With the help of website builders like Duda, Wix, WordPress, etc, you can easily create a website in no time without needing any coding skills or investing in a development team.
So, building a website from scratch is not a difficult task to achieve anymore. the difficult part is finding the one for you.
Although all website builders are all about just that, building a website, there are still some differences. And not all of them match your needs.
So, in this post, we will try and make your decision easier, by introducing you to one of our favorite website builders, Duda.
We will also look into how to create a website with Duda, so that, hopefully, by the end of the article, you also have your complete dream website.
Enjoy!
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What is Duda?
Duda is a website builder platform for all types of customers, from freelancers to digital agencies, all the way up to the largest corporations.
It is fast and efficient and focuses on your needs instead of trying to steal your attention with unnecessary features. Not to mention that Duda comes with a simple, drag-and-drop interface for easy structuring and customization.
The builder also supports eCommerce, comes with a one-click SSL for simplicity, and provides AWS hosting for an incredible 99% uptime.
Moreover, Duda provides ample templates and certain space and tools to customize. So anyone can build an attractive website simply and quickly with Duda.
Who is Duda for?
- Web design agencies
- SaaS companies
- Freelancers
- And everyone else
Duda aims to provide professional but simple solutions to agencies or SaaS companies that build websites at scale. Companies that have clients up to 10,000, can build up websites in a short time and showcase to the clients.
Additionally, Duda also provides a solution for customer relationship management. Companies and agencies can manage the client base within the editor.
Even if Duda targets more on Business-to-Business service (B2B), it is a great website builder to start for individual users as well.
If you are a non-technical user, you can adopt a gorgeous template and choose some elements from the pre-built section, then voilà, you have your website.
But if you do know something about web design, Duda also has the freedom to build the website from scratch. So no matter what type of users you are, Duda’s functionality can definitely satisfy most of your needs.
Pros of using Duda
- Nice-looking template and premade elements: Duda has many premade templates and elements for users to choose from.
- Customizable with ease: Users can easily re-design the layout, text, font, colors, and so on. Duda’s drag-and-drop editor makes customization in Duda easy. No front-end development skill required, just drag and drop until you are satisfied.
- Advanced features: A growing App Store, 3rd-Party Integrations, access to CSS, HTML & JS, Dynamic Pages, widget builder, and much more.
- Business-friendly: Duda is great and convenient for businesses that have the demand to create websites for clients at large. With Duda, businesses can manage their clients with Duda’s client management system.
Cons of using Duda
- Expensive plan: Duda’s pricing is not exactly cheap. The basic plan still costs $14USD, so the price of Duda might not be friendly to everyone.
- Might not suitable for blog-oriented businesses: For businesses or individuals who are dependent on the communication and interaction on blogs, Duda might be not entirely user-friendly. Currently, the only way for users to leave a comment or share their thoughts on a blog is to do so with their Facebook account.
- Newsletter function unavailable: Duda does not currently provide users with an integrated newsletter tool, so E-mail marketing is one of the main strategies, then Duda might not be the ideal choice for you.
Before you make any decision whether Duda is the builder for you or not, let’s learn how to get started with Duda. Maybe you just find out the perfect builder for you.
How to create your own site with Duda?
1. Create your Duda account
Source: duda.co
The first step to a beautiful website, “create an account”! It is really just a few seconds to complete a task. To register in Duda, you will need to fill out some information.
First, fill out your name, business email, and set a password. Then click “Create Account” to move on to the next slide.
Source: duda.co
After you have filled out your personal information, you will also need to provide some information about your business.
Choose the description that fits your situation and needs, it is absolutely no problem even if you are freelancing or self-employed.
Select “I am looking to build a website for my business”, and press “Start Now”. And congrats, you are all set to start your Duda journey!
2. Begin to Create a Responsive Website
Now that you have created an account successfully, you will be taken to the Dashboard, where you can find the buttons to create a responsive website.
Here is also where you can see sites you build, and access other functions such as White Label, Team, Client Management, and Account Information.
Now let’s build your first Duda website! Here is the quick tour video made by Duda.
3. Select a template
Click “Create a Responsive Site” to begin your Duda journey. Duda has almost 100 templates (continuing to increase) for different types of business.
Business, restaurant, portfolio, store, blog, whatever you are searching for, Duda has categorized templates for all of your needs, thus you can quickly find the template that fits your niche in your industry.
Source: duda.co
So take a moment to think of your brand aesthetics, product/service, and target audience. Put yourself in their shoes and list out the essential functions you must have on your website.
Also, keep in mind that the website has to be as friendly as possible to your users. After all, their experience on the website is the key to your successful business!
Source: duda.co
However, don’t get distracted by the colors or layouts of those templates, they can be easily changed later.
Even if you change your mind and want to switch to another template completely, you can always create a second template as well. Once you select the template, click “Start” to edit the template.
4. Edit your template
You will be taken to the template editor when you have selected your ideal template. Duda’s editor page is very clean and minimal, and the navigation is quite intuitive.
It won’t take you a long time to be familiar with those functions. We recommend watching Duda’s editor tour video before you start.
Designing a successful website is not hard, you just need to pay more attention to several key elements. Don’t worry if you are new in this field, we are going to go through some important elements of a good website.
4.1 Edit the Navigation Menu
The navigation menu decides what kind of information that you will be showing to your customers or users. So first, categorize the website content.
Take a look at the Web TechPRENEUR website, it categorizes its articles into several categories such as Comparisons, Reviews & Guides.
Make the main categories as accessible and obvious as possible, so your potential customers can access quickly.
Don’t forget to insert your navigation menu inside the header, so it won’t disappear when the users go to the other page.
In Duda, the navigation menu is under the “Widgets” section. Here are the steps for editing the navigation menu.
- Step 1: Click Widgets, and find “Navigation Links”
Source: Duda
- Step 2: To customize the menu bar, click the navigation menu and the customization option will pop up.
Source: Duda
- Step 3: Adjust the font, color, or add the visible pages.
4.2 Edit the header
The header is on the top section of the website. Having a good header is very important since the header is where your brand name and logo will be. If you do it right, it reinforces the users’ memory.
Editing the header in Duda is quick and simple, just follow the following steps,
- Step 1: Move your mouse to the top of the website, then you will see an orange line appear.
Source: Duda
- Step 2: Click “header” to open the header menu.
Source: Duda
4.3 Edit and manage the pages
Now, you have your header and navigation menu in place. Let’s move on to the most important part, the page design.
Duda’s visual editor adopts the drag-and-drop system, so the user can element to the location they want by simply clicking, dragging, and dropping. All elements are adjustable, resizable, and links insertable.
Source: Duda
Remember the style, color, and font have to be consistent throughout all pages, too many variations will just be too confusing for people to browse!
The pages can be easily managed by clicking “PAGES” on the left-side bar.
The order of the pages can be arranged in the pages and popups by dragging the page block. And to make a sub-page, you just drag the page to the right.
And if you want to hide or rename the page, just click the setting icon on the right. Then you will have options to hide, rename, duplicate, edit page URL, SEO, set password, and delete.
4.4 Make your website SEO friendly!
One of the biggest advantages of having your own website is that people will be able to find you through search engines. And the process of making your website search engine friendly is called, “Search Engine Optimization (SEO)”.
And, to get you started, some of the most common SEO tricks that you can pick up immediately are:
- Write relevant and informational content – Create qualitative and relevant content on your website that your users want to read;
- Meta descriptions – Meta descriptions are shown on the search engine results page and help users understand what your pages are about in just a fraction of a second. It is very important to have concise and catchy ;
- Keyword consistency – Create a list of valuable keywords and use it throughout your content so you show Google and your users you are consistent and focused;
- Security – Data privacy is very important for your users as well as for Google and other search engines, so don’t skip on buying an SSL before publishing your site;
- Decide on a memorable slug – using a simple name describing the URL of a specific page is very important because both your users and search engine bots will find your content faster that way, boosting your traffic rank.
Although SEO is not where Duda’s strength lies, it still has the basic features for users to do basic optimization.
To optimize your on-page SEO on each page, you can go to PAGES, and then click on the setting icon and select SEO.
There, you will be able to turn on the index, edit the page title, and description for each page. But that’s just the page part, you also need to optimize the SEO for the whole site.
Source: Duda
To edit the SEO for the entire website, go to Settings, and click SEO. In the section, you can edit the site title and the site description.
Source: Duda
Duda has a nice word limit, which is the optimal length for Google or any other search engine. Go straight to the point and highlight your business with keywords, and most importantly, make your texts compelling.
If you have no idea how to write an engrossing description for your site, search, and take a look at some of your favorite brands or stores.
Learn how the big brands and companies structure their site descriptions and create a structure that works for your business.
4.5 Add social media links
Social media is proven to be an effective way to drive traffic to the main site. Social media and websites, these two essential digital marketing elements are closely related.
Good social media management provides another opportunity to strengthen brand awareness, reach broader profiles, and promote the business. So by all means, add your social media links on the website.
Adding social media links is only a simple drag-and-drop away as well. Firstly, go to PAGES and just drag the widget where you want your social media icons to locate. Easy-peasy right?
Source: Duda
5. Preview your website on all devices
Source: duda.co
Duda is a responsive website builder. Namely, you don’t need to spend extra time making another interface for desktop, mobile, or tablet.
However, all devices can be previewed and customized. On the Duda editor, you will see three device icons on the top of the editor. It looks like this,
Thus, you can check the design on all devices while you are editing. The users are always allowed to make changes in each device until it looks great!
6. Choose a domain
We are so close to launch your first Duda website!!! When you have your website ready to go, you need to choose a domain to publish your website.
Domain names and email hosting aren’t included. You can either register a domain through Duda or link an existing one to your Duda website.
Duda offers two domain plans, one for a responsive website, and the other responsive website + e-commerce.
Source: Duda
Once you have selected your domain plan, then you will have the option to publish your website via a default domain, purchase a new domain on Google or hover, or use a domain you already own.
Purchasing a domain from another domain provider could be a good idea if you are looking for a more economical deal. Too lazy for that? No problem, Duda’s offers are quite fair as well.
Source: Duda
7. Publish your website
After you settle your domain, your website is ready to go online! All you need to do is press that “Publish” button.
Nevertheless, it takes up to 48 hours for a new Domain Name System (DNS) settings to take effect. But once it is fully set, your Duda website is live!
8. Backup & Restore
Source: Duda
Last but not least, never forget to backup your website. In Duda, users can backup and restore a version of the site.
When your website is live or enters the developer mode, Duda also automatically saves the current version of the site. Consequently, you don’t have to worry about losing your site.
To sum up
Overall, building a website with Duda is fast and effortless. It is a set of well-engineered and well-designed features put together.
The visual editor of Duda is very user-friendly and easy to work with even for non-designers. For developers, Duda can also be switched into developer mode.
But since Duda’s target audience is medium-size companies and agencies. Some functions might not be as useful for individual builders.
With the price plan of Duda, it might be more affordable for companies and agencies. Compared with other website builders such as Wix or Weebly, Duda is comparatively more expensive.
And unfortunately, Duda only has a free trial period for the $22 per month Team plan.
There is no perfect website builder. At the end of the day, you should choose the website builder that you can work comfortably with. And perhaps Duda can achieve the effect you are looking for, so give it a try!
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