Yola

Typically our Nifty Website choices focus on the smaller, up and coming websites that are on the verge of success. Yola is a bit different in that they are already well established and for the most part successful. However, their website builder offers something that many don’t in the form of business tools and merchant integration options.

The Basics

Basic site building and hosting services are free although users will get the most from Yola by utilizing one of their monthly plans. Features such as custom domains and phone/email support are included in all three packages dubbed Bronze, Silver and Gold.

A Silver plan unlocks more customizable settings such as CSS editing along with Facebook and mobile publishing. The mobile site feature is especially useful because these days you can’t possibly move forward if your website isn’t viewable on mobile devices. The Gold plan adds SEO (search engine optimization) analysis to your site and is definitely worth the step up if you don’t have a clue what SEO is.

Beyond the Basics

Many of those basic features can be found on a number of other site builders. What strikes us as a successful step above many of them are the tools available for integration within the site.

Merchants can incorporate inventory management, payments systems, tracking detail and mobile sales directly into a Yola site. Typically a daunting task, Yola turns selling online into a more reasonable experience for merchants.

Business tools can be utilized as well. With standard features like contact forms and Google Maps, Yola sites are comparable to other expensively built websites. Advanced tools include mailing lists, site stats, appointment scheduling, Facebook commenting and more. Setting up mailing lists alone can be a source of frustration so having the option at your fingertips is a huge plus.

Behind the Scenes

As many already know, a website is merely the front face of a much larger machine. Yola employs cloud hosting with a claim of 99.9% uptime (we have no reason to doubt that figure) as well as DDoS protection. So although you’re paying a monthly fee to Yola, the built-in protection they provide is something you may not get going it alone, which makes the price more of a value point.

Yola does provide some basic tutorials to guide new users along and actually displays a phone number on the main page for anyone that needs assistance. Two things that a less established site builder might not offer.

Summary

Yola is well established with over 7 million users and counting. They have a simple system in place to get new users up and running with a basic template from which they can make the site their own.

Yola stands apart from some others with business tools and merchant features that normally require some additional coding or plug-ins. The features can help build a truly complete business website or organizational online presence.

Overall, users will need to invest in one of the premium packages to benefit from Yola, though we think it’s a wise investment if it’s a serious project. If you’ve been looking for an easy way to get a website off the ground and want a source that’s trusted and reliable, then Yola is a great place to get started.

Visit Yola

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