Pro program, upgrading to Business and greater makes more sense. You’ll get the automatic delivery and sales tax calculator, which is extremely helpful for serious store owners. Furthermore, you won’t need to pay an additional transaction fee of 3 percent.
Still confused About the various online store plans? You can discover detailed information in our Weebly Online Shop review.
Program Store. Can I Boost My Website with Add-Ons?
You bet! There are no less than 300 programs in A number of classes such as eCommerce, Communication, Marketing, Social, or Site Tools. Many are free, some are paid. Some are constructed by Weebly, some by third party developers. For the latter, there’s always an (unlikely) chance that it may shut down one day. Additionally a shame the programs made by Weebly are quite restricted.
However, 1 thing all the apps have in Common is a super easy installation feature. One click and bam! All programs are tested and will work immediately on your website. We tried some cool ones such as a way to include tables, event calendars, and info bars to display specific info. Our only qualm is that the quality and quantity of programs is a marginally inferior those from the Wix App Store.
Advantages of Utilizing Weebly
Here’s What I found to be the pros of Weebly — not just in comparison with Squarespace and Wix or WordPress, but also as an overall online website solution.
Speed & Security
Weebly provides Hosting for all the websites which are constructed in their own platform. That may be good or bad, however in Weebly’s situation, it’s an expert. They have rapid load speeds. Their websites are optimized to their own hosting. They treat security against spam and hackers. With company plans, they even install and maintain SSL across your entire site. Here is my speed test.
There Are still speed and security risks, but it’s an advantage for many website owners to have someone else care for speed, security, backups, etc.. The price tag is bundled with expert and free accounts, so it’s a solid value-add.
Onboarding & Education
Whenever You begin any piece of software — no matter how instinctive — there is that moment where you think”okay, what do I do now?” That process is called onboarding, and it’s also incredibly hard to execute well.
The Software maker does not wish to be bothersome, but they also wish to help. I love how Weebly assembles in strong onboarding and education not just via email drip sequence but also via little info buttons constructed with their platform.
After You sign up, it’s simple to dive in. Weebly Free Website Examples
Website Building Process
One Advertised benefit of using an all-inclusive site builder is that you won’t have to write HTML or CSS code. You can just drag and drop elements. Everything you find in the builder is what you get on the website.
It’s Not always that simple. There’s a whole lot of nuances to”drag and drop.” Most of us really mean”I wish to drag and click this component and transfer it to a general place where it’ll look great — you know, mechanically centered, etc.” Put simply, it’s like playing tee-ball instead of baseball…or bowling with gutter guards up. You want to do something, but also have a little bit of help.
For The most part, Weebly pulls this off. Their drag and drop actually functions. And, for the control freaks among us, they supply access to a custom CSS module, so which you can edit the template into exactly your choosing.
Customer Support
For Free of charge accounts, Weebly provides an email service alternative and also a well-done Knowledge Base. For paid accounts (even starter), they offer email, chat, AND telephone number. Response times for me were strong.
With An all-inclusive system, client service can troubleshoot and fix any issue. This is a massive benefit of site builder platforms in general, but especially using Weebly because they have phone support.
If You run your own site, you’ve got to work out just who will fix a problem prior to getting in contact with them. Together with Weebly, you merely get in touch with them.
Constructed Feature Set + Extensions
The Big advantage of building your own site on your own host is you don’t have to count on a platform’s attribute set. If you go the stage route, it is key to make sure they have all the features you want and need.
Weebly’s Feature set is strong. They have got all of the fundamentals — like website performance, contact forms, etc, but also the necessary advanced features like URL redirects and page-level custom code positioning.
Even Past the advanced necessities, Weebly also includes features like forums, subscription choices, integrated advertising options, file uploads, etc.. They also have eCommerce options, which I’ll cover individually below.
If You proceed the comprehensive site builder course, Weebly’s feature set should offer everything you will need for typical personal/business websites (though as we’ll see in the Cons section, you do need to be especially aware of innovative options).
Also — Weebly has plenty of built-in features, but it does not have everything. Platforms overcome it by allowing 3rd Party programs (believe the App Store or Shopify’s App Store).
With your Own WordPress site, adding functionality is as easy as installing a plugin. Together with Weebly — you can navigate their growing (though still somewhat restricted ) app center.
They Additionally compensate for lack of attributes with allowing custom JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. If you can copy and paste a code snippet (state, for A/B testing, site comments, running an auction, etc) then you’re good. Weebly Free Website Examples
Anybody who retails online
Why? Square is a payments processor. They’re enormous offline and want to be bigger in the on/offline arena. That is why they bought Weebly — and the future is really bright for Weebly’s ecommerce features.
If You are starting a website and plan on selling a couple of things here and there or in case you have an offline presence (ie, pop-up stores ) and you want to sell on the internet, the Weebly provides a ready-made solution with tightly integrated ecommerce characteristics that should only get better.
Product Investment & Company Structure
I have Been using website builders for 20 years since the Homestead.com days and have been closely paying attention to this industry for the past 5 decades. One overarching trend is that a firm’s structure drives product investment over the marketing group or the product team.
Even In a fast paced market, a organization’s construction and end targets will dictate how it behaves and what investments it gets. As I outlined in my Wix vs. Weebly vs. Squarespacestructure can differ tremendously among direct competitors.
For Decades, Weebly was an independently owned and operated company going for natural growth. But in 2018, they offered to Square — the huge player in payments processing. Weebly now operates as an independent subsidiary of Square.
On 1 hand, that might be a big downside. Acquisitions are notorious for ruining value and companies. However, this purchase has a Massive upside for one market segment —
Total Pricing
If You do not mind your site on a subdomain (ie, http. //yourwebsite.weebly.com) then Weeblyis free with no expiry. A fairly good deal — particularly for temporary sites.
Total Pricing is very aggressive not only compared to other comprehensive site buildersbut also with purchasing your own hosting. Their Starter plan starts around $8/mo when paid up front. And they don’t have the typical caps of other website builders. The Guru plan adds solid features and stays under $12/mo.
And Again — you will see that everything is bundled and unlimited. There are no caps on pages or storage space. And unlike competitions such as Wix, they eliminate all advertisements with the first paid grade.
Even Their small business pricing, while more expensive than doing the exact same thing on your own hosting, is much cheaper than comparable plans with direct competitors.
Compared To constructing your own site in your server and especially with other site builders, Weebly’s pricing is quite aggressive. Price is not everything, but I love how they structure it.
Cons + Complaints About Using Weebly
However, Of course, no Weebly review would be complete without looking at the drawbacks. Each bit of software will have complaints. Let’s look at 3 specific cons I discovered.
Content Management System
A Content management process is precisely what it sounds like. It is an interface that allows you to sort, filter, edit, and print different kinds of articles on your website. Weebly Free Website Examples
Weebly Kind of features that. It’s a Pages section that lists out all the pages on your site. It permits you to drag and drop the hierarchy and then click on to edit each. But it’s far from a efficient system.
There’s No method to add custom content forms (except within an individual page). If you’re planning a large site (like hundreds of pages), the articles contained in Weebly would require a personal system to maintain it all sorted and readily accessible.
This Disadvantage could be overcome, but I want content could be easily managed within Weebly.
Platform Lock-in
The Last huge drawback of Weebly is that moving to a different platform is difficult. If you want to move someplace else, including your own WordPress powered website, migrating your content and redirecting your URLs will be a challenging process.
Weebly allows One to export your Page content through zip file but website content will need to be manually copied and/or migrated via RSS.
Again — migrating platforms will always be difficult, but it’s something to consider if you’re planning on quickly expanding traffic and/or content.
Advanced Marketing Tools
Since Weebly allows for HTML editing, many marketing tools and attributes can be added to your website. However, as you still do not have 100% control on your website & server — it can be difficult or not impossible to include advanced marketing tools like an EV SSL, customized email collection applications, custom analytics packages, custom social shares, specific Schemas and A/B testing software.
In The jargon — the principal issue is not having”origin” or”FTP” access to your own server files. This isn’t an unsolvable problem, however it is something to be careful of if you’re arranging a long-term project.
For Most all site owners with average traffic you’ll want to know about the limitations, particularly if you are planning for rapid expansion.
Weebly eCommerce Addendum
Here is Weebly’s advertisement showing their new eCommerce installation.
A bonus for Weebly is their eCommerce performance. You can sell products from the Weebly website without switching platforms or performing any special developments. It fits in seamlessly and has strong functionality.
The Pricing is cheap. On lower tiers, Weebly charges transaction fees but bundles the complete eCommerce bundle for company plans.
Ecommerce Is a wonderful piece of performance, but keep in mind that it’s not a full-fledged eCommerce that online shop platforms like Shopify or even Bigcommerce have. Weebly has a shopping cart, fundamental stock management, and payment approval. Here’s how Weebly matches on the eCommerce”spectrum” —
It is Ideal for websites which are primarily lead-generation, informational, etc also want to sell a few goods. Additionally, it is a fantastic fit for anybody testing out products before going into a long-term stage. It’s not a long-term match for websites which are eCommerce-first. For all those, an online shop you have with WordPress + WooCommerce or even a specialty eCommerce platform such as Shopify (inspection ) or even Bigcommerce (review) are a much better fit.
Product Investment & Company Construction
Now — the purchase from Square does include a downside. That is regular site builder features. Weebly’s incentive would be to invest in features that make it more valuable as a complete for Square. Weebly Free Website Examples
Characteristics Like appointment scheduling, blogging, etc are only valuable in so far that they gain the parent company.
If You’re looking to construct a long-term articles or direct generation website, then I would consider WordPress.com (for content) or Wix (for general drag & drop) instead of Weebly. Even if Weebly meets your needs now, they may not in the future.
Conclusion
When we started testing Weebly many Years past, it was only another site builder. That has completely changed. Weebly has evolved into an outstanding website building tool which is better than many competitors. It’s easy, uncluttered and easy to use — which is exactly what individuals with limited technical skills need when it comes to creating their own online presence.
Of course, it is not 100% perfect. We’d like To see a bit more templates, as an example. Finding an email address attached to a own domain name is also a little expensive, as they recommend G Suite, that costs $5 per month, per user. (Although there are workarounds, as you can see in the FAQ under ).
But all in all, Weebly reaches the top of the list of site builders. Their ease of use combined with cool tools like the iOS or Android app for editing your website on the go, or the amount of add-ons available in the program centre makes it robust, and fun to use.
Enough with the theory. Try it out for Yourself and see how you like it!
Click Here to get started with Weebly today!