Weebly.com Review
Product name: Weebly Website Builder
Website URL: Weebly.com
Price: Free trial to build, then $4.96/mo Starter; $8.29/mo Pro; $20.79/mo Bus
Overall Rating: 5 out of 10
This is a review of the website builder Weebly.com, for the entrepreneur out there that wants to create a website that will earn money. So what is a free website builder? I have thoroughly examined their “drag and drop” website builder program for ease of use and hosting arrangements. I want to provide you a detailed report to help you in your decision on whether you choose Weebly or some other website builder program.
This has to be one of the easiest builder programs that you will find for free on the Internet today. SiteBuildIt also has a similar website builder editor, a plug and play type editor, but it is not free. You have to be a premium member of SiteBuildIt to build a website there. For a comparison, check out the SiteBuildIt website builder, please click Site Build It
I would highly recommend you to watch their “Learn the Basics” video that is sent once you sign up and create an account. To create an account, you just enter your full name and a password and choose between a “free” website, buy a Domain name for this website, or to transfer an existing Domain name you already own. The free website is a Weebly.com site. That means you are choosing a name for your website that will be a “subdomain” for the “Weebly.com” site.
The next step is you will select a name for your free website. If the name is already taken, you will have to make another choice. You want your website name to be something that expresses what your website is about.
If you have never had a website then you probably have never built a website. By looking at the Weebly.com interface, you will see all kinds of elements that you can “drag and drop” into the editor screen to build your website. I was impressed with all the many choices you are given. It is awesome and full of many different choices you will be faced with.
Of course not knowing exactly what I wanted, I first choose a template with a ready-made picture. I would recommend you should do first is to make a mental picture of what you want before you start dragging different elements into the editor screen. If you do this, you won’t geet carried away with all the many elements to add to your site.
The second thing you are going to face is making a choice on what kind of website are you wanting to build. The choice you have to make first is this going to be a “site”, a “blog”, or a “store”. An experienced webmaster will already know the answer to this question. But what about the person who has never had a website before? Will they know what they want to build, given these three choices?
Their “dashboard” or the “drag and drop” editor looks deceivingly complicated. However once I watched their Beginner’s guide to Weebly video, it made much more sense. It was quite simple once I played around with this feature. The hardest thing you will encounter, however, is the “design” proponent of your website. Unless you already know how you want the look and feel of your website to be, you will face a multitude of choices.
This is where it is ideal to already have a plan for your website so that when it comes to building your site you will not be influenced by the all the different elements to choose from.
Maybe it is just me when it comes to the “drag and drop” editor to build a website. Since most websites have several pages the same, like your “Home page, About Me page, Disclaimer page, Privacy Policy,” etc, you will find these pages already built for you. You just drag them in, substitute your own words, then publish.
Once I opened my “welcome to Weebly.com email, I found the link to the beginners guide. This made my first impression of Weebly much more accomodating.
Their video walks you through how each element works by dragging an element into the position of the page that you would like it, like text, pictures, etc. Once I started seeing how this editor worked the less intimidated I became.
The only downside I found to this creative drag and drop type website builder is that once you have it all built if you change your mind on the design and want to change it, you have to start all over again, from scratch. There is no theme change once you get building your site.
There isn’t any computer coding that must be learned to build a website at Weebly. One of the easiest drag and drop style editor in existence. You can have a complete site up and running in as little as one day.
Free websites Vs Pricing Plans
They do have several plans to choose from. There is the “free” package that uses the “Weebly.com” as your website extension. As you can see below the price structure:
You will find that their “Starter Plan” has some pros and cons to consider before deciding to use this plan.
Pros:
- Only $7.42 a month for one year; $4.96 a month for two years
- Includes one year free domain name
- Free hosting
- Email and Phone access to support
- Can delete Weebly branding in footer for extra fees
- Can have up to 10 products for ecommerce site
- Must pay 3% transaction fee for all website products
Cons
- Email addresses for website not supported
- HD video and audio not available for satarter plan
- No site search box
- No SSL certificate security
- Integrated shopping cart from Weebly.com
- No digital files to sale (eBooks, music, pictures, etc)
- No tracking for Inventory statistics
- No membership access allowed
- No site signup for members registration
The Pro Planis as follows:
Pros: Everything that starter plan has plus
- $11.58 for 1 year; $8.29 for 2 years
- HD video and audio players
- Password protected pages
- Site search box feature added
- Up to 25 products to sell from ecommerce site
- Up to 100 for membership site
Cons:
- No SSL certificate security
- No site signup for members registration
- No tracking for Inventory statistics
- No digital files to sale (eBooks, music, pictures, etc)
- Integrated shopping cart from Weebly.com
The Business plan is as follows:
Pros: Everything that the Pro plan has plus:
- $20.79 a month for 2 years; $24.92 a month for 1 year
- Unlimited Membership
- Unlimited Member registration
- SSL certificate security
- Unlimited amount of products to sell
- 0% weebly transaction fees
- Integrated shopping cart (on your own domain)
- Digital goods
- Inventory management
- Shipping and tax calculator
- Coupons codes
Cons:
All included at this price
According to everything that Weebly claims about SEO built in and Search Engine Indexing sounds very good, but you will still must do some of the work yourself. They have a support channel, and their email is answered 24 hours a day.
You can reach Weebly’s support team through 3 different channels: 1) support tickets, 2) live chat and 3) phone.
However, if you want a more personal experience, their live chat support is available from Monday to Friday, 8am – 6pm Pacific Standard Time. They also have a forum with FAQ to help you with any problems.
The SEO that is normally taken care of with other website builder programs is found in a plugin that you add to your site. You then enter the set parameters into the SEO Builder and it is taken care of. This plugin must be purchased through the Weebly App Store. You can also find many other more advance apps to plugin on your website as needed, for a price. SEO is about planning, technique and persistence, but that’s beyond the scope of this review.
PRICING – IS IT WORTH THE INVESTMENT?
Building a website, whether it is first class or third class, what would be a fair price for this program? After all, you are building a platform to operate an online business from. You are building a means to make money, like a brick and mortar store, you intend for it to last many years, right? You need to consider how you’ll answer these questions to be able to decide “Is it worth the investment? Only you can decide for yourself.
- Does the website look professionally built?
- Does it operate efficiently? Everything works correctly?\
- Is it easily updated and maintained?
- What is your ROI with this website?
These are just some of the questions you will want a clear answer on before you can decide whether the price is good investment.
- As far as the look and feel that this program gives you is definite “yes”. The website does look very professional. You have many elements that should be able to create a unique, only for you, type website. My opinion the answer is yes.
- According to their blog and testimonials that again the answer to this question is “yes.”
- This answer depends on several things, the number of different elements added, the compatibility of these add-ons working together, the complexity of the arrangement of these extra features, etc. I think that in most cases that you are safe to assume that everything is going to work correctly for a long time. I would say it is safe to say “yes” to this question also.
- The “return on investment” you will not have an answer for immediately. This will also depend on your marketing skills, advertising budget, your writing abilities and what you have to offer to get a customer to buy from you. Each website is unique and hence each one is figured a little differently. Like trying to compare two automobiles, side by side. Yes each one has an engine, each one has tires, four seats, etc. One cost $1000’s of dollars more than the other. Which one is better?
Conclusion: Reviewing Weebly.com as a good program to use to build a website I would have to say yes. I like the result of the program itself, if comparing apples to apples. But as far as teaching you how to get your website to page one of Google, how to write your content to maintain good SEO optimization, or how to market yourself as an authority site – then NO it fails miserably.
Weebly is good only as far as building a website. It can not compete with other better programs to get your website ranked, it doesn’t help you with SEO superiority, nor does it teach you how to get your website on page one of Google. You need the lessons from an online university to acquire the skills necessary to achieve success.
I compare building a website to buying a Cadillac. Why buy a car before you know how to drive? Same is true about a website. Do you want a website just to have a website? Or do you want a website that will earn an income? The only way to achieve success is to acquire the skills to drive for success.
To acquire the skills to drive for success you get through everything you will learn from Wealthy Affiliate. Why? Like when they tell you to be a millionaire you must do what a millionaire does.
At Wealthy Affiliate, you not only learn how to select which website you want, but you learn what to do to that website in order to:
- Rank high in search results
- How to optimize your website with SEO
- Communicate with successful entrepreneurs daily
- Get help, support and online networking from successful webmasters
- Have an unlimited amount of websites for one low price
- Get social media tips, tricks and knowledge
If you want to build a better website, one that can get your business in front of millions of people and keep it there, then the only logical choice is to build it at Wealthy Affiliate. With over 1900 choices of wordpress website themes versus the thirty-plus choices from Weebly, who would you say has the better selection?
I hope you found this review helpful in helping you decide on which path you choose to take. If you liked it, please acknowledge by leaving your comment or suggestion. If you know someone that is looking to decide upon who to help them build a website, I hope you share this article with them.
To Your Success!