The GoDaddy identify is synonymous with web hosting. It is the world’s largest domain registrar, and it has held that title for a very long time. GoDaddy Web sites + Advertising and marketing is an growth of that energy; in the event you’re already getting a site identify from GoDaddy, why not get a web site to go together with it? The corporate’s website-building software is a helpful, all-in-one service that features advertising and marketing and instruments for selling and monetizing your web site. You get the area identify, the web site builder, social media hooks, and email marketing multi functional spot. That mentioned, Duda and Wix supply much more sturdy function units, so they continue to be our Editors’ Alternative winners for web site builders.
Plans and Costs
GoDaddy Web sites + Advertising and marketing has three paid tiers designed to enchantment to individuals with various internet hosting necessities. All plans embrace an SSL certificate, a mobile-friendly web site design, a PayPal button, a free enterprise telephone quantity for a 12 months, 24/7 assist, and a handful of different options. It is primarily “limitless” storage and knowledge transfers. GoDaddy additionally provides a free plan that features a single web site with internet hosting, 24/7 buyer assist, and restricted social and electronic mail advertising and marketing. Not all rivals have free tiers, in order that’s a pleasant possibility for informal customers.
(Credit score: GoDaddy/PCMag)
The entry-level Fundamental plan ($16.99 monthly) enables you to join one customized area, offers you an electronic mail account that matches your area (free for one 12 months), and allows you to ship 100 advertising and marketing emails monthly. The Premium bundle ($29.99 monthly) is much like Fundamental, besides it enables you to create, launch, and enhance social posts, and ship 25,000 advertising and marketing emails monthly.
The Commerce plan is GoDaddy’s top-level web site builder tiers. Just like the Premium plan, Commerce ($34.99 monthly) has limitless social media platforms and posts. It additionally contains promoting limitless merchandise through an internet retailer (or Amazon, eBay, and Instagram), establishing transport choices, managing promotions and reductions, and sending 100,000 advertising and marketing emails monthly. For those who’re severe about promoting merchandise on-line, the Commerce plan is for you. That mentioned, we do not like that on-line retailer creation is unique to those tiers.
GoDaddy’s pricing is comparable with the competitors’s premium tiers: Wix begins at $17 monthly, Duda begins at $19 monthly, and Squarespace begins at $16 monthly.
Setup Wizard and Templates
Earlier than you can begin constructing and even see any web site templates in GoDaddy Web sites + Advertising and marketing, you have to create an account, which might be completed through Amazon, Fb, or by signing up utilizing an electronic mail handle and password. Earlier than you select a template, the startup wizard asks you in regards to the web site’s material, the place you wish to promote merchandise, and what identify the location ought to have. The wizard picked a template for our take a look at web site that featured a typewriter, primarily based on our want for a writer-focused web site.
The template designs are trendy and engaging. The template previews have a button to indicate the location in desktop and cellular variations, providing you with an thought of what your web site will appear like. Upon selecting one, you see a web page exhibiting how a pattern web site utilizing the template appears to be like each on desktop and cellular. There are greater than 100 templates in complete. You’ll be able to change some themes, however these are minor modifications to the general template. Nevertheless, you possibly can change whole templates with out rebuilding the location, one thing few web site builders supply.
Constructing an E-Commerce Web site
The back-end interface is obvious, easy, and uncluttered. The dashboard icon takes you to promotion choices like including a Fb Web page, making a weblog, and implementing SEO settings. Clicking Edit Web site enables you to tweak the location’s identify, rearrange web site sections, and customise different options. A devoted social media part enables you to add Fb, Google, Instagram, and Twitter/X accounts. GoDaddy accounts begin with a yousitename.goddadysites.com URL, however you possibly can join a site identify you already personal or decide up a customized GoDaddy area.
(Credit score: GoDaddy/PCMag)
Clicking Edit Web site takes you to the web site builder correct. You are handled to a view of your web site, with sections highlighted as you scroll over them. In contrast with Duda and Wix, GoDaddy is restricted in that it solely enables you to insert predesigned sections. You’ll be able to’t simply drag a brand new ingredient in from an inventory; as an alternative, you have to scroll over a bit and click on the large plus icon so as to add a brand new part. Then, you are given a searchable checklist of the content material that may be positioned in that spot. You’ll be able to’t merely add a photograph or textual content field wherever you want. GoDaddy Web sites + Advertising and marketing is an efficient match for individuals who do not feel assured controlling the look of their web site and would fairly have all of the design decisions made for them.
In truth, merely including a picture or different merchandise feels unintuitive, as you possibly can’t do it in any respect in sure part sorts. You’ll be able to add a number of photographs directly, and as soon as they’re uploaded, you need to use them in any photograph house on the location. Any uploaded picture can be utilized in photograph galleries, too. Sadly, there are set positions the place the pictures dwell on the dwell web page. As for picture enhancing, GoDaddy enables you to zoom photographs, rotate and crop them, flip them from coloration to black and white, add shapes, and do different tweaks. Most web site builders embrace at the least a few of this sort of image-editing performance. Right here, GoDaddy’s web site builder integrates with GoDaddy Studio’s design instruments.
You add a web page through the Web site menu icon on the right-side panel. There are devoted menus for About, Contact Us, Photograph Gallery, and different sections. You simply give the web page a reputation after which add content material sections. The newly created web page is empty, save for a header, footer, and heart space the place you can begin including sections. Now you can make particular person pages, however not your complete web site, personal by requiring a membership sign-in.
GoDaddy now provides Airo, a group of a number of generative AI tools to assist make the constructing course of quicker and simpler. After you reply a number of questions and enter a immediate, the builder generates the whole lot from pages with footage to merchandise with descriptions to customer support messages to social media adverts. It might not be good, but it surely’s an excellent place to start out that might save time in contrast with ranging from scratch.
Each edit you make is robotically saved. Throughout enhancing, you possibly can hit Preview to see the location’s present state. The preview reveals each desktop and cellular views.
There are a number of methods to make your web site herald money, each within the type of web page sections: You’ll be able to improve to the On-line Retailer account degree, add a PayPal donation button, allow appointment bookings, or show adverts utilizing Google AdSense (which is frowned upon on right now’s net and does not produce a lot earnings). GoDaddy additionally enables you to create a Payable Area, a customized area that serves as a direct and safe cost hyperlink for buyer checkouts.
(Credit score: GoDaddy/PCMag)
After we upgraded to the On-line Retailer account degree, we found {that a} Store web page had been added to our web site. You’ll be able to add merchandise in a easy interface that permits a photograph, identify, value, sale value, customized classes, SKU, and outline. You too can specify coloration and measurement choices and bodily vs. digital items. As well as, GoDaddy provides glorious assist with stock and transport choices, and UPS and USPS integrations. You may get paid through Apple Pay, PayPal, Square, and Stripe, all glorious providers. GoDaddy POS {hardware} connects your on-line retailer with offline gross sales. You get a professional-looking buying cart and checkout pages, and you’ll even have textual content messages despatched to you about incoming orders.
All account ranges embrace a helpful electronic mail advertising and marketing software. This allows you to blast a template-based electronic mail to everybody who signed up for a membership in your web site. You get decisions of gross sales campaigns, occasions, and normal newsletters. It is a versatile and customizable software that tracks responses and schedules mailings.
Cell Web site Modifying and web optimization
GoDaddy Web sites + Advertising and marketing creates a practical, handsome, responsive cellular web site primarily based on the desktop web site you construct, however you haven’t any management over the cellular presentation. Even the responsive-design-focused Squarespace enables you to tweak cellular web site presentation, and plenty of web site builders, equivalent to Wix, allow you to customise the cellular view significantly. Then once more, none of this will likely matter to you; our take a look at web site appeared fairly good and functioned as anticipated.
The opposite aspect of the cellular coin—enhancing your web site from a cellular system—is a feather in GoDaddy’s cap. You are able to do virtually something in a smartphone browser that you are able to do in a desktop net browser, together with altering the theme and including sections and pictures.
A SEO possibility helps you make your web site interesting to net search engines like google. Merely click on web optimization from the Advertising and marketing drop-down menu, and also you’re taken by means of a wizard. The wizard proposes key phrases and phrases and populates your web page title and metatags. It additionally proposes content material areas into which it’s best to add the key phrases. For those who’re new to web site constructing, remember that your web site will not seem in net search outcomes till you’ve got verified the location with the major search engines.
Buyer Service and Uptime
For such an enormous firm, GoDaddy excels when it comes to assist. It has 24/7 telephone assist and an internet chat possibility in the event you want private assist, however there’s additionally an enormous Assist Middle data base, how-to movies, and a full neighborhood discussion board. We jumped on chat to ask a query and have been related to an agent in below a minute. The reply was a little bit slower than some providers; it took roughly two minutes to get a solution, however we did get an appropriate answer.
Web site uptime is likely one of the most vital facets of a internet hosting service. In case your web site is down, shoppers or prospects can not discover your services or products, and you do not need that. GoDaddy guarantees a 99.9% uptime fee, so your retailer ought to be obtainable to prospects in any respect hours.
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Verdict: A Effectively-Rounded Web site Builder
GoDaddy Web sites + Advertising and marketing is likely one of the easier site-building choices in the marketplace, but it surely delivers handsome websites for desktop and cellular viewing. As well as, GoDaddy offers you numerous room to develop by providing limitless storage and month-to-month knowledge transfers with all plans. That mentioned, it solely offers you restricted management over your web site’s look, which can postpone some would-be web site creators. Although GoDaddy is great, Duda (for SaaS integration) and Wix (free of charge use) are richer choices with extra customizability, so they’re our Editors’ Alternative winners.
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GoDaddy Web sites + Advertising and marketing is a superb web site builder with engaging templates, AI-powered web site design, and beneficiant storage and month-to-month knowledge transfers.
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About Jordan Minor
Senior Analyst, Software program
