Creating A Basic Website

Build A FREE Website with Weebly
Before you invest any money into a website or domain, get started for FREE to build it! Let's review Weebly today as I know it the best. Wix is very similar for designing but does not offer a free version anymore. 

First Step - Create An Account
Weebly is now with Square, so there's a funny two-step log-in process. Create an account by going to www.weebly.com. IF you're prompted to create an account with Square, you'll be redirected to that - just use the SAME user and password to make your life easier.

Decide On A Name
Consider the website address you will ultimately want with the .com, .org, or .edu (dot whatever). You will see a page to begin testing names to see what is available for a domain name (your website's name). See what's close. Think more broadly than what you arrived thinking your address would be. This can take a bit of time. When you see a name that suits you, select it! If you're building a FREE website, your initial website address will be the name you wish, plus dot-weebly-dot-com (.weebly.com). Once you purchase a domain name, the dot-weebly-dot-com will go away, but for now - we're just focused on building for free. 

Select A Template Design
Play with a few options that resonate with you in color and style. Future marketing and image branding ideas will be key. This can be changed if needed, all of your content will be reformatted to fit the new design, but this can get wonky. Try to get this right the first time if you can. If you don't feel you have an eye for style, find a friend who may give you additional eyes. There are no great options to change the general color or text style of the templates. We ARE talking FREE templates here.

You're going to want to have a rough idea how many pages you'll want on your website. Select a template with a similar number of tabs at the top. If you go beyond the template's preset tabs, they'll begin layering within the available tabs as "drop-down" menu options. 

Weebly's free templates are fairly limited in style, yet can still be quite flexible to work with. While Wix does not have a free option, their least expensive option ($16/month) has a larger base of templates to select from. The price is ultimately similar to what you'll pay for Weebly's professional version, making either service a good option.

Time to Play!
​Weebly and Wix are both drag-and-drop styles. Click a design element noted on the sidebar, hold and drag to where you'd like to add it. Click on an element in the template to edit it or upload your own images. You'll see blue lines in the design pane as you move elements (text, images) indicating if you want an element over or under the line. The fonts are pre-sets of the original design elements. You can make the font larger or smaller, maybe mix upper and  lower case, but it depends on the template. You will likely want to remove some elements from website pages to make the design your own. I try to build web pages from the top down and leave some elements lower on the page should I decide they may be useful on other pages to move them as I progress through multiple pages. 

Time for Additional Eyes!
This is where you may wish to hire an editor or ask a few friends to take a look at your website to be sure it says or does what you want. Are they able to get from your Home page to your Contact or Call to Action page? Do things make sense? Do links work? Is the design style pleasing and comforting, not jarring? 

Ready to Release to the World!
You can simply share your beautiful free website as your website! The address will be a bit unique, but not impossible to live with. Or you pay $20 for a domain name to drop the .weebly.com. If you decide to also get a professional website, the domain name may be free for the first year - that's a plus! Get the smallest professional website you need to do business. If you have no likelihood of taking orders or sales through your website, take that into account in your purchase. What features do you need? You can always upgrade later! There is a bit of a price drop by purchasing for the year in advance rather than monthly. 

Have you created your own website? Which service did you use and how did it go? If you'd like a hand with your website or even someone to simply create one for you, Let's Chat!  I love to build, edit, and maintain websites!

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