Weebly is one of the most powerful tools available for hosting and building websites today. In addition to web-building capabilities, Weebly offers users assistance in setting up online stores.
Perhaps the biggest perk of using Weebly is the site’s low set-up costs. For users who choose free web hosting and a Weebly URL, the site is free of charge. For businesses and professionals, Weebly offers a host of commercial packages as well. These commercial plans are generally affordable and allow users to customize their websites as well as their domain names.
The Benefits of Choosing Weebly
There are many compelling reasons to choose Weebly over other web hosting services. Consider the following advantages offered by Weebly:
- Choose from hundreds of stunning templates. Weebly offers users dozens of professional-looking themes to choose from. These templates can be customized with HTML or CSS or can simply be left as they are.
- You don’t need to be a programming pro. Weebly has a particularly intuitive website interface. You don’t need to understand programming and code to make a Weebly website. Rather, users can design webpages through an easy-to-use “drag-and-drop” method. Web design has never been easier!
- Web hosting is included. Weebly hosts all of its websites on its own servers. Instead of signing up for a web hosting service and a web design site, you can simply sign up for Weebly. For users who have no experience with web hosting, Weebly is an excellent choice.
- You won’t go broke using Weebly. Weebly is inexpensive for all users. The site is free for basic members and remains extremely affordable for paid-plan web designers. You can use the site’s basic functionalities for free for as long as you desire. You will not be required to hand over any credit card information unless you sign up for a premium plan.
Weebly is simply a great web hosting and design service. For users who are looking for a fast and easy web design experience, Weebly is a solid choice.
How I’ll Assist You
In this tutorial, I will take you through the steps of how to make a Weebly website. With this handy “how-to” guide, I’ll show you how to register with Weebly, design a website, and more. This guide is aimed at those who are new to Weebly and web design in general.
Sit back, relax, and let me escort you through the process of designing a website on Weebly!
Things to Bring
Getting started on Weebly is very simple. You’ll only need a little bit of information to get started.
Be sure to have the following on hand before getting started with the web design process:
- A good web browser (Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is recommended for optimal speed and functionality)
- Basic content for your website, including text, pictures, and any other media you may wish to include
- Credit card information (for customers who wish to get started with Weebly’s paid web hosting and design services)
- Time, patience, optimism, and this handy Weebly guide!
The First Steps: Signing Up on Weebly
Begin by going to the Weebly website. You can keep this guide open in another tab so that you can refer back to it as you continue with the web design process.
- Sign up for Weebly using your name, email address, and a password to be used with your new account. You can also register for Weebly by connecting your Facebook account to the website, if you so desire.
- Click the blue “Get Started” button to complete the Weebly registration process.
- After registration, you will automatically be directed to Weebly’s template directory. Here, you can select a website theme that meets your needs and suits your taste! If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the multitude of choices, consider sorting the themes by color or style.
- When you’ve found a template that you like, simply click on it to select it. If you’re interested in doing so, you can now customize the theme’s color scheme. When you’re finished, click the “choose” button to finalize your selection.
- You will now be able to select a domain name for your website. If you are using the free version of Weebly, you’ll be able to create a free site by selecting “use a subdomain of Weebly.com.” If you’re looking to create a more serious website, you can purchase a custom domain name by selecting the second option, “register a new domain.” If you’ve already purchased a domain name and would like to use it for your new Weebly website, select the third option, “connect a domain you already own.” Click “continue” when you’ve finished selecting a domain name.
- On the next page, you’ll have the chance to view a video introduction to Weebly and the site’s tools and functionality. I’d advise you to watch this video, as it’ll help you make the most of your time on Weebly. After you’ve watched the video, you can begin customizing your webpage with Weebly’s editor tool.
Editing & Customizing Your New Weebly Website
Your selected website theme should already be loaded on the Weebly website editor page. This will be located in the center of your page.
On the left of your page is the Weebly toolbox. This toolbox contains elements that you can drag and drop into your website template.
- I’m going to begin by changing the name of my page. You can change the title of your website by clicking on the “My Site” text at the top of your webpage. You can now type in the title you desire for your website.
- The template I have selected includes a header image. If your template includes a picture as well, hover over this image now. You should see an “edit image” option appear as you hover over the graphic. Click “edit image” to modify the picture on your page. You can add a picture from your computer, drag and drop an image onto the page from another tab, or add an image via its URL. Be sure to select an image that is roughly the same size as the sample image.
- If you need to modify the image you’ve uploaded, you can now do so. You can crop the picture, rotate it, modify the picture’s opacity, and more. You can use multiple pictures to create a slideshow here as well, if desired. After editing your image(s), select “save” to save the image to your website. Select “save to all pages” if you want this image to be added to all of the pages on your website.
- I’m now going to add a few more pages to my new website. You can add a few pages to your new site as well.
Click on the “pages” option at the top of your screen. Now, select “add page.” Most users will want to add “standard pages” or “blog pages” at this stage of the design process. You can also add “store pages” or links to external pages, if desired.
Add your first page and then click “save and edit” when you are finished. You can now go back to the main “pages” option to add more pages to your website.
Consider adding an “About Us” page, a “Contact Us” page, an “FAQ” page, or any other pages that may be important to your new site. You can come back later and add as many pages (and subpages) as you’d like! You can easily add new pages or re-order existing pages by dragging and dropping them onto the page list on the left side of your screen.
Links to these new pages will now show up under your website’s header or along the side of your page, depending on the template you’ve selected. You can now click on these links to access the new pages on your website.
Affixing New Elements to Your Weebly Page
You’ve now set up a basic Weebly site! Congratulations! I’ll now show you how to add new elements to your website. These additional features will give your website more functionalities.
- I’m now going to add elements to my sample “Contact Us” page. You can follow along with me and add these elements to your webpage, too. Begin by scrolling down to the bottom half of your page. You should now see a small graphic and a text that reads “DRAG ELEMENTS HERE.” This is where we’ll be adding our new elements to the page.
- Since this is the “Contact Us” page for my sample website, I’m going to add a contact form. Scroll through the tools on the toolbar, found on the left side of your screen. Select the “Contact Form” option and drag it into the “DRAG ELEMENTS HERE” white space at the center of your screen.
- You should now see a contact form on your webpage. You can now click on the header text above the form to modify it (just like you modified the title of your website). You can now modify all of the elements of the contact form. You can add additional fields to the form by dragging them onto the page from the left-hand toolbar. You can also mark certain fields in the form as compulsory. When you’re done adding this contact form, click the “save” button on your screen.
- I’ve also added a map to my website’s contact page. You can do so as well by dragging the “map” element from the left toolbar onto the body of your website’s “Contact Us” page.
When the map appears, click on it. You can now add an address to the map and modify other features related to the map element.
There are many other elements you can add to your Weebly pages, including images, text, photo galleries, and more. You can add these elements to your pages by simply dragging them from the toolbar and dropping them into your pages.
I’ve now given you a taste of the elements that can be added to your Weebly pages. The “drag-and-drop” method makes modifying your pages particularly easy. You can play around with the other elements on the toolbar and try them out for yourself!
Going Mobile with Weebly
Weebly is ahead of the curve when it comes to building websites. Unlike many free website builders, Weebly allows you to build a mobile version of your website in addition to a desktop template.
At the top right of your screen, you should see an icon that resembles a smartphone. Click on this icon to edit the mobile version of your new website. You can now see exactly what your website will look like for smartphone and tablet users! You can edit your mobile site accordingly.
Refining Your New Website
You’re now well on your way to publishing your new website. Before your site goes live, be sure to consider the following:
- Add all of your content! Be sure to add plenty of text and images to your new website. Fill up all of your pages with relevant content before publishing your website.
- Connect all of your accounts. Many Weebly templates include social networking icons on their pages. Modify these icons so that they link back to your social media profiles. If you don’t have an account on these sites, consider eliminating these icons from your pages.
- Help others find your website! Customize your website with Search Engine Optimization (SEO)! Click on “settings” and then “SEO” to add a website description and important keywords. By doing so, search engines like Google will be able to find your site more easily.
- Double-check your theme. If you’d like to change details of your website, such as its color scheme, you can do so before publishing your website. Simply click on the “design” tab to modify your website’s appearance.
Publishing Your Weebly Website
You are now ready to publish your new Weebly site! You can do so by simply clicking the “publish” button in the upper right corner of your screen.
Weebly will now ask you to confirm your domain name. If you are certain that you want to continue with your previously selected option, you can click “continue.” If, however, you want your website to appear more businesslike, you can switch your domain from a Weebly-hosted “.weebly.com” domain to a unique domain name now.
When you are done confirming your domain name, click “continue” and select a category for your new website. You will then have to complete a CAPTCHA to verify that you are indeed setting up your website manually.
You will receive a message shortly thereafter confirming that your Weebly website has been published!
Continued Web Development
Congrats! You’ve now built your first Weebly website! Your page is now live and can be visited by friends, family members, and other members of the World Wide Web.
You shouldn’t think of publishing your website as the end of the web design process. You should add new text and graphics to your website regularly to increase traffic to your site. Consider blogging regularly to keep visitors returning to your website.
In Conclusion
Weebly is one of the easiest web design tools available today. I hope you continue to play around with the website and explore its many features.
Thanks for reading! I wish you the best with your new Weebly site!