What's the goto tool for making a website?

AshleyC

AshleyC

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Many moons ago I used wordpress to put something together and it seemed ok if a little fiddly. Just wondering if there are newer better tools out there. I want a website with a shopping cart.
 
I use Squarespace. I had my own site using Zencart some years back but found Squarespace is simple and the support awesome. Costly? Yup but in my opinion it is worth it.
 
If you want your website to rank in google Wordpress is still your best bet. Then use one of the Wordpress builders to create the site. Elementor builder is probably the most popular at the moment and is easy to use.
 
It really depends on the goal for the website and how hands-on you want to be.
 
Also if you need to be top of Google, or if you are doing marketing via links (rather than Google algorithms).
 
f/2.8 said:
If you want your website to rank in google Wordpress is still your best bet. Then use one of the Wordpress builders to create the site. Elementor builder is probably the most popular at the moment and is easy to use.
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WordPress but certainly not elementor from early 2010s. You don't want to be stuck with if you are starting out
 
AshleyC said:
Many moons ago I used wordpress to put something together and it seemed ok if a little fiddly. Just wondering if there are newer better tools out there. I want a website with a shopping cart.
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Mrs Nod did hers using Wix.
 
Thanks all.
I was looking at Wix last night but it put me off a little. it felt like i had to sign up to domain and hosting services before it would show me how my site would actually look by using it. last time i used Wordpress was at least 7 years ago so i'll see if the interface on that has improved since then too.

Annoyingly i am a developer in the real world so could write a website, just not "design" it. So it would work well but look crap!
 
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AshleyC said:
Wordpress was at least 7 years ago so i'll see if the interface on that has improved since then too
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Massive changes. You want the latest type theme to take the full advantage

AshleyC said:
Annoyingly i am a developer in the real world so could write a website, just not "design" it. So it would work well but look crap!
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Apparently AI image generators can be used to suggest a layout. I've not tried but it's know for that. You could also imitate another site you like
 
f/2.8 said:
Come back when you know what you are talking about :D
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I manage 4 WP sites, 3 of them mine, and 1 clients which had elementor on it. What an absolute disaster to work with that site was. He paid a shed load to have it redesigned because it wouldn't even translate to Guttenberg
 
I’m a bit old school and still use plain old HTML, php for backend functionality, and JavaScript.
However my partner has a wee online shop and I set up a Wordpress instance for her on IONOS and she created her own site with e-commerce functionality on her own with minimal intervention from me.

Jake
 
Jakey_Boy said:
I’m a bit old school and still use plain old HTML, php for backend functionality, and JavaScript.
However my partner has a wee online shop and I set up a Wordpress instance for her on IONOS and she created her own site with e-commerce functionality on her own with minimal intervention from me.

Jake
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Well Wordpress is just HTML, PHP and JavaScript. Why reinvent the wheel though, when these open source tools exist?

My e-commerce store is built on a very heavily modified Opencart to suit my needs. I could have built it from scratch but the base Opencart provided all the basic functionality and I didn’t have to write the code myself.
 
ecoleman said:
All of that interaction is done with PHP, HTML, JavaScript and CSS. All of which is just text.
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It's ALL text, isn't it? Being pedantic, yes, one could still code up a website in Notepad, but it would be a huge amount of work to make a modern design. I could do HTML and CSS, but not Java or PHP - life is too short. :LOL:
 
I have three websites and I've built them all using Wordpress themes. The one I use for my main business website is a theme called Avada. You can add various plug ins to tailor the site exactly as you want it but the WooCommerce builder option gives you the shopping basket option. In my view, you pay a premium for sites like Squarespace and Wix, and it's just as easy to purchase a Wordpress theme.
More importantly, the best advice I can give to anyone building a website is to add the SEO plugin, Yoast. I've used this for years now and it makes it very intuitive to do the search engine optimisation yourself.
 
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AshleyC said:
Thanks all.
I was looking at Wix last night but it put me off a little. it felt like i had to sign up to domain and hosting services before it would show me how my site would actually look by using it. last time i used Wordpress was at least 7 years ago so i'll see if the interface on that has improved since then too.

Annoyingly i am a developer in the real world so could write a website, just not "design" it. So it would work well but look crap!
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I'm sure it was Wix where I read that you can't transfer the site out to another host.
 
gman said:
I'm sure it was Wix where I read that you can't transfer the site out to another host.
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I'd imagine that doing that is difficult with any 'online' website building tool.
 
Pound Coin said:
I'd imagine that doing that is difficult with any 'online' website building tool.
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I'm not really sure, but I know that Wordpress can be self hosted or hosted on their severs, I believe a Wix site must be hosted on their servers.
 
gman said:
I'm not really sure, but I know that Wordpress can be self hosted or hosted on their severs, I believe a Wix site must be hosted on their servers.
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You will not be able to transfer your website from the likes of WIX and Sqaurespace etc but you can transfer your domain out.

A wordpress site comes in two flavours. Wordpress.com is like the above, you are hosing the site with them and won't have the same control as you do with a self hosted wordpress site. Download Wordpress from Wordpress.org or install it via your own host and you can do what you like with it.
 
ecoleman said:
You will not be able to transfer your website from the likes of WIX and Sqaurespace etc but you can transfer your domain out.
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Exactly. hence my suggestion that you just purchase a popular theme like Avada, once the site is built, it's yours and you can host it or move it wherever you want.
 
Santafe2000 said:
Exactly. hence my suggestion that you just purchase a popular theme like Avada, once the site is built, it's yours and you can host it or move it wherever you want.
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You don't have to download any particular theme to host your own wordpress site. Personally, I'd avoid any of these themes on the likes of Themeforest / Envato. They are usually bloated with a lot of unnecessary javascript and CSS.
 
ecoleman said:
You don't have to download any particular theme to host your own wordpress site. Personally, I'd avoid any of these themes on the likes of Themeforest / Envato. They are usually bloated with a lot of unnecessary javascript and CSS.
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No, you don't, but the average layperson will likely find it easier building their own site from a theme. What does unnecessary javascript and css mean to the average layperson wanting an intuitive tool to build their own website?
 
Santafe2000 said:
No, you don't, but the average layperson will likely find it easier building their own site from a theme. What does unnecessary javascript and css mean to the average layperson wanting an intuitive tool to build their own website?
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You should be asking what unnesessary javascript and CSS means to your visitors. It means a slow loading site which you should avoid. Google also uses site speed for SERPS
 
I find Pixieset's shopping experience is easier to both set up and to use as a customer than the others I tried - but I only use it for client galleries, not my main site. That's currently in Adobe Portfolio.

No idea how either rate for SEO!
 
ecoleman said:
You should be asking what unnesessary javascript and CSS means to your visitors. It means a slow loading site which you should avoid. Google also uses site speed for SERPS
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You may be infinitely more technically capable than me in this area, but the point is, I approach this from the view of an average layperson, knowing nothing about coding, and as a novice, having built four sites using themes. Two are highly successful business websites, which have SEO plug-ins and rank regularly on the first page of google. I encountered many technical issues in building those sites, but unneccessary javascript or css was not one of them. Neither do I have issues with a slow loading site.
You use Kadence blocks, isn't this just a theme or template, and one incidentally, that also comes at a cost?
 
gman said:
I believe a Wix site must be hosted on their servers.
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Mrs Nod says that her Wix created site is hosted by Namesco.
 
Is that the servers hosting the website? Or just the domain registration?
 
Pass!
 
It will be the domain registration, because Wix sites can only be hosted on their servers.
 
AshleyC said:
Thanks all.
I was looking at Wix last night but it put me off a little. it felt like i had to sign up to domain and hosting services before it would show me how my site would actually look by using it. last time i used Wordpress was at least 7 years ago so i'll see if the interface on that has improved since then too.

Annoyingly i am a developer in the real world so could write a website, just not "design" it. So it would work well but look crap!
Click to expand...
Wix binds you and it becomes difficult to switch when you want to, I would prefer WordPress over wix can be hosted anywhere and switched as per needs with any provider. If its buying domain and getting hosting you can try Webhostuk.co.uk they are pretty good with managed wordpress hosting, having using them for long time and support is pretty good.
 
ecoleman said:
You don't have to download any particular theme to host your own wordpress site. Personally, I'd avoid any of these themes on the likes of Themeforest / Envato. They are usually bloated with a lot of unnecessary javascript and CSS.
Click to expand...
Right now actually I would just start with 2024. I can see very few reasons not to
 
I still use notepad ... well a text editor thats like notepad on steroids :)
 
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