2017 Weebly Blogging Review: Our Expert Rating (4.0/5.0 Stars)
If you're looking to get a great website without doing all the hard work of writing code or hiring a designer, you're in luck. Because there are some very nice programs available today that let you do just that, and even for free. Weebly is a great example of one of those website builders.
Weebly is one of the more well-known interactive website builders on the market. It makes having a sharp, beautifully designed website easier than you may think. Their system is very user-friendly and intuitive to use, with drag and drop features. And they are a very reliable platform that is trusted by millions of websites around the world.
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If you are someone who wants a professional looking website but you don’t know how to write code or aren’t looking to spend thousands of dollars to hire a designer, Weebly could be a good solution for you. In order to help you make that decision, I’ve written this review for you. Find out all the ins and outs of this company below.
Ratings
Weebly Review
Who knew it could be so easy to build a website? Really just about anyone, including your 80-year-old grandmother, could make a stylish website using Weebly. Because of this and their affordable prices, I felt inclined to give them a nice 4 star review. That’s not to say that the platform doesn't have is downsides, but overall they definitely deliver a great quality service.
Weebly is one of the top website builders in the industry and they stand out for many reasons. The overall ease of using their program and the available features are attractive to novice website builders. If you are looking for simple and effective website building, Weebly is a great choice.
Overall, I feel that Weebly is a great brand for anyone looking to build a stunning site quickly and easily. Weebly is one of the top interactive website building companies on the market and it’s for good reason. They know how to make their customers happy. And they have a range of plan options making it affordable, or even free, to build your site with them. They also make it easy for you to set up your e-commerce store and taking payments online is a breeze.
Pros
In all of the Weebly reviews online, their easy-to-use interface is by far one of the most popular benefits. They make it very easy to build your site, and you don’t have to worry about not knowing any code or learning PHP.
For someone who is very visual and likes to see things as I go, I can see how this is an advantage. Being able to make changes with the click of a button is ideal for many beginners and small businesses. Making a website doesn’t have to be super complicated and you can easily have a beautifully designed site at a fraction of the time and cost of developing it yourself.
The drag and drop feature that they have truly makes it fun to use their service. I like being able to move things around and change the design as easily as possible. And the time you save using their website builder can help you focus on more important things. You could have your website up and running in just a few hours, and it would be well-designed too.
And if you do happen to know some code, they still give you access to edit the CSS and HTML directly. This is a nice bonus, as some website builders don't even give you the option to access the code. At least with Weebly you have to possibility of making other edits if you know what you're doing.
Additionally, they have a lot of templates and pre-created designs for you to choose from. So even if you don’t want to build your website from scratch, they make it easy to have a trendy-looking site. And all of their designs are mobile-responsive, a huge bonus in today’s mobile world.
Changing templates with Weebly is easy as well. You don’t have to worry about losing all of your hard work when switching between templates and taking the time to get it just right. There may be minor adjustments that need to be made of course, but overall it is a relatively smooth transition.
Another common trait among Weebly websites reviews, is that a domain name is included for free for the first year. This is nice if you are trying to cut upfront costs and don't want to waste money on the domain. But keep in mind you will have to pay for it after that year.
Weebly does offer some marketing tools for their websites as well. You can add meta tags to your pages and make sure that your website is appearing in search engines. When you sign up with Weebly, you get marketing credits that can be used for paid ads in search engines or on social media platforms.
I also like that you can easily integrate e-commerce into your website with Weebly. If you want to sell products or services and accept payments on your website, they make it simple to integrate those features with specific plans and pricing. Although it’s not a full-service e-commerce platform, it does have nice integrations and options if that’s what you’re looking for.
In late 2015, they released an updated version of their interface called Carbon. This launch introduced a lot of new features that really enhanced the system. The dashboard is real-time and easier to navigate, they introduced new responsive themes, and even a mobile app that allows you to edit your website from your smartphone on the go.
This was a much-needed update to their program, as they tend to be lacking behind other companies in terms of innovation and implementing new features. Nevertheless, it was definitely a good move on their part.
They also auto-save your edits, so you don’t have to worry about losing changes as you’re making them. And they provide you with site stats to track your progress and performance. If you want a better view of their platform, check out the video below.
Cons
Although they do have beautifully-designed mobile responsive sites, the mobile designs are not customizable. You are pretty much stuck with how they have it set up. This may not be a huge deal, but as more and more people are relying heavily on mobile devices, this could impact your decision.
Another negative that I have found and have seen on other Weebly website reviews is that they don’t have an undo feature. Meaning you can’t simply undo something that you have just changed. This makes the editing process a little bit more difficult. This goes to show some of the limitations of their features, and it isn't as easy to use as you may think initially.
While they do have very stylish template designs, you are limited in how much you can customize those designs. Edits made to the actual template are not an easy feat. If you are trying to make some specific changes, you will have to know some coding to achieve it. For people trying to avoid the coding at all costs, this could be tricky and certainly not ideal.
A huge drawback, as pointed out in other Weebly.com reviews, is the fact that they don’t allow you to reuse previously uploaded photos. So you have to upload the photo every time if you are using it in multiple places. This can be a very big inconvenience and a big hassle when you have to reload the same photo several times.
As far as their blogging services go, they are somewhat limited. Setting up your blog may be fairly easy but publishing content and adding on more features is not easy. Blogging on their platform is very basic and may not meet your needs if you want something a little more sophisticated. For someone wanting a simple blog layout, it could work but as the world of blogging advances, you may be left in the dust.
Also, you are not completely 100% in control of your website or server. Of course, the nice part about Weebly is that you don't have to worry about the server or hosting, but for more advanced users, this would definitely be a disadvantage. This can make some things more difficult, like tracking tools, marketing tools and you don’t have root access to your site.
If you're wanting email features to go along with your Weebly website, sadly this isn't available. They do have an offer to have your email through a Google-provided address with your custom domain name but these are not free. This is something that many other companies provide for free or directly through their service.
As far as SEO goes, they do have some guides and articles explaining how to fully setup your SEO. However, the capabilities are limited and may not be the best option for complete beginners. Like some of the other features, it gets the job done but isn't necessarily the best or most effective tool for your SEO.
Like other website builders, Weebly's free plan is nice but has a lot of limitations. Free websites will display an ad for Weebly and the free domain name is not fully customizable. So your domain name will be something like yoursite.weebly.com, which is a big negative for anyone looking to have a truly professional and branded website.
Weebly is one of the top website builders in the industry, but they are slower than others at introducing innovative features and making changes. They don't have some of the cutting edge features like Wix or Squarespace might offer.
In terms of e-commerce, they do have features that allow you to sell products online and collect information, but they restrict you on the amount of goods that can be sold. On top of that, they have a service fee on any transactions in the Pro and Starter plans.
Leaving Weebly could be another problem as well. If you decide one day to take your site somewhere else, it could be tricky copying everything over. They do allow you to download your page content to a zip file, but you will have to manually copy any blog content that you have. This could be a long and daunting process and definitely something to keep in mind for the future of your website.
Other Features
One of the great features of Weebly is their predesigned website layouts. They have a number of popular layouts that are beautifully designed and can help you get a website or new page up in a few minutes. It’s also easy to modify those layouts to fit your liking.
You also have to ability to add apps and widgets to your website. Some of them are free and some are paid, but there are a lot of good options available. Editing pictures in Weebly is limited, so that’s another thing to keep in mind. You’ll want to edit any photos in a different software before uploading them to the site.
Conclusion
Because of how easy it is to use, I think this is a great online website builder. It makes it affordable and quick for anyone to get a fancy-looking website built in a short amount of time. And the interface makes navigating easy, as well as the autosave feature.
In regards to sophistication and functionality, you won't be getting as much with Weebly as you could get elsewhere. But for the basics, they get the job done well and make it easy to create something that you can be proud of.
I definitely think this is a great platform for someone who is looking to get their site going without much knowledge of code and doesn’t mind it not being self-hosted. However, for more experienced users, you may want to consider building your site yourself, or hiring someone to do it and hosting it on your own server. That way you get more control and customization.
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