Today I am looking at Yola’s website builder.
I like that the site appears easy to use upon initial glance and that they are showing example sites using their tool in their home page slideshow. They are proud to announce that they have over 8 million users, which is reassuring.
Industry Specific?
Yola’s website builder tool is good for any industry. They show lots of examples of companies’ sites built with their tool from many industries at their Site Gallery page. I would like to be able to click through to the live sites, but they don’t allow that or provide the URL. So to check these sites out in action, I have to search for them myself. Not cool.
Pricing
Hey, Yola. I have a complaint. While you state again and again that a person can have a free website with you, you forget to show what a user actually gets for free.
On the positive side, they have a pricing page that shows the details about their Bronze, Silver, and Gold tiers. There are also add-on features shown after the pricing chart, which might be something that can be added to every tier, might not. This section is a little confusing.
Would you like some free help preparing for your site? Cool. Here’s a free download I created just for you.
Mobile?
Yes! As long as you are in the Silver or Gold plan.
In What Browser Does the Website Builder Work?
It doesn’t say, so I’ll go with the assumption that it works in the most modern browsers, like Chrome, Firefox, and IE 10.
Search Engine Optimization?
Maybe. They have a Traffic Builder Tool that is included in the Gold tier. It says you can make your website “search engine friendly.” I don’t know what this means exactly (custom title and meta tags? analytics?) and I don’t know if you can add it to the other tiers for a price.
Blog Features?
Not sure. It doesn’t mention a blogging tool anywhere, so I have to go with no for now. I notice some of their demo sites have a “blog” link, but since I can’t go to the live site, I am not sure if that is an external blog tool or integrated into the site. Just a heads up, if you don’t already know, it is way better for your blog to be integrated into your site, at your URL (ex: mysite.com/blog). So I did a search for one of the sites that is featured on their home page that has a “blog” link. I couldn’t find the exact site that I see on Yola’s home page. I did find their blog and it was through Blogger.
Ease of Use
They claim they have drag and drop functionality, but they don’t have a demo of their site builder in action anywhere to back up the “easy to use” claim.
Use Your Own URL?
Yes, for the paid accounts. I don’t know if you can for a free account.
My Initial Impression
Nothing special here and, most importantly, I am not sure what I get for free or what it is like really using the tool unless I sign up for an account. Bummer.
Click here to grab my free download to help you get all your ducks in a row before your build your site.
Even though I made it for people who are getting ready to hire a web pro, 80% of it will help you if you are building your site on your own.
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