Today anyone can quite easily create their own website. There are many platforms or CMS (Content Management System) among which the best known are WordPress or Blogger (from Google). Nowadays, almost 50% of websites are no longer developed from scratch and use a CMS… this is huge and the trend is expected to continue as these solutions are economical and relatively powerful.
Of course, faced with the rise of CMS, we will always find die-hard developers who want to retain total control of their baby, but they will tend to be fewer and fewer in number given the undeniable quality/price argument.
Among the little-known platforms, but which have made their place in recent years, we find Wix.
Beyond the overwhelming dominance of WordPress, Wix is one of the underdogs that matters when it comes to website creation. Even if you’ve never done it before, Wix aims to allow you to create a site professional quality very easily.
Indeed, Wix has many advantages to get started either through the use of pre-designed templates or through a very innovative tool created by the company: ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence)… we will talk about it a little later.
Finally, to conclude this brief presentation, it is important to indicate that Wix has a large number of features that will suit most types of sites you want to create: portfolios, blogs, corporate sites… or even online stores.
4 steps to create your website
1- Choose a template
Having created quite a few websites, the hardest part (after choosing the name) is selecting a template that must answer 2 questions: is it suited to my needs (in terms of features) and do I like it? So this is a step that should not be taken lightly!
2- Customize your template
When you create your own website, even if you start from a predefined template, you don't want to have a site that looks like all the others...
Wix offers a very intuitive interface that will allow you to customize a large part of the design elements: choose fonts, colors, add your logo, images, create different pages, modify the modules displayed on the screen... All this very simply using simple drag and drop.
You can then start filling your site with the content of your choice, depending on the objective of your site: presentation of the company, about, articles, etc.
3- Add applications to your site
Once the frame is in place, it is necessary to add different tools which will allow you to send the sauce and give real interest to your site.
Thanks to the 200 applications offered by Wix, you will be able to push the customization of your site even further.
These applications will allow you to add a blog, create an online store module, manage online reservations and payments, integrate contact forms, etc.
4- Put your site online
Once you are satisfied with the result, all you have to do is publish your site so that it appears online... This is generally the most exciting moment, but it is also the one where you realize everything you have forgotten and that you need to add as quickly as possible to finalize the site.
Among the services offered by Wix, there is also an SEO tool (Search Engine Optimization) which will allow you to work on the referencing of your site, so that it appears optimally in search engines.
Artificial intelligence at the service of website creation
Among the innovative and original solutions offered by Wix, there is this tool called Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI). This is a tool that will help you create a site that suits you.
ADI will ask you a series of questions and based on your answers will design a site adapted to your needs. This tool will make you skip the first steps of site creation (and in particular the difficult choice of template) to offer you a suitable solution. Of course you will be able to edit and customize the result, but a large part of the work will have already been done.
How much does Wix cost?
Obviously, such a platform has a cost... just like other platforms if you want to host your site yourself and buy a domain name... For a basic hosting + domain name offer, it will cost you between 60 and 100 euros per year.
On the Wix side, the platform has several offers depending on your needs.
The first offer at €4.08 per month is really very interesting to start at a price defying all competition... but it really poses a problem for me since Wix will integrate advertising on your website... meh... But ultimately, it's a good way to test the service before moving on to a more expensive offer.
So, if you want to do something serious, it seems to me essential to start with at least the "Combo" offer at €8.25 per month. Over a year this offer comes to €99... which is more or less the price you would pay if you opted for a WordPress site that you have hosted and for which you pay a domain name. But the undeniable advantage of the solution proposed by Wix is that you have assistance throughout the life of your site... enough to be reassured if you are a novice.
In short, in the jungle of website development platforms, Wix is a good all-in-one solution that should appeal to anyone who wants to create and manage a quality personal or professional site, with a minimum of hassle.
