The website building tool I am reviewing today is SiteSpark.
Fancy, fancy. Big black background with a splash of pretty colors. That’s my first impression.
I see they have a free trial, which they are heavily promoting, and I get that they are trying to appeal to professional web designers as well as the non-techy folks. That’s a hard mix to do well, so let’s dig in and see how they do.
Industry Specific?
It appears they are like all the other builders I have reviewed so far in that their templates are fine to customize for any industry.
Pricing
Umm… No idea. It is clear you can have a free site from them as part of their free trial. How long the free trial is good for, who knows. It appears their free trial (and everything else) is coming soon. There are no details about the paid options or otherwise available on this site.
Would you like some free help preparing for your site? Cool. Here’s a free download I created just for you.
Mobile?
Not stated, so for now I go with “no.”
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?
They claim to have “automatic” search engine tweaking. I don’t know what tweaking it does; it doesn’t say. They also state that the tool allows for page-by-page optimization. That’s great, but what does that mean, specifically? Do I get all the features I like for SEO or only a couple? I would like more details here. And, of course, there’s the all-important Analytics question. Does the tool allow integration of 3rd-party stats? Does it have stats at all? No mention of these items can be found at present.
Blog Features?
It appears there is an optional Blog Feed application. I don’t know what it costs or how it works, but it sounds like you might be creating your blog posts at your URL, which is ideal.
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?
It doesn’t say, so I am going with “no” for now.
My Initial Impression
As I look around, it appears more and more like this is either an abandoned project or a project that has been launched before it is really ready for mass public consumption. Evidence of this is that their “blog” link is a bad link, there’s a notation that their help documentation is under construction, and their Facebook page has three likes. So folks, while this might be a super awesome tool someday (if it hasn’t been abandoned already), I’d be quite cautious about investing my time in their “free trial account.” No matter how fast it is to build a website, you are investing your time. You don’t want to re-invest your time if this goes away, so wait until they have got some legs under them before investing in this tool.
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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