As of the writing of this post, there are nearly two billion websites on the internet. That’s one website for every four people on the planet.
If you want to attract visitors to your site you need to build a website that’s attractive, easy to navigate, and mobile-responsive.
And if you don’t have much experience with web design, you might end up designing a website that looks a little bit like this.
Lucky for you, there is a web design software that can allow you to create a beautiful, well-designed website with no design experience at all.
It’s called Weebly, and it’s one of the simplest website builders around.
In this article, we’ll walk you through how to use Weebly to design a great website, even if you’re a total noob.
Let’s go!
Choose a Plan (Included in your Hosting with MacHighway!)
When you first set up an account using our Weebly builder, you will be asked to choose a plan. You can opt for a free plan, but you will lose out on some features. You can jump to a paid plan at any time.
Our Weebly gives you the choice between the following plans
- Starter: $8. Removes ads
- Deluxe: $12. Adds HD video players to your site
- Business: $25. Adds eCommerce tools to make money through your site
Depending on the purpose of your website, you may be able to get away with the free plan. But even if you’re scoffing at the price of the Performance plan, keep in mind that those advanced eCommerce tools might not be cheaper anywhere else.
Choose a Theme
Designing a good website can feel like an insurmountable task to the person with no design experience. And if that’s you, finding a web design software with a large collection of beautiful themes should be at the top of your list.
Lucky for you, Weebly offers tons19 of gorgeous themes—and they’re all mobile responsive!
Weebly even organizes their themes according to the industry. You can search through handpicked themes for artist portfolios, blogs, restaurant sites, and more.
Connect a Domain
Before you can build your website, you’ll need to choose a domain.
Weebly offers custom domain names through their own service. Or, you can purchase a domain from another service (such as us, for instance) and link it to your Weebly account.
If you already have a domain from an old website, you can pair that domain to your Weebly account.
Make sure you choose a domain that clearly communicates what you’re website is about. If you’re building a website for your business, it should be your business name. Choose a domain name that’s short or easy to remember.
And remember: you don’t have to stick with a .com address. There are a number of different domains you can use. Get creative with it!
Get Building
Once your site is up and running, it’s time to get building.
You’ll want to customize all of the titles, pictures, and text from your theme first. After you do that, you can edit your website to your heart’s content.
One of the things that makes Weebly a great choice is its visual editor.
There’s no coding involved at all—which is good news for most of us.
Visual Editor
To start building your homepage, click on “Build” on the menu across the top of the screen.
On the lefthand side of the screen is an elements menu. On this menu, you can add titles, text boxes, images, photo galleries, videos, audio players, and more.
Simply grab the element you want to add and drag it to wherever you want it. For multimedia elements like images, videos, and audio, a popup will appear where you can upload media from your computer or from the internet.
If you have a premium plan, you can even add items from your shop on any page you like.
On the editor page, you can also toggle between desktop view and mobile view to make sure your site looks good on smartphones and tablets.
Adding Pages
Weebly also makes it easy to add pages to your website.
Next to the “Build” button on the top is a button that says “Pages.” When you click on this, you will allow you to view every page on your site.
From here, you can customize each page however you like. You can also add new pages by pressing the large plus sign at the top of the menu on the lefthand side.
The order the pages appear in the lefthand menu will correspond to the navigation bar that goes across every page on your site. Simply drag and drop each page title to put them in the order you want them in.
You can also add subfolders to the navigation menu by dragging the page name slightly to the right.
When you do this, it will add a dropdown menu in the navigation bar. You can add as many layers of subfolders as you like, but too many layers might make your site difficult to navigate.
Adding Items For Sale
If you have a premium plan that allows for an online store, you can manage your inventory under the “Store” menu. Add items here, then drag them onto other pages across your site.
Connect Your Apps
Like WordPress’s plugins, Weebly features a number of tools to help your website’s performance.
These tools can be found under the “Apps” menu. These apps can boost your site’s speed, integrate with social media, add a countdown timer, and much more.
Simply add the apps to your site and they’ll start working automatically.
Weebly: the Easiest Web Design Software
Designing a website doesn’t need to be a confusing process. Thanks to Weebly’s web design software, you can create a beautiful, user-friendly website with no experience at all.
Once you’re ready to make your website, visit our knowledge base!
