Create your Free Website

 

 


Free Websites: FAQs

Top 5 questions

  1. How do I change the header image of my website? (Video)
  2. How do I make my website appear in search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing) result pages?
  3. How do I insert a picture stored on my computer into my website? (Video)
  4. How do I insert a YouTube video into my website? (Video)
  5. I cannot see the changes I made on my website. The changes are not reflected on my website. What happened?

Notes for Newbies

  1. How do I contact the support team for a matter not covered in this help page?
  2. How much space does my free website has to store images, videos and documents?
  3. Who can create a free website?
  4. How do I create my website? (Video)
  5. Is it really free?
  6. What do I need to create my website? Do I have to install anything on my computer?
  7. Are there any service charges or fees to keep my website online?
  8. Who stores or 'hosts' my website? Is it also free?

Creating Your Website Free

  1. How do I create my free website? (Video)
  2. How do I start editing my website? (Video)

Editing and configuring your free website

  1. How do I access the edit controls on my website? (Video)
  2. Can someone else edit my website? How do I hide the editing controls? (Video)
  3. How do I change the look and feel of my website? How do I change the colors of my website? (Video)
  4. How do I change the header image of my website? (Video)
  5. I cannot see the changes I made on my website. The changes are not reflected on my website. What happened?
  6. Since changes are not reflected immediately, how can I preview them?
  7. How do I change my website Internet address?
  8. I no longer have access to the email address I used to create my website. What can I do?

How to add and edit content on your website Free

  1. How do I add a new content page to a section of my website? (Video)
  2. How do I rename the links in the secondary navigation of my website? (Video)
  3. How do I edit a content page? (Video)
  4. How do I remove a page from a section of my website? (Video)

How to add Videos, Photos, Maps and Documents to a page

  1. How do I insert a picture stored on my computer into my website? (Video)
  2. How do I insert a Flickr image into my website? (Video)
  3. How do I insert a picture from the Internet into my website? (Video)
  4. How do I insert a map into one of my pages? (Video)
  5. How do I insert a YouTube video into my website? (Video)
  6. How do I insert a video stored on my computer into my website? (Video)
  7. How do I insert a document (Word, Excel, PDF, etc)? (Video)

How to promote your website in search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc)

  1. How do I make my website appear in search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing) result pages?
  2. How many visitors can I expect to receive from search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc)?
  3. How can I increase the popularity of my website on search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc)?

How do I contact the support team for a matter not covered in this help page?

If you think you have encountered a problem that cannot be solved without our assistance, please contact the support team who is dedicated to solving specific technical problems that might prevent you to use our services.

As a first step, please read carefully this help page index. It contains a compilation of frequently asked questions obtained through more than 10,000 support requests answered. It is likely that you question is already answered here.

If you cannot get your answer in this help page, please send us a message using the support form.

While we read every email we receive, we only respond to cases that require more details about the problem.


Who can create a free website?

Anyone, with or without technical skills, as long as they comply with the acceptable use policy.


How do I create my website?

Creating your free website is very easy and takes only 10 seconds of your time.

Fill out the form for creating a new web site and open your inbox immediately after submitting the form, there you will find:

  1. The confirmation email. This email contains a link on which you must click to confirm the creation of your website. This is to confirm that the email address you provided is invalid.
  2. We will then send you a second email containing basic information about your free website such as: the Internet address of your website and instructions to begin editing its contents.


Is it really free?

Yes, it is 100% free.

The creation, maintenance and hosting of your website and your files are completely free.

We only ask you to comply with the Acceptable Use Policy. Posting inappropriate / mature content is strictly forbidden. Offending sites are deleted without exception.



What do I need to create my free website? Do I have to install any software on my computer?

You only need 10 seconds of your time.

No software downloads are required as the edition of your website is made online using our intuitive graphic interface.

No technical skills are required either. Our intuitive graphic interface allows you to accomplish complex tasks with only a few of clicks. For example, you can insert videos, images, maps or create content pages using our online graphic editor.


Are there any service charges or fees to keep my website online?

The service is completely free. There are no charges for creating your website or for keeping it online.

We don't place advertising on your pages (as our closest competitors do).


Who 'hosts' my website? Is this also free?

We host your website and even your pictures and documents if you wish.

The service is completely free. There are no charges for creating your website or for keeping it online.

We don't place advertising on your pages (as our closest competitors do).


How much space does my free website have to store images, videos and documents?

Your free website comes with 1,000 megabytes (1 GB) of space to store pictures, videos and documents. Learn how our easy-to-use editor lets you add multimedia content with just a few clicks: watch the video tutorial.


How do I create my website?

To create your free website is very easy and takes only 10 seconds of your time.

Fill out the form for creating a new web site and open your inbox immediately after submitting the form, there you will find:

  1. The confirmation email. This email contains a link on which you must click to confirm the creation of your website. This is to confirm that the email address you provided is invalid.
  2. We will then send you a second email that contains basic information about your free website, among other details it includes: the Internet address of your website and instructions to begin editing its contents.


How do I start editing my website?

To start editing your website please follow these steps:

  1. Go to your website (you will find your website's Internet address in the "welcome" email).
  2. Click on "Sign in" (located on the gray stripe at the top of your website).
  3. On the next page, click on "Access your website".
  4. Enter the email address and the password you selected when you created your website.

Once you have entered your Email Address and Password you will be able to see your website on "edit" mode. Please note that at this point the top bar has turned yellow and contains some important resources.

Please also note that all editable sections of your website are indicated with the "editable" icon ().

To edit an object on your page simply click on the "editable" icon: .




How do I access my website on “edit” mode?

Please follow these steps to access your website on “edit” mode:

  1. Go to your website (you will find your website's Internet address in the "welcome" email).
  2. Click on "Sign in" (located on the gray stripe at the top of your website).
  3. On the next page, click on "Access your website".
  4. Enter the email address and the password you choose when you created your website.




Can someone else edit my website?

No. No one else can edit your website, unless they know the email associated with it and the website's password.

All editing controls are only visible while you're signed in and only on the computer you signed in from. No one else in the world will be able to access the editing controls.

To hide all editing controls even on the computer that you are working on, simply click on “Sign Out” located at the top of your website.




How do I change the look and feel of my website? How do I change the colors of my website?

Please follow these steps to change the look and feel of your website:

  1. Sign in to access your website on “Edit” mode.
  2. Click on "Settings" (located on the yellow bar while signed in).
  3. Click on "Theme and colors".
  4. Choose a design from the list.



Please note that some templates don’t allow you to change the header image.


How do I change the header image of my website?

Some of our templates allow you to include a custom header image on your website.

To change the header image please follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to access your website on “Edit” mode.
  2. Click on "Settings" (located on the yellow bar while signed in).
  3. Click on "Header Image".
  4. On the next page, locate the “Header Image” section (if you cannot see this it means that the template won't let you specify your own header image, please choose a different template and try again).
  5. Select the image that you want to use in your header (supported formats: .jpg and .gif) and then click on "Upload image". The image must not exceed 1.5 MB of disk space.
  6. On the next page, select the area of the image you want to use for the header.
  7. Click on "Crop and Save".




I cannot see the changes I made on my website. The changes are not reflected on my website. What happened?

When you sign in to your website and make changes to it, those changes are not visible to the public immediately.

It may take up to 60 minutes for your changes to become visible to the public.

If you want to see what your changes will look like before they are “propagated” to your live site, you can click on the “Preview” link located on yellow bar while you are signed in.


Since changes are not reflected immediately, how can I preview them?

If you want to see what your changes will look like before they are “propagated” to your live site, you can click on the “Preview” link located on yellow bar while you are signed in.


How do I change my website Internet address?

You cannot change the address of your Website after it has been created. Alternatively you could create a new website and transfer the contents from one to another.


I no longer have access to the email address I used to create my website. What can I do?

Currently, it is possible to change the email address associated with a website once it has been created. Alternatively you could create a new website (with a different email address) and transfer content from one website to the other.


How do I add a new content page to a section of my website?

To add a new content page please follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to access your website on “Edit” mode.
  2. Go to the section where you want to insert the content page.
  3. Click on "Add new page" (identified with the icon).
  4. Note how after a few seconds the new page appears at the bottom of the secondary navigation .
  5. Change the title of the page and fill in the content.
  6. Please remember to sign out when you finish making your changes.




How do I rename the links in the secondary navigation of my website?

There are two methods to rename the links in the secondary navigation of any section of your Website.

Method 1. Renaming the link:

  1. Sign in to access your website on “Edit” mode.
  2. Open the section that contains the link you want to rename.
  3. Locate the link you want to rename and click on the edit icon next to it.
  4. Type in the new anchor text for the link.
  5. Click on the "Accept" icon .

Method 2. Changing the title of the content page:

  1. Sign in to access your website on “Edit” mode.
  2. Open the section that contains the link you want to rename.
  3. Locate the content area of the page and click on the edit icon next to the page title.
  4. Type in a new title for the page.
  5. Click on the "Accept" icon .




How do I edit a content page?

To edit one of your content pages please follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to access your website on “Edit” mode.
  2. Open the section that contains the page you want to edit.
  3. Locate the content area of the page and click on the edit icon that is just above the content.
  4. Edit the content of the page. You can add text, videos, pictures and even documents.
  5. Click on "OK" (located just below the text editor).




How do I remove a page from a section of my website?

To remove a content page please follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to access your website on “Edit” mode.
  2. Open the section that contains the page you want to delete.
  3. Locate the content area of the page and click on the "Delete" icon just besides the page title.
  4. You will see a warning message saying that the action cannot be undone.
  5. If you are sure you want to delete the page, please click on OK and wait while the action is completed.

Note: Each section must contain at least one content page. For this reason the "Delete" icon will be grayed out if the section has only one content page.


How do I insert a picture stored on my computer into my website?

To insert an image stored on your computer into one of your pages, you need to first upload the image to your personal folder in our system by following these simple steps:

  1. Sign in to access your website on “Edit” mode.
  2. Locate the content page where you want to insert the image.
  3. Click on the edit icon located just above the content area of the page.
  4. Click on the "Pictures / Maps" button on the editor.
  5. Click on the "Upload an image" tab.
  6. Use the "browse" button to locate the image you want to upload.
  7. Click on Upload and wait a few seconds while the file is uploaded.
  8. You'll then see the list of images stored in your personal folder. This list should now contain the image you just uploaded.

Now that you have uploaded the image to your personal folder you are ready to insert it into the page:

  1. Locate the image you want to insert on the list of images stored in your personal folder.
  2. Click on "Insert".
  3. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the operation.




How do I insert a Flickr image into my website?

Please follow these steps to insert a Flickr image:

  1. Sign in to access your website on “Edit” mode.
  2. Locate the content page where you want to insert the image.
  3. Click on the edit icon located just above the content area of the page.
  4. Click on the "Pictures / Maps" button on the editor.
  5. Click on the "Flickr© Images" tab.
  6. Type in search keywords to perform a search on Flickr and click on "Search".
  7. Locate the image you want to insert from the list, click on "Insert" and follow the instructions on the screen to complete the operation.




How do I insert a picture from the Internet into my website?

Please follow these steps to insert an image from the internet in one of your content pages:

  1. Sign in to access your website on “Edit” mode.
  2. Locate the content page where you want to insert the image.
  3. Click on the edit icon located just above the content area of the page.
  4. Click on the "Pictures / Maps" button on the editor.
  5. Click on the "Web Images" tab.
  6. Copy and paste the address (url) of the image in the text box and then click on "Check".
  7. If the image is valid you will see a preview of the image and some additional options. If the image is invalid you will see an error message.
  8. Click on "Insert" to complete the operation




How do I insert a map into one of my pages?

To insert a map in one of your content pages please follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to access your website on “Edit” mode.
  2. Locate the content page where you want to insert the image.
  3. Click on the edit icon located just above the content area of the page.
  4. Click on the "Pictures / Maps" button on the editor.
  5. Click on the "Maps" tab.
  6. Enter the address you want to display on the map and then click on "Check".
  7. If the address is found follow the instructions on the wizard to insert the map, if not, try typing with a different address.
  8. Click on "Insert" to complete the operation




How do I insert a YouTube video into my website?

To insert a YouTube video to one of your content pages please follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to access your website on “Edit” mode.
  2. Locate the content page where you want to insert the image.
  3. Click on the edit icon located just above the content area of the page.
  4. Click on the "Youtube Videos" button on the editor.
  5. Type in search keywords to perform a search on YouTube or the video ID if you know it; Click on "Search".
  6. A list of matching videos will be presented. You can preview a video by placing your mouse over the video for more than three seconds.
  7. Select a video from the list, click on "Insert" and follow the instructions on the wizard to complete the operation.



Please note that the video will not be visible while you are editing the text, a placeholder will appear instead.


How do I insert a video stored on my computer into my website?

To insert a video stored on your computer:

  1. Create a YouTube account and upload your video to yourtube.
  2. Follow the steps in this entry How do I insert a YouTube video into my website?

How do I insert a document (Word, Excel, PDF, etc)?

To insert a document stored on your computer you must first upload it to your personal folder in our system. To do so, please follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to access your website on “Edit” mode.
  2. Locate the content page where you want to insert the file or document.
  3. Click on the edit icon located just above the content area of the page.
  4. Click on the "File" button on the editor.
  5. Click on the "Upload New File" tab.
  6. Use the "browse" button to locate the file or document you want to upload.
  7. Click on Upload and wait a few seconds while the file is uploaded.
  8. You'll then see the list of files stored in your personal folder. This list should now contain the file / document you just uploaded.

Now that you have uploaded the file to your personal folder you are ready to insert it!

  1. Locate the file you want to insert on the list of files stored in your personal folder.
  2. Click on "Insert".
  3. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the operation.




How do I make my website appear on search engines?

Search engines “crawl” the web looking for new content 24/7 but unfortunately they can’t guess your website’s address.

The only way a search engine can learn about the existence of a new website is by finding at least one hyperlink pointing to it on another, already known website.

The first thing you need to do to make sure your website shows up on search results is to place links on other (external) websites pointing to it.

Ideal places to get links pointing to your website are for example discussion forums relevant to the topic of your website, blogs related to the topic of your website, and of course social networking sites like Facebook, Tweeter, MySpace, etc.


How many visitors can I expect to receive from search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc)?

Search engines “rank” websites on their result pages based on proprietary algorithms they have developed over the years.

Best ranked websites are placed at the top of the listings and therefore get more referrals.

In general, the most important factor on search engine rankings is known as “link popularity”. This is basically a measurement of how many websites in the world point to your website. More links pointing to your website mean higher rankings on search engines and therefore more referrals per day.

Some of the websites created with our system get between 100 and 200 visitors per day referred by search engines. The most popular websites on our system (which have more external links pointing to them) accumulate in some cases up to 4000 search engines referrals per day.


How can I increase the popularity of my website on search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc)?

There are three factors that influence the popularity of your website over which you can act:

 

  1. External Links:: The number of external websites that contain links pointing to your Website. More links pointing to your website mean higher rankings on search engines and therefore more referrals per day.

  2. Number of users using your website as Home page: Search engines measure the number of users who have placed your website as home page on their browsers and consider this as a ranking factor. The higher the number the more popular your site will become. You can ask your friends and family to set your website as home page on different computers.

  3. Unique visitors per day: Search engines measure how many people know about the existence of your website and consider this as a ranking factor. The logic behind this is that the best Internet sites are also the most popular. You can promote your website in the following ways:
    1. Sending invitations to your friends to visit your website (click on the “Show it to your friends” link located on the yellow bar while you are signed in).
    2. Placing your website address in your email signature.
    3. Placing your website address in offline marketing material: business cards, letterheads, bumper stickers, etc.