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We are very lucky to be living in a world where online advertising is so vast. Even if we look back just a few years ago, online advertising offered quite slim pickings, relying on pay-per-click advertising and not much more! However, there are now loads of ways to reach out to existing and potential customers online.

Technology is constantly evolving, and so are ways to advertise your business online. Adverts are becoming more easily tracked, able to be customised, and provide a lot more value to customers and business owners. Now that a large proportion of the world has gone mobile, it’s opened up a whole new way to reach out to people.

Let’s take a look at 21 Ways to Advertise Your Business Online!

1. Google Search Network

When you perform a Google search you may have noticed the green writing display the word ‘Ad’. These adverts show at the top of a Google search result and will be the first thing most people see or take notice of.

Google themselves decide which adverts to place here based on a real time auction process. This is processed from the keywords used in performing a Google search. The results can change minute by minute as the value of each term and keyword changes.

Regardless of your budget, you can take part in the auction process. However, for certain keywords, those who are willing to put in the most money will likely win the bid.

In order to maximise ad spend via GoogleAds, determine which keywords are most relevant to your product or service. Which words are searched for more than others, and which are less likely to have too much competition.

2. Bing

Bing is Microsoft’s competition to Google. It uses a very similar model in terms of bidding, keywords, and a search/display network. Adverts are displayed on Bing, Yahoo!, and AOL. Although Bing may not have as far reach as Google, it’s still worth investing in.

AdEspresso states that Bing users can reach over 60 million users who aren’t accessible through Google. When someone buys a PC, the operating system is likely to be Microsoft Windows. Windows uses Internet Explorer or Edge as their default browser of which Bing is the default search engine. For those who can’t be bothered to change it, this works in your favour.

3. Facebook

Facebook is a brilliant choice for targeted advertising. Facebook allows you to select demographics by age, location, and interests. You can narrow your interest search down to the finest details; cats, gardening, parenting etc. You can even target people who might display certain behaviours like whether they’re interested in buying a new house or thinking about going abroad.

Your Facebook adverts can appear in a variety of locations as shown in the image above. Ad success on Facebook is more about the relevance of your ad to the user viewing it. Facebook have a relevance score which is quantified by how much you want to spend.

4. Instagram

Facebook now owns Instagram and has done since 2012. Instagram ads can be seen in news feeds or in stories. The most favourable ads on Instagram seem to revolve around branded or sponsored content. Sponsored content happens when a company pays ‘influencers’ to advertise their brand. They do this by speaking about the brand, showing images of the brand, and generally having a large following.

Costs are roughly the same as those of Facebook as they use the same Ad Manager. Although having a popular celebrity would be great to advertise your brand, that’s likely not to happen. Instead you can find smaller influencers on Instagram amongst its 1 billion users.

5. SMS advertising

Reputable brands often turn to SMS or MMS messages to advertise. I’m sure if you think about it you can recall a time you’ve received a text message from a company advertising special offers on their website or in store. Clicking on a link from a text messages takes little effort from the end user and can encourage them to browse items they may not have considered beforehand.

It’s estimated that 4.68 billion people will be using mobile phones in 2019. That’s an insane amount of potential reach or at least a great statistic to encourage you to use SMS advertising.

6. Geo-targeted advertising

This type of advertising focuses on a very specific area. We’re not talking users based in the same country, or even county/state, we’re talking a few miles away at most. Geo-targeted advertising is ideal for local businesses who aren’t necessarily interested in reaching worldwide status.

You can target people nearby to your location easily with geo-targeted advertising. Maybe your business has an offer on, a discount, or even an event. You can let potential nearby customers know and they may just decide to make a visit.

7. Retargeted Ads

Have you ever noticed that you’ve viewed an item on a website and it seems to appear in targeted adverts when you’re browsing the Internet? This is known as retargeted advertising.

The idea behind retargeted ads is that you have shown an interest in a product by viewing it. But for some reason you didn’t make a purchase. Maybe you were pushed for time, couldn’t decide, or were saving it for a later date. Retargeted ads remind customers of a product they showed interest in, in the hope they’ll revisit the website again and make a purchase.

8. Chatbot advertising

Companies are using chatbots to answer FAQs, provide simple information, and even advertise. When you view products online, you’re not just viewing them for yourself. You’re letting the company know what you’re interested in and therefore opening yourself up to marketing.

If you have customers browsing a particular product online, for example a necklace, you can use your chatbot to your advantage. The chatbot can pop up at any time whilst browsing and suggest something to keep your customers engaged. It could provide a link to a bracelet to match the necklace as well as offering discount for purchasing both.

9. Branded Apps

Although it may seem like a tall task, creating your own branded app is great for business as well as marketing. Companies often use branded apps as a place to advertise information, latest news, and even a wallet to store reward cards.

Mobile apps aren’t that hard to create, especially with today’s technology. If a customer enables push notifications and has your app installed, you can send them reminders to keep engaging with your brand.

10. QR Codes

QR codes are a great link between online and offline behaviour. A QR code can be scanned anywhere that a person has their mobile device.

QR codes are easy to generate and there’s plenty of apps available that can be downloaded to read them. If you put a QR code in your store or on a leaflet, a customer could scan the code for upcoming offers or to be added to a mailing list.

11. Email Data

Email is used everyday all around the word. Having a method available that can capture email data is really important. You can integrate something like this very easily to your website.

Having an email signup option means you can collect your customer’s email data and therefore build up a mailing list. Mailing lists are great to inform customers about upcoming news, events, and offers.

12. Email Marketing

Building on from point 11, now that you have your email data, you need to create emails to send to your customers. You’ll need an email marketing service like Mailchimp to get started. Mailchimp often comes as part of your web hosting package so check this out beforehand!

It’s important your email marketing isn’t considered spam to your customers. Make your emails worthwhile and offer your customers something they want. It’s easy for them to subscribe as well as unsubscribe!

13. Video Marketing

Videos account for a large portion of how online time is spent. Video marketing can come in several forms; via your own YouTube channel, on your website, or through social media.

Remember you don’t need to create stunning videos with tonnes of effects. A simple video blog or small advertisement showing exciting news and products will be plenty to keep customers engaged.

14. Twitter

I’ve mentioned other social media channels on this list, and Twitter doesn’t get the chance to escape I’m afraid! Twitter may not have as large a reach as Facebook or even Instagram but it shouldn’t be dismissed.

Twitter is a great way to retweet interesting content, create hashtags for your products, and encourage reviews from customers. The important thing to remember about Twitter is to continually engage with your customers and followers.

15. UGC

User-generated content (UGC) is when users write about or share information about your business. This act often happens organically (on its own without intervention or payment) but can be encouraged.

You could offer something in return for users posting content about your brand. Perhaps create a featured section on your blog or website and offer a reward to the winner each month.

16. Social Media Giveaways

As advertising usually does, this comes at a cost, but a small one. Giving away merchandise from your business to existing or potential customers is a great way for them to advertise your brand for you, as well as promoting it on social media.

All you have to do is create a competition or such on social media and let your customers battle it out! The winner will receive something free from you; an item, discount, etc. and will hopefully continue to engage on social media whilst advertising your brand.

17. Customer Testimonials

Although this isn’t direct advertising, if customers or potential customers read other peoples (hopefully positive) experience of your business, they’ll likely make a visit or return.

Testimonials aren’t often on the forefront of your customer’s minds but a gentle prompt or reminder could be enough. If you’re not getting enough testimonials, you could offer a discount in return for your customers writing one for you.

18. Contribution

People like it when they feel like a brand is representing a good cause and is engaging with people on a regular basis. It’s important that you contribute to meaningful discussions, forums and blogs as well as advertising your brand at the same time.

It’s not too difficult to set a small amount of time aside each week to find relevant information that you can contribute to. A few words can actually go a long way and will also provide back links to your website if done online.

19. Write a Blog

Creating content is a great way to engage with customers, let them know about upcoming news and events, as well as advertising your business. Creating a blog is really easy to do, there’s absolutely no excuse not to create a blog in 2019.

One of the key things about blogging is making your content relevant and useful. Don’t write just for the sake of it, write about content people want to know about and want to engage with. They’ll in turn share your content, creating back links to your website as well as advertising your business online.

20. Guest Posts

Having guest posts on your blog is another sure fire way to gaining authoritative back links and high quality content. You should only really aim for high quality sites when using guest blogging as a marketing tool. You’ll need a site with high domain authority and a zero spam score.

Guest posts can give your business exposure it might not have otherwise received as well as back links which will increase your SEO. And with a higher SEO score comes more visitors to your online business.

21. List your Business

It might seem a bit old fashioned now, but including your business in directories is actually more important than you might think. If your business isn’t listed in an online directory, people may struggle to find you.

Online directories like Google My Business, Yelp, and Thomson Local are great starting points. Make sure you only list your business where it’s relevant though. You wouldn’t want to advertise your clothing business in a tradesman directory!

There are lots of places where you can learn to code for free. With the boom in using website builders, people are turning to learning code to build and enhance their websites even more. People who know code already, are in a similar profession or are professionals, have been creating resources for many years in order to help others.

If you’ve never looked at web design or web development before, free coding resources can be a great go to, or at least a starting point. Once you’ve got to grips with the basics, you can find more in-depth courses to further your journey. Learning code does take a reasonable amount of time and effort, and you’ve got to want to learn it. Like most things, if you’re not interested, you’re probably going to struggle at the first step.

Who can learn to code?

Anyone can learn to code if they want to. Sometimes it’s worth considering what types of people might benefit more from coding in the long run. Let’s start with a few simple questions to establish if you’re the right person to learn code and make use of our free coding resources.

• Do you enjoy web development, or the technical theory behind web development?
• Would you like to be able to turn an application or website idea into something real?
• Do you write content for a blog and therefore care about the quality and user friendliness of your site?

If you’ve answered yes to any of the above then it’s probably worth you learning code. Although it might seem daunting at first, it can actually be really fun and very rewarding.

You don’t need to be a computer geek to learn how to code. Coding can be done by anyone who has the thirst and desire to learn it. You can make mobile apps, websites and software, no matter who you are! And who knows, you may even turn it into a career or start your very own business.

Why should I learn how to code?

Learning how to code can reduce your overall costs if you are thinking about or currently hire a programmer or developer. In fact, if you become an expert in the field, not only could you save money, you could make money too!

Even if you just learn the basics of coding you could make a big difference to your site or business. Having the bare bone knowledge can often lead to more without even realising it.

Because coding is so popular, the amount of resources available can be overwhelming. That’s why I’ve put together some credible free coding resources for you. I’ll show you where to go (and what for), allowing you to decide the best route for your coding adventure.

Online Courses

1. Codecademy

Codecadmey is like a giant online free coding boot camp. The community at Codecadmey is absolutely massive and is an ideal spot for beginners to jump right in. When you’re learning a new skill, it can often be very useful to have access to a community whereby you can ask questions and discuss ideas. Codecadmey provides this on an extremely large scale with literally millions of users worldwide.

Codecademy is free which is why it’s listed here. Unlike many other companies, you don’t need to have a subscription to learn from Codecademy. One of my favourite features of Codecademy is that you don’t need any kind of software to begin coding. Their easy to use interface is built into their website so everything can be done in your browser.

Codecademy covers the following coding languages:

• HTML
• CSS
• Sass
• JavaScript
• Rails
• Ruby
• SQL

(And much, much more).

2. Coursera

Coursera offers a large online library of free coding courses. All of the courses available are 100% free which is a great opportunity for anyone wanting to learn coding.

Coursera’s courses aren’t just run by anyone, they’re put together by leading universities and companies in the industry. Although it’s just as valuable to learn new skills from people who use them on a day to day basis, some people find it reassuring when there’s a big name behind the education.

If you want to obtain a Coursera verified certificate to ‘prove’ your coding skills, you’ll need to pay for it. The certificates range from $30+ and can go up to $100. Although this may seem a little steep, if you consider how much it would be to actually go to university of learn from leaders in the industry, it’s very reasonable.

Coursera doesn’t just offer your basic coding languages. They do cover HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc. but they also go far beyond this. There’s specific specialised courses available too (which you do need to pay for).

3. Udemy

Udemy isn’t solely focussed on coding languages but they do offer courses on these. You can access a wide range of in-depth courses through Udemy’s library. Whether you want to improve on existing coding knowledge or learn new skills, Udemy offers it all. From game development to software development, creating apps to testing them, there’s plenty to sink your teeth into.

Courses allow you to learn at your own pace, and will save your ‘history’ so you can come back to it at any point. There are both paid and free courses available, from web development to data science (and more).

Udemy courses can actually be created by anyone, so they don’t necessarily represent the ‘standard’ in any particular topic. Each course has a list of reviews from actual users, so you can judge whether the course is right for you or not. I’d recommend checking out the reviews before you start one!

4. Free Code Camp

Another free coding boot camp, Free Code Camp has a wide and established curriculum to teach from. All of the projects available allow users to work with hands on experience. What I love about this coding resource is the community behind it. There are millions of other users willing to support and help each other which is lovely to see in this day and age.

Free Code Camp doesn’t just teach you coding languages. It offers a lot more, such as being able to apply said coding to real world scenarios. You can build projects and take part in them with others as well as getting a certification at the end of it.

For example, they will actually prepare you for your developer job interview! How cool is that? Free Code Camp is a non profit organisation offering accessible coding to anyone.

YouTube Channels

5. DevTips

DevTips is one of Travis Neilson’s YouTube channels, who specialises in ‘making things for human people’. The YouTube channel focuses on web design and web development and sometimes offers live Q & As.

DevTips provides weekly shows for those that want to be inspired. The channel opens up opportunities for people to learn development and programming together. Watchers can get involved during the shows, creating a community aspect on a weekly basis. Shows start at 8:00 PM (GMT) every Friday.

6. Coder’s Guide

YouTube channel Coder’s Guide provides a video series on coding languages like JavaScript, HTML and CSS. You’ll find a range of videos from quick learning to in-depth courses, job interview preparation and more.

Neil Rowe offers up some easy to follow video tutorials for anyone wanting to learn coding and web development. He shows you step by step what to do and how to do it. What’s nice is that Neil himself will respond to comments on his videos, answer questions, and get involved in conversations.

7. LearnCode.academy

LearnCode.academy’s YouTube channel is regularly updated. As well as offering free coding videos to help you learn, they also provide tips and tricks to making the best website.

The YouTube channel covers web development tutorials, web design tutorials and more. Some of the languages that are covered are HTML, CSS, JavaScript, CSS Layouts, Responsive Design, and React.js.

HTML & CSS

8. Learn CSS Layout

Learn CSS Layout is ideal if you know the basics of HTML and CSS to begin with. If you don’t have the basic knowledge, you can use some of the other resources I’ve mentioned in this guide to get you started.

It will teach you the best ways and fundamentals of setting up a website in terms of layout. This is going to be valuable know-how when you start creating your own website, and useful for ensuring your site is mobile-friendly.

9. Mozilla Developer Network

The Mozilla Developer Network provides free HTML and CSS documentation to anyone and everyone. They provide tutorials for a selection of topics, from beginner to expert skill levels.

The idea behind the Mozilla Developer Network is to provide articles about Mozilla code. Whether you want to download it or build it, you’ll need to know how the code works. Topics also cover add-ons for Mozilla apps.

10. HTML Dog

HTML dog has some great beginner HTML tutorials (like this one). They also cover CSS tutorials and appeal to beginners and advanced users alike.

HTML dog is a useful resource for anything HTML, CSS, or JavaScript. These languages cover the basics of web development and web design and provide a useful stepping stone into the world of development and programming.

Git

11. Try Git

Created by Code School, Try Git pretty much does what it says on the tin. You can try out your Git knowledge (if you have prior experience) or simply experiment with Git.

12. Git Immersion

This is the place to go if you’ve never used Git before. Git Immersion offers its users a guided tour into the world of Git, setting you up with the basic knowledge.

Coding Blogs

13. Tuts+

Tuts+ offers loads of coding tutorials which can be pretty helpful if you’re looking for something specific. They do have courses too, but these are paid for.

Tuts+ has over 1200 video courses, 250 eBooks, and almost 30,000 tutorials. You can use your newly founded knowledge and skills and make use of Envato Elements. Here you’ll have access to thousands of website templates and themes, designs, and almost half a million photos.

14. David Walsh

David Walsh is a senior developer at Mozilla. His blog (with other contributors aside from himself) offers demos, tutorials, and how-to guides.

David’s blog covers popular topics including .htaccess, CSS, WordPress, SEO, JavaScript, HTML5, and lots more. His blog offers news related to the web development world, alongside incredible demos and feature discussions.

15. CSS Tricks

There’s a whole bunch of stuff on CSS on the CSS Tricks blog. They’ve got loads of resources as well as covering other subjects like JavaScript and PHP. When owner, Chris, started the blog in 2007, he was mostly writing about CSS. It occurred to him that HTML and JavaScript were being mentioned a lot as they both form the basis of creating websites.

Because the blog was made on WordPress, Chris found himself talking about WordPress too, so the name quickly became desolate as he now covers a large range of topics.

CSS-Tricks mainly focuses on building websites and everything else that goes with it. The blog have permanent staff writers as well as guest authors who all offer a different perspective within their content.

Mobile marketing in 2019 is at an all-time high. Every time you use your phone to access the internet, you’re hit with marketing. Remember those adverts on YouTube? Perhaps you’ve seen an advert whilst browsing your social media?

Everyone would’ve experienced this kind of marketing on a mobile phone or smart device. Mobile adverts generate a lot of money; they drive 75% of all digital advert spending.

I’m going to show you some astounding mobile marketing statistics in 2019. Sit tight and digest all there is to know about mobile marketing, you may be surprised!

References:

Forbes: http://bit.ly/2Hz15KY

Statista: http://bit.ly/2feSOvT

Business of Apps: http://bit.ly/2Hz16i0

Hollywood Reporter: http://bit.ly/2VMiJ89

Statista: http://bit.ly/2cwPISb

Tech Jury: http://bit.ly/2VNuo6m

Statista: http://bit.ly/2zPRBH2

Statista: http://bit.ly/2VS8qQ0

Leighton Interactive: http://bit.ly/2HAOBmd

Think with Google: http://bit.ly/2ocCOSK

Citrus Bits: http://bit.ly/2HuGUxC

Stat Counter: http://bit.ly/2s4a1Sp

Impact BND: http://bit.ly/2zUbTC9

Statista: http://bit.ly/2VMuHys

Statista: http://bit.ly/2BCpbUh

Convince and Convert: http://bit.ly/2VJx05k

Think with Google: http://bit.ly/2HDrBCO

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wsjtech/status/451886622788055040?lang=en

Fortune: http://bit.ly/2iWlqyU

Smart Insights: http://bit.ly/2hTKLpW

Think with Google: http://bit.ly/2v7q8NI

Think with Google: http://bit.ly/2HwEEpO

Twitter: https://blog.twitter.com/marketing/en_us/a/2015/new-research-twitter-users-love-to-watch-discover-and-engage-with-video.html

Ad News: http://bit.ly/2VMFVCV

Think with Google: http://bit.ly/2uD4qoU

Download this infographic.

2. Start An Online Store

BEST FOR; Hardworking people who are comfortable dealing with physical products and customers

Again, the main thing (with any online business) is choosing products/ services that interest you and benefit others. Logistically an online store or “ecommerce” as it is known, is a lot more difficult than starting a blog.

You need to think about products, shipping costs, packaging, inventory, storage and so much more. If you want to go into ecommerce, then you need to be happy with that.

An eCommerce business is basically the same as starting any shop/ store, the only key difference is that people don’t normally visit your warehouse in person. When you ship the products you’ll need to ensure that this is handled professionally and the chosen company are competent and cost effective. Additionally, the postage and packaging, tax and other costs must be considered when deciding on a price for your products.

PRO TIP: Check out what others are doing on Amazon and on their personal sites to decide on pricing.

If you’d rather not set up your own ecommerce website to start with, then you can create a store on Amazon or Ebay. The benefit of starting this way is that you will have access to the site’s audience. In the case of Amazon, they have done so much advertising, it’d be silly to miss out on that opportunity. Even if you are thinking of starting your own ecommerce website, then it is a good idea to also sell on Amazon.

How Will I Get Customers Over To My Ecommerce Website?

This is a great question, because often people start up an ecommerce store and then wonder why there is no traffic. Realistically, nobody is going to find your online store unless you advertise it. The best ways to advertise your online store are SEO, Social Media/ Google Ads, Inbound Content Marketing and taking advantage of massive sites like Amazon and Ebay.

How Much Does it Cost To Start An Ecommerce Store?

You will need hosting, an ecommerce solution and also a domain name. The domain name will be your brand identity – so that part is important. On the other hand, you can set up an online store easily with a solution like Shopify. Shopify now has 800,000 store fronts and does all of the hosting and tech stuff for you. They have a free trial, which means you can get started for FREE today (Which is amazing).

Wix and Weebly are very close contenders in the website builder market. In the top 1 million websites, Wix holds 0.34% of the share, and Weebly holds 0.31% of the share, according to Built With. Both companies offer a drag and drop type builder, making it really easy to build a website without any coding knowledge.

Both website builders offer a free website builder option. There are limitations to the free plans, but it’s a good place to start! Wix and Weebly are very similar in terms of the features they offer. With a wide range of modern and professional templates, you could have your site up and running within minutes.

Because Wix and Weebly are so closely matched, I wanted to compare them in depth. I hope this will allow you to decide for yourselves which website builder suits your needs. I’ll be looking at their ease of use, features, customer support, pricing, and pros and cons. Let’s take a look at Wix vs Weebly and get started!

Pricing

The price of a website builder may sway it’s users to buy (or not to buy). As previously mentioned, both Wix and Weebly offer a free plan. But, they both offer premium plans too. When deciding the winner of this category, I’ll be taking into account what’s on offer for the price. A lower price doesn’t always been it’s a better option, and vice versa.

Wix:

Connect Domain (£3 per month) – 1GB bandwidth, 500MB storage, connect your domain

Combo (£6 per month) – 2GB bandwidth, 3GB storage, connect your domain, 30 mins video, remove Wix ads, free domain, £75 ad vouchers

Unlimited (£8.50 per month) – Unlimited bandwidth, 10GB storage, connect your domain, 1 hour video, remove Wix ads, free domain, £75 ad vouchers, Site Booster and Form Builder apps

VIP (£18 per month) – Unlimited bandwidth, 20GB storage, connect your domain, 2 hour video, remove Wix ads, free domain, £75 ad vouchers, Site Booster, Form Builder, and Professional Logo apps, social media logos, priority response, VIP support

These Wix plans are included in their ‘website’ plans options. They also have business and eCommerce specific plans which I’ll touch on later. All premium plans include free web hosting, Google Analytics, a customised Favicon, and the ability to increase storage as/when you need it. What I love about Wix (apart from them being very affordable), is how easy it is to upgrade. If your needs are exceeding what’s on offer, there’s always more you can enjoy!

Weebly:

Starter (£5 per month) – Free domain, $100 Google Ads, No Weebly ads, unlimited storage, connect your domain, SSL certificate, advanced site stats

Pro (£8 per month) – Free domain, $100 Google Ads, No Weebly ads, unlimited storage, connect your domain, SSL certificate, advanced site stats, site search, password protection, video backgrounds, HD video and audio, up to 100 members

Business (£17 per month) – Free domain, $100 Google Ads, No Weebly ads, unlimited storage, connect your domain, SSL certificate, advanced site stats, site search, password protection, video backgrounds, HD video and audio, unlimited members, membership registration

At this point, it’s worth noting that Weebly plans also include the above eCommerce features. Similarly to Wix though, they have separate eCommerce plans that are more tailored to business needs. All of Weebly’s premium plans include SEO tools, and lead capture. You’ll also be able to access their community forums and contact support via email and chat. If you want phone support though, you’ll have to upgrade to the Pro or Business plan to unlock this feature.

And the winner is… Wix!

Although both website builders offer some very versatile pricing plans, Wix is the clear winner for me. Their prices are slightly more affordable than Weebly, and you get more for your money. There are more plans available, making Wix more accessible by a wider audience. They might not offer as much storage on their lower tier plans compared to Weebly, but the other features outweigh this limitation.

Ease of Use

When choosing a website builder, it’s important that you find one that’s easy to use. After all, website builders are meant to be easy to use! Both Wix and Weebly offer drag and drop functionality, making them very easy to pick up and learn. However, both website builders offer small differences and their approaches aren’t always the same.

Wix:

Wix’s drag and drop feature makes it easy to edit an existing template or design. It’s simple to drag site elements from one place to another. It’s also really easy to duplicate existing elements or content, as you may want to relocate them. Text boxes, images, videos, etc. are all easily moved onto any page of your website.

Wix focuses on creativity, and the freedom to experiment. If you don’t know any code like HTML or CSS, you can create a professional website with the same capabilities as someone with coding knowledge. Literally over 100 million people use Wix, which shows you that it can be used by pretty much anyone!

If you’re not keen on dealing with the design of your website, you can let Wix ADI handle it for you. Simply select some options and answer some questions to allow Wix ADI to create your perfect site. It will use it’s intelligence to not only create a template for you, but also the actual layout too.

Weebly:

Similar to Wix, Weebly also offers a drag and drop tool with it’s website builder. However, in my opinion, it’s a little less flexible compared to Wix. Weebly’s templates are professional and offer great design, but are a little more rigid. Unfortunately it’s not possible to drag elements wherever you like, there’s a bit more structure meaning you’ll be more restrictive.

On the flip side, if you prefer more structure and don’t want the creative freedom that Wix offers, Weebly could be a better option. You may even decide to use Weebly as a starting point to follow their guidelines, and move onto a more creative builder later down the line.

Weebly is most definitely aimed at beginners; creating a website is very easy! One of the benefits that Weebly offers that some other website builders don’t is the ability to change your template after your website has gone live. Often when you start off, you’ll make decisions that you’ll later regret or want to change later down the line.

And the winner is… Wix!

There’s really no denying how easy Wix is to use. I’m not saying Weebly isn’t easy to use, because it is, but Wix just has the edge. The choice of drag and drop functionality as well as Wix ADI is a real head turner. From signing up to designing your website, everything is simple. If at any point you get stuck during your website creation journey, there’s helpful hints and a brilliant help center to make use of.

Features

What features are on offer can sometimes be the deciding point for website builder users. I mean, you’re paying money, so surely you’d want a good selection of features, plugins, and apps to give your website the edge. I’ve taken a look at what features are provided by Wix and Weebly to give you an idea of what might suit you.

Wix:

Templates – Wix offers over 500 templates to get you started on your website journey. I don’t think I’ve come across a template that isn’t spectacularly modern and professional. All of their templates are responsive, meaning your website will look great on any device. But, if you wanted to edit your template separately for mobile, this feature is available too.

Fonts – This may be a strange feature to mention, but I love it! You can use any of the fonts that Wix provides on your website. You can also upload any of your own fonts too, so personalising your website has never been easier!

SEO – Wix’s SEO tools are so easy to use. Even if you’re not entirely sure what SEO is or how to optimise it, Wix will walk you through the process. Updating meta tags and descriptions, enabling Google Analytics, etc.

App Market – Wix’s app market has hundreds of apps you can use on your website. Apps are useful to enhance what you’ve already got, or install new features that the website builder doesn’t offer as standard.

Advanced Code – If you do know a coding language, you can make use of this skill with Wix. Although Wix is great for beginners, it gives experts a chance to show their flare too.

Weebly:

Mobile App – Not only can you create and edit your website on your desktop, you can on your mobile too. Weebly’s app allows you to access your website at any time. This is great if you notice an issues, want to add content, or are managing your business online. With almost everyone using mobile in 2019, accessibility anywhere is key.

Templates – Weebly’s templates are professional, modern, and simply divine. All of them are responsive, so you don’t need to worry about being mobile ready. Weebly’s templates can be edited to your own needs, using their simple drag and drop builder.

App Center – The app center allow third parties to offer apps that can be installed. These can be installed on your website, blog, or online store. Third party apps are a great way to tailor make your site to make it absolutely perfect. More often than not, these apps can actually help to drive traffic to your website – a bonus if you ask me!

Blogs – Weebly’s blogging tool is very similar to their website builder. It uses drag and drop features, making it super easy to create a blog. There’s plenty of blog templates to choose from, and you can even ensure that your blog has SEO too.

And the winner is… Wix!

There’s no denying that both website builders offer plenty of features. Weebly presents some interesting features and tools to get your website started. However, I feel that Wix once again has the edge. Their features are that little bit more powerful, and lean more on the professional side.

Pros & Cons

Wix:

+ Monthly subscriptions

+ Easy to use

+ Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI)

+ Plenty of professional templates

+ Loads of features and apps

 

– Unable to change template once you’re site has gone live

– Mobile site editor can be a little unreliable

 

Weebly:

+ Simple designs

+ Great for beginners

+ Drag and drop editor

+ Ability to change template once site has gone live

 

– Less flexible than Wix

– Pricing is based on annual payment

– Not as many plans to upgrade to

Conclusion

Both Wix and Weebly are undoubtedly impressive website builders. They compete well with each other, offering similar features to create the perfect website. They are both very affordable, and offer multiple pricing plans to ensure you can choose the right one for you. However, Wix on all accounts simply offers more!

Wix’s pricing is versatile, meaning you can upgrade whenever and wherever. If you feel like you’re ready to move to the next level, Wix makes this really easy to do. They offer both a drag and drop builder and Wix ADI, at the same price as Weebly who offer a simple drag and drop builder.

Wix’s features allow any user to create a professional website or online store. The best part, everything is included, meaning you can market your website as well as increase visitor traffic, and you don’t need to know anything about it! Creating a modern website won’t be simpler with any other website builder – Wix is my clear winner and they certainly deserve the recognition!

Introduction:

Online shopping is quickly becoming one of the most popular online activities. Currently there are almost 800,000 websites using Shopify as their chosen eCommerce platform. 590,000 of those websites are based in the U.S.A., followed by the U.K. and Australia. There’s no denying that Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms when creating an online store.

When it comes to creating and managing online stores, there are quite a few options available. Although I find it hard to outline many faults with Shopify, some users may prefer an alternative.

Whether you’re looking for a cheaper option, different set of features, or are simply curious, I’ve reviewed 10 Shopify competitors (so you don’t have to)!

1. BigCommerce

There are 49,000 live sites currently on the internet using BigCommerce. This Shopify alternative offers many features, and a pricing plan to suit many users. Their essentials plan starts at $29.95 per month and boasts 0% transaction fees, unlimited products, a responsive website, blog, and up to $50k per year on sales.

Features:

Store Templates – Of course, when it comes to online stores, you may be interested in the features they have to offer. BigCommerce has a wealth of features that you don’t have to pay extra for. Their eCommerce website templates are a great starting point (they’re all responsive). As well as looking modern and professional, you also have the option of choosing a template that’s fast. When I say fast, I mean fast in terms of loading speeds. BigCommerce have optimised templates to ensure that your online store loads within an acceptable time frame. This is perfect for your customers as well as your SEO if you want to generate more traffic and visitors to your site.

Server Speed – It’s often easy to forget that when you use a eCommerce builder or website builder that they are your web host. BigCommerce guarantee a 99.99% uptime, as well as ensuring your site is PCI compliant. These little details allow you to focus on the content of your store, rather than having to worry about the back end.

Site Migration – If you do decide to move your online store from another competitor to BigCommerce, it’s super easy. BigCommerce claim they have migrated over 20,000 stores to their platform. There’s an easy to use tool to make this happen, or you can contact BigCommerce’s expert team for help.

Pros:

• No transaction fees, even with third party gateways
• Extensive feature set even on lowest pricing plan
• Plenty of SEO tools
• Built-in blog
• Ability to sell with companies like Amazon, eBay, and Facebook

Cons:

• Limits on annual online sales
• Pricing is high compared to competitors
• No mobile app to manage online store

 

 

2. SquareSpace

SquareSpace not only provides eCommerce solutions, you can build websites for many professions. Whether you’re a budding artist, musician, or setting up a new shop, SquareSpace can provide the right tools. SquareSpace currently hosts over 1 million live sites, which gives an indication of it’s popularity.

Features:

Product Catalog – SquareSpace doesn’t put any limits on the number of products you can sell. As well as items, you can sell services, making it very versatile. When you list your products or services, you can do so with different variations, SKUs, etc. SquareSpace makes it really easy to setup an online store, regardless of your size. If you own a small business or large scale corporation, you can display all your items in one place.

Subscriptions – It’s becoming a lot more common for online stores to offer subscriptions. Products like food boxes, postal services, etc. all require a subscription. SquareSpace allow you to create monthly subscriptions, annual product deliveries, or seasonal and one-time subscriptions. Users will find it easy to setup recurring subscriptions via your online store, and may even entice more traffic to your site.

Abandoned Checkout – The average abandoned checkout rate is almost 80%, which is a shockingly high figure. With SquareSpace, you can automatically setup rules so that your business will send out reminders to customers. When reminded, customers may revisit their cart on your online store and complete their purchase. This is a must have feature for any online business.

Pros:

• Beautiful templates in terms of design
• Plenty of eCommerce focused features
• Easy to use
• Customisable without the need to code

Cons:

• Expensive compared to other competitors
• Although easy to use, may not be very beginner friendly
• Could do with more payment gateways

 

 

3. WooCommerce

If you have a WordPress site, you may want to consider WooCommerce. It’s an open-source eCommerce platform for WordPress customers (with over 61 million downloads). The plugin is free and easy to install to any WordPress account. WooCommerce, like other online stores, doesn’t charge card transaction fees, and offers multiple payment gateways. In addition to the fresh install of WooCommerce, there’s plenty of add-ons available to customise the plugin to your liking.

Features:

Sell anything – You can pretty much sell anything using WooCommerce. Whether it’s digital or physical (or even both), it’s all possible to fill your online store with. If your business is affiliated with another site, you can provide affiliation links too, keeping everything in one place. When you put a product or item up for sale, you can offer an unlimited amount of variations, e.g. colours, sizes, etc.

Shipping Options – WooCommerce gives you the ability to offer a multitude of shipping options for your online store. You can choose local pickup, delivery, or worldwide shipping. Or, if you only want to ship to certain locations, you can do this too. As well as location-based options, you can also set your own shipping rates. Whether you want a flat rate, variable depending on size, location, etc. WooCommerce can calculate your preferences and provide the output to your customers.

Optimisation – It’s important once you have your online store up and running that you optimise it. WooCommerce tools ensure you’ll get the most out of your business (and so will your customers). You can add features like coupons to entice customers (and their friends) to purchase more. You can also make recommendations to customers as their shopping, taking them on an extended journey of your online store.

Pros:

• Plenty of advanced features
• Ideal for small or large online stores
• Customer and admin accounts
• Free and paid designs available

Cons:

• Can be quite difficult to use
• No direct support

 

4. LemonStand

LemonStand provides the usual eCommerce platform features. However, it also provides a large amount of flexibility, customisation, and automation to make your life easier. Their pricing plan makes choosing the best option for you really easy. All of their plans include their main features, with the difference being the amount of orders you can take. LemonStand also offer a free 14 day trial, so it’s worth giving it a go (even just for the trial).

Features:

Flexibility – As I mentioned, LemonStand provide lots of flexibility. You can setup and sell your products exactly the way you want to. As well as adding products in the ‘standard’ way, you can add custom fields to ensure that regardless of your needs, your products will still sell. You can sell any number of products with unlimited variants, add group-based pricing, discounts, and more.

Blogging – As with many websites now, you can add a blog to your online store. Customers like businesses who inject a little more personality into their websites, and this gives your the opportunity to reach out even further to them. LemonStand’s CMS allows you to create a professional designed website, online store, and blog. You’ll have full control over your content, posts, announcements, and even link products from your store to your blog.

Management – When businesses create an online store, the last thing they’ll want to do is manage the back-end of their website. LemonStand ensure that they manage support, infrastructure, and maintenance. This means you can focus entirely on your business, without any additional stresses.

Pros:

• Great support
• Fixed pricing
• Wealth of features
• Highly customisable

Cons:

• None of the plans offer unlimited products
• Missing features compared to other competitors

 

5. 3dCart

3dCart is a cloud based shopping cart, offering plenty of features for most businesses. Their plans all come with standard features including unlimited bandwidth, orders, 24/7 support, and more. eCommerce stores won’t incur any transaction fees and can be linked to existing blogs and social media stores like Facebook. Plans start from $14.25 per month, including unlimited products, which I think is pretty competitive in the market.

Features:

Responsive Themes – 3dCart will provide you access to over 60 free themes. All of these are mobile ready, meaning you won’t have to worry about optimising your online store for smart device users. With so many internet users now accessing the world wide web via their smart phone, tablet, laptop, etc. it’s essential your site is optimised. If your eCommerce store isn’t mobile ready, you could be jeopardizing your user base, traffic, and SEO score.

Sales Channels – Selling products solely from your online store is now a thing of the past. Customers want to interact in multiple ways, whether that’s through social media (Facebook Store), Amazon, Google, etc. If you don’t connect with other channels, you could be losing out on a lot of your market. 3dCart connects your online store with the likes of eBay, Facebook, Amazon and Shopzilla with ease.

Secure Payments – eCommerce providers offer multiple payment gateways. 3dCart has over 100 payment options for you to choose from. It’s really easy to accept payments from your customers with a wide range of providers. Popular choices include PayPal, Visa Checkout, Google Pay, etc. The more payment methods available, the more customers you could potentially be gaining. All payment gateways are completely secure, too, so you’ll never need to worry about that.

Pros:

• Plenty of free (mobile ready) themes
• No setup or transaction fees
• Unlimited products on all pricing plans

Cons:

• Not as customisable as other shopping carts
• Some user interface issues

6. BigCartel

BigCartel is my recommended choice for beginners into the eCommerce market. They offer affordable pricing plans, and even provide a free plan if you want to sell a limited amount of products. They may not offer as many features as other eCommerce stores, but they provide the market with an alternative that many users could make use of.

Features:

Custom Store – Many website builders and online stores allow you to customise aspects of the themes and templates available. BigCartel allows you to customise your store to exactly how you want it. If you want to use their editor to add products, move content, etc. then it’s really easy to do. But, if you’re feeling experimental, you can access the back-end code of each template and switch and change whatever you like.

Analytical Tools – Once you’ve established a customer base, or even if you’re building one, it’s key to learn where they’re coming from, how they shop, etc. BigCartel’s analytical tools allow you to check stats on your products and run promotions based on data. You can setup marketing, edit your products, and change anything you like. Best of all, you can do all of this from your mobile device!

Niche Market – Although this isn’t necessarily a feature, BigCartel really focus on getting small businesses up and running. Their pricing reflects this, making it easy and accessible for start-ups and individuals to start spreading their wings in the eCommerce market. With BigCartel you can sell anything you like; paintings, music, t-shirts, you name it. BigCartel are 100% independent which means their focus is really on you.

Pros:

• Free plan available
• Very easy to use
• Ideal for beginners and start-ups

Cons:

• Basic themes
• Limited features

 

WordPress may be the most popular website builder on the market, but there are other options to consider. In 2018, Wix held over 22% of the website builder market share. When it comes to designing a website, it’s important to choose the right tool for the job at hand! Depending on your needs, one website builder may trump another, so you should take your time to consider which is best.

Both Wix and WordPress are incredible website builders (that’s why I’m mentioning them). However, each has their own pros and cons, different sets of features, and affordability. So you can decide which is the best website builder, I’ve put together a Wix Vs WordPress comparison to save you the hard work!

Pricing

Luckily, we now live in a world where it’s become very affordable to build a website. However, the cost of each website builder does differ, and could be a deciding factor for some users. The cost can often depend on your requirements, so I’ve done some research as to which website builder is more cost effective.

Wix:

Wix offers it’s customers a free plan, which comes with basic website builder features. However, there are several downsides to it, because it is free. It includes branded adverts on your website in the header and footer, and you can’t use a custom domain. If you did decide to create a website using their free plan, your domain would look something like user.wix.com/websitename

There’s also a lack of features, so you wouldn’t be able to use Google Analytics, eCommerce tools, and Favicons. If you do want more advanced features, you’ll need to upgrade to one of their premium plans.

 

Premium plans start from £3 per month and allow you to connect your own domain name. However, your website will still be limited, and will contain Wix advertisements. If you’re willing to bump up to £6 per month, adverts will get removed and more features will become available. In terms of value for money, I’d suggest the unlimited plan at £8.50 per month. You get a lot more for your buck, and will be able to create a professional looking website at an affordable cost.

WordPress:

WordPress is actually free for anyone on the internet to use. I suppose you’re wondering why it’s free – well, I’ll tell you! If you want to use WordPress to create a website, you’ll need to purchase your own domain name and web hosting. Most web hosts will come with the 1-click installation software which means WordPress can be installed with the click of a button.

There are plenty of WordPress web hosting packages to choose from. If you choose a web host like iPage, you can get web hosting for just £1.50 per month, and you can start to explore your WordPress options. Of course, the more money you’re willing to spend, the options start to open up. For example, you can pay more for a web host to manage your WordPress website, taking the pressure of you, allowing you to concentrate more on your business.

WordPress does offer lots of free themes and templates to get you started. However, if you want something a little more professional, you can pay for a premium WordPress theme, as well as plugins, and more. These features allow you to customise your website to your liking, and there’s literally thousands to choose from.

Verdict:

Both WordPress and Wix offer free options for customers. WordPress is entirely free, but you will need to pay for your own domain name and web hosting to get started. On the other hand, Wix is it’s own web host, but does come with limitations unless you’re willing to pay for a premium plan to unlock more features.

Both has it’s pros and cons in the pricing category. However, when you weigh up the cost versus the features and flexibility, my money is on Wix.

Usability

When it comes to website builders, most people won’t want to learn a new skill to get their website live. The beauty of website builders is that the majority of them don’t require you to know or learn any code to get started. Both Wix and WordPress come with their own features and tools. The main thing is, neither of them are difficult to get used to, even for beginners.

Wix:

Wix is a classic drag and drop website builder. It’s interface allows you to select any section of your website and edit it with the tools they offer. This is called a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) interface.

You can literally drag and drop items on to your website from your device. Simply select an element and update it’s content, add images, videos, etc. This is a great choice for beginners as everything is obvious, and there’s even tooltips should you need them.

WordPress:

WordPress doesn’t use a drag and drop facility, which is a little unfortunate. It uses something called a visual editor which lets you edit your website and theme in a similar WYSIWYG environment. You can customise all themes and templates and choose where you want each element to live.

Personally, I’m not a massive fan of the WordPress interface. It’s difficult to use, especially for beginners, and isn’t obvious where things are. However, once you do get the hang of it, it’s extremely powerful and very flexible. The trouble is, getting to that point in the first place!

Verdict:

I think the winner is pretty clear here. If you’re a beginner, Wix offers an easy to use interface, which is a pleasure to use. Even if you’re a more advanced user, Wix has plenty of features to keep you occupied and allow you to edit your website the way you like it. WordPress is a powerful tool, but in terms of usability, it takes to long to get the hang of.

Customer Support

Support is important when considering a website builder. If you’re a beginner and think you may need assistance, support should be accessible. Even if you’ve designed a website before, resources, forums, FAQs, etc. could still be very useful. Support comes in many forms, including tutorials, live chat, and ticket systems.

Wix:

Wix has a dedicated and focused support area (namely their ‘Help Center’). Support categories are broken down into different sections, making it really easy to locate useful information. They provide a trending topics section which will display the most popular topics being talked about at the moment.

Wix’s social media accounts are very active, making it easy to engage with them, and others. They have scheduled email and telephone support, as well as forums, video tutorials, and more.

WordPress:

WordPress offers thousands (literally) of tutorials and articles. The problem is, because the community is so large, it can be difficult to determine what’s good, bad, and down right ugly! There’s almost too much information to trawl through.

Admittedly, it’s great to have a community of actual users to talk to. People can report their own experiences and share their own stories on how to get things working, to fix things, etc.

Verdict:

Although both Wix and WordPress offer a large support network, Wix is much more focused. Wix caters more towards the wider market, making their support center accessible to beginners and experts alike.

Maintenance

Websites require maintenance to ensure that they continue to be safe and secure. Software updates will need to take place, and add-ons, plugins, etc. will need to be consistent so as not to cause conflicts. Sometimes you can pay for someone to maintain your website, saving you the hassle. I took a look at how Wix and WordPress deal with their updates and how this effects it’s users.

Wix:

There’s not an awful lot to say on this topic for Wix. All Wix updates are carried out automatically by their technical teams. Updates are deployed to your website and you don’t need to get involve at all. In honesty, you won’t even know an update has taken place unless you are monitoring their deployment schedule.

Wix is incredibly easy to use, and this is displayed with their automatic updates. As you don’t need to be involved, you won’t need to worry about anything going wrong.

WordPress:

Being open source, WordPress is constantly updating it’s security, platform, and offering issue fixes. When WordPress deploys an update, it’s users will need to manually update their WordPress website. However, this gets a little tricky when you’re using a custom theme/template, multiple plugins, etc.

Some theme and plugin developers will update their products, ensuring that anything you have installed is automatically updated. However, this isn’t always the case, leaving your website potentially vulnerable. Unless you are constantly monitoring your website, you are open to malicious attacks.

With WordPress, you are required to do your own website maintenance (unless you choose managed WordPress hosting). You’ll need to ensure your website is always updated, and any plugins you have are updated too, otherwise this could cause conflicts.

Conclusion (The Winner is Wix!)

Both Wix and WordPress are very capable and professional website builders. Depending on your needs, each one may be more suitable to your own requirements. WordPress is extremely powerful and offers a lot of customisation, if you’re willing to put in the work. Wix is very user friendly; it’s drag and drop functionality means you can build a professional looking website within a matter of hours.

If you’re not looking to spend too much money, both are good options. However, Wix may be a better place to start as you can upgrade your plan over time, as your needs become greater. With WordPress, you’ll really need to choose the best web host from the outset, as migrating can sometimes be a bit of a pain longer down the line.

Both Wix and WordPress offer some amazing tools to create your website. If you have the money to spend on a WordPress developer, you’ll probably get a better website overall. However, as many people won’t be able to fund such a thing, Wix offers some cracking features that any level of ability can get their hands on.

Overall, Wix is the winner in my eyes. You don’t need to be a techy to get your website on the go. What’s more, once it’s live, there’s a wide range of tools to enhance it even more. You can deal with your SEO all in one place, generating more traffic to your website, and pushing it up the search engine ranks. Creating meta descriptions, meta tags, favicons, etc. is all really easy to do. Wix will take you through the whole process from start to finish, and if you want to understand it, you can read more into it.

If you have any trouble figuring things out (which I doubt you will), there’s a wealth of knowledge in their Help Center. Their support team are available on-hand so you can speak to someone there and then. There’s also plenty of tutorials, FAQs, and help topics if you want to dive a little deeper.

If you’re not convinced by this point, why don’t you take a look at the type of websites you can create with Wix. Personally, I wouldn’t have known these were created with a website builder. The features behind website builders are so powerful nowadays, it makes you wonder why you’d pay for a web designer!