Tools

Consumer-oriented Drag-and-drop Website Builders May Limit Optimization.

We’re talking about Wix, Weebly, iPage, WordPress.com, Bluehost, Jimdo, Go Daddy, Virb and others. Every website builder is different. Please contact them directly for support.

For our purposes, these are the limitations to look out for:

• HTML Editing. This is the biggie. Look for an options like Code Block, Embed HTML, Custom HTML, or just HTML. If your website builder doesn’t allow access to the underlying HTML code, there’s no way to optimize your site properly. It’s time to upgrade to a better solution.
• CSS Editing. You or your team might want CSS to tweak the appearance of our code.  Many site builders don’t allow it. But there is a workaround. If you know a bit of CSS, first tweak the file in a text editor, run it through an inliner tool, then paste it into your page. A bit awkward, but it works.
• Functionality. For example, Wix breaks our review links code because of the non-standard way it’s designed. There’s nothing we can do about it, it’s a limitation of the platform. Upgrade to a better solution.
• Root Directory Access. No website builder we know of provides root access, meaning you can’t upload a KML file. Not a big deal, but something you’ll want later.
• Exporting. There’s often no export function. Leaving your provider means building a new site. This doesn’t affect optimization, just something to keep in mind.  Squarespace is an exception — it exports to WordPress ;-)

There’s no downside to an optimized website with plenty of fresh content. These are our favorite website-building tools.

WordPress

WordPress is free software that powers about one-fifth of all websites. You’ll still need to pay for hosting though. Launching a WordPress site can be straightforward or very challenging depending on want you want to do, and there’s no centralized support. On the other hand, WordPress is flexible, effective, and has a huge user community. Overall, it’s the best future-proof solution. Get some help if you need it and you’ll be in great shape going forward. There are TWO major versions of WordPress. WordPress.org is downloadable software that runs on your hosting companies server. For businesses, this is the way to go because there’s no limit to how it’s extended and used. The other version is available as software-as-a-service at WordPress.com. The WordPress.com version is hosted by WordPress. This hosted version purposely limits options. It’s OK for a blog or informational sites, but not good for ecommerce or anyone serious about SEO. WordPress is simply the way to go for almost everyone, but we’ll include a couple of alternatives if it’s not your cup of tea.  Learn more about WordPress.

 Squarespace

Often referred to as the Apple Computer of website builders, Squarespace is elegant, provides adequate design options, but by limiting those options, does not overwhelm the user. All themes and plugins are designed and supported 24/7 directly by Squarespace.  Theme selection is small, but the minimalist designs look great and work with mobile devices. Squarespace allows direct access to HTML and CSS, which means you can insert our code and change its appearance. Later, you can export your Squarespace content to WordPress. Or, if you’re stuck with a WordPress site that’s too hard to manage, import it into Squarespace.  Learn more about Squarespace.

 Weebly

Weebly offers a large selection of good-looking themes, and a easy-to-use editing system. The interface is not as elegant as Squarespace and there are no export options. Leaving Weebly for say, WordPress means building a new site. Weebly does not provide access to CSS which means you won’t be able to change the appearance of our code unless you use the workaround. Learn more about Weebly. This is one of the better website builders, but it pales to WordPress in every respect.

A text editor is a type of program (app) used for editing text files.  No colors, no images, no formatting — just text. Unlike word processors, text editors keep code intact.

If we have asked you to copy and paste code, use the text editor that came with your computer:

For Windows: Notepad
For Mac: TextEdit

If you have a different text editor, that’s fine too. But don’t use Microsoft Word . . . also known as The Mangler.

Quick Tip: to strip-out hidden formatting that will surely mess up your blog post or email message, copy the text you want to work with, paste into your text editor, copy it again, then paste into the destination.

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_message color=”alert-info”] Alternate method. Click on any .htm or .html file to open it in a browser.  Click on the View Source menu command. Select the code, Copy, then Paste where it needs to go. [/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Code in a text editor or in the View Source mode of a browser might look like this: