Getting your message out there is easy with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., but to build a strong an online presence, it is important to have your own website. Your website should be unique so it can set you apart from the crowd. Now, creating a website might seem like a daunting task to you but with lots of website builders and tools available online, simple folk like us can easily build a free high-quality website from scratch in no time. Regardless of technical skills, anyone can make a website.
We have rounded up some of the best free website builders that can help you publish your website without going through any complexity. But Before jumping into the gist of the topic, let us first briefly delve into the basic factors of a good, high-quality and successful website:
- Appearance
One of the first things a visitor see in your website is its appearance. Make sure your website is visually appealing and stunning. Appropriate use of color and graphics, as well as quality photos, is essential.
- Content
“Content is King” – Bill Gates.
Your content should be concise but compelling, not long, boring or overbearing to the casual user. A good website’s content is updated regularly, otherwise, people won’t even bother coming back to your website if it shows the same old stuff all over again.
- Functionality
If you have a good web design but the website doesn’t function well when the user integrates with it, it is useless and can leave a bad impression. Check your website for typos, misspelled words, wrong grammar, as well as other things like hyperlinks, bullets, checkboxes, site search, etc. Make sure they function properly. In short, check if your website is looking good and working well.
- Usability
This is the most crucial but otherwise ignored aspect of building a good website. How could your website flourish if your user is confused about how to get around on it? Most successful websites are easily navigated, read, and understood even by visitors who stumble onto them for the first time. If your website has complex navigation, it will ultimately confuse your visitor which isn’t a good thing for a business. If you are building your own site, make sure to check some best websites or your competitors’ sites to see how they are helping their customers navigate.
If you have great content on your website but poor usability then how would your visitor be able to locate that great content? The conclusion is that you should focus more on making your website easy for your visitors than filling it with useless junk.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
All that hard work but what if you don’t get to see your website on even the third or fourth page of Google? To solve this problem, SEO is there for you. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) means to make your website highly visible on search engines like Google and Yahoo. You should have at least some knowledge of how SEO works for your site. Using important and relevant keywords is just one of the effective means to get your website rank high on search engines, resulting in more visitors.
Here is the list of 5 best tools that you can use to create your very own high-quality website for free:
1. Wix
Need a powerful yet easy website builder without going through all that coding complexity? Wix is for you. In the beginning, it was based on flash but now they have switched to HTML5 for more flexibility and design options. It’s surprising to see that many websites which have been built on Wix are done by non-professional web designers. That’s why Wix is the prime choice for the majority of internet users who want to get their own websites designed in a polished, professional way.
Primarily, Wix is a paid service but the fact that it offers lots of features in its free version is what makes it an outstanding platform.
You don’t need to have experience in HTML or CSS or any of those esoteric things. Wix has over 280 different templates to choose from, each arranged by specific category, as well as customization tools. Once you’ve picked your favorite template, click “Edit” – Wix will lead you to the editing page where you can modify/update the content, change the website’s design, colors and fonts, add images and other multimedia formats.
It also allows you to boost your SEO ranking by writing the proper website title, description and most importantly, the right keywords. You may publish your website outright, or you can preview it first before finally publishing it online.
Pros:
- Extremely convenient interface
- Tons of site gadgets and templates
- Mobile-friendly websites
- Excellent web store
Cons:
- Sites aren’t much responsive
- Once you have chosen and applied a template, you cannot switch to a completely new one
2. Duda
Duda is a one-stop shop for all your website needs. Whether you want to build your own online store, business site, blog, or a one-pager, Duda is a great choice to consider. It is a responsive website builder that features tons of ready-made templates for you to choose from. Its drag-and-drop feature is what makes it extremely convenient for everyone, even people who do not have much knowledge about website building.
If you are looking to create an online store, Duda offers plenty of widgets that can help convert those visitors on your site into paying customers. The site built on Duda can easily be integrated with web-based solutions like Disqus, OpenTable, and PayPal. Also, your website can be personalized, triggering a great impression on your visitors.
To create a site, just sign up on Duda, click on the “Create Site” button on the top right corner. Multiple options in the sidebar will be displayed to you such as “Design”, “Add Element” “Pages and Popups”, etc., now everything from here is a simple drag and drop, all you have to do is select the item you want to change. For instance, if you want to edit an existing item, all you have to do is click on it and all the editing options will be visible at a single glance.
Duda also excels in creating multilingual sites, so if you have a broader target audience, this is a great plus point for you. You can add multiple pages, a blog, and even an online store into your website. Dude also provides you with a number of SEO tools that you need in order to get your website ready for Google and other search engines.
Pros:
- Responsive and modern designs
- Multilingual support
- InSite feature
- Powerful site-traffic analysis
- SEO tools
Cons:
- Email newsletter integration not included
- Site cannot be ported to another host
- No widget/app store
3. Weebly
Weebly is another convenient website builder that lets you create your own website without having to write even a single line of code. It also offers web hosting, which means you don’t have to engage with any third-party web host. Weebly is extremely user-friendly – even if you are attempting to create a website for the first time, you will not find it complex at all. Like WordPress and Wix, Weebly also offers several different themes and templates that you can change according to your preference.
Weebly lets users create their domain as well; The most readily available type of domain is a subdomain of the Weebly website (for example, “yoursite.weebly.com”). Users can also purchase a domain from Weebly or redirect it from other sites.
The drag-and-drop component is Weebly’s most outstanding feature. For instance, if you want to upload an image, choose the “Image” option and drag it towards a specific location on the template, where you can then upload your photo.
Every site that you will create on Weebly will be responsive and mobile-friendly, making it smooth to work on all major problems without flexibility issues.
Pros:
- Easy interface
- Tons of responsive-design themes
- Supports e-commerce integration
- Lets you download the HTML/CSS code of your website
- Great in terms of SEO prompts
Cons:
- Mobile-friendly sites cannot be customized
- Can give a hard time if using for the first time
- Limited features on a free plan
4. WordPress
If there are 100 websites in the world, 30 of them are powered by WordPress. With over 60 million active users worldwide, WordPress’ popularity is indisputable. This is partly due to its relatively user-friendly platform. WordPress, once which was a basic blogging application, has now evolved into a full-fledged website creation tool.
To get started, you need to create a free account on WordPress. Once registered, you can create your own username and customize your WordPress website URL and blog title before proceeding to the website builder.
WordPress has a lot of free themes to offer but if you want more customization, you can opt for a premium theme at some cost. Unlike Weebly, you can easily replace your current theme with a new one. The customization tool lets you modify the background color, header, header image (if there’s any), etc. There are tons of plugins available that you can use to add more functionality to your website. For example, “Yoast SEO” is an amazing plugin to boost your online presence and help rank your website on search engines.
If you are satisfied with the changes in your website, you can publish your entry live right away or preview it first if you want, or save it as a draft to view it later. If you make a mistake the first time around, no problem; you can edit your content later.
Pros:
- Excellent option for blogging
- Draft saving feature
- Tons of free templates and plugins
- Supports site transfer
Cons:
- No drag and drop functionality
- Doesn’t offer much customization like other site builders
- No phone tech and email integration support
5. WebNode
WebNode is a great choice for both professional and beginner users. You can make multilingual websites easily to target a wide range of audience. You can create an online store on it and sell your items right away. Creating mobile-friendly websites is WebNode’s another attractive feature that will help you make a flexible website for different screen sizes. The best thing about it is that unlike most other website builders, you won’t see many big ads even with the free version.
WebNode also offers statistics to track your website’s success so you can easily check how everything is working. Currently, there are over 30 million registered users that are using WebNode for creating top-notch websites. Just like any other builder, you need to create a free account on this and drag and drop elements on your page and edit/change them according to your requirements.
Pros:
- Simple and convenient to use
- Excellent for SEO
- Multilingual support
- Provides free stats tracking
Cons:
- Lacks some key features
- Limited e-commerce features
Final Verdict
In this day and age, you will no longer have to worry about building, designing and moderating a free website – thanks to above-mentioned five website-building tools that are extremely user-friendly. However, some website builders may not have the domain and hosting option, which means you have to first buy a suitable domain name and web hosting option and then move to a website builder.
Here is the summary of creating a high-quality website with the help of a website builder:
- Register for a free website account
- Choose the desired template
- Add pages to your website
- Customize your content (text, images, video, etc.)
- Optional: Manage the SEO settings
- Publish your site!