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Duda Website Builder Review

Duda Website Builder


Dudais a self-hosted web-based website builder that is easy to use. However, it has its cons as well as its pros. Read below our full review.
Duda
This is a quick & simple review of the free hosted web-based website builder Duda as used to build the website - Duda - A Review.

Duda is a very popular and easy to use free hosted web-based drag-and-drop website builder. Below is an account of my personal experience with the Duda web-based website builder when making a simple example website.

Duda is a popular and fairly simple-to-use drag-and-drop free hosted web-based website builder. However, like any theme (as well as the web-based website builder), there is a learning curve to figuring out how to make what you want fit inside the templated box. Duda runs on a container system and each section's columns can be rearranged automatically based on page width. However, there is a learning curve to the quirks of the builder as well as the theme chosen (page layouts, change images, etc.).

Themes - In this case the theme was chosen based on layout. Using the simple design of a full-screen image and text and button overtop, it is clean, simple, elegant - typical of what is to be expected of a website today. However, there are many quality themes available to get you started. No matter the theme, it should be fairly simple to change the layout via adding of objects and simply dragging them where you want.

SEO - Page specific titles, descriptions and keywords are available to customize on the home page. Text can be H1-H6 or paragraph 1 or 2 and size is default. Canonical, social media and schema tags are automatic based on content. Server optimization via robots.txt and htaccess files are not customizable as they are auto-generated. And of course one can add Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools via settings.

The
downside to using a free or self hosted web-based website builder (in addition to needing to use a theme) is that from an optimization standpoint for page speed, capabilities are limited. Custom server optimization is not possible via htaccess file. In addition, if you ever become dissatisfied with the host from a support or customer service standpoint, or if they go out of business, you're stuck as it cannot be moved to another without rebuilding it from scratch.

The
upside is it is self hosted, and can be managed via the web. This means everything used to build the website is made to simply work and work well together. For me what sets Duda apart is it's use of layers. Not only can you add predefined sections based on content type but one can also easily add / delete columns and then add objects to those columns with responsive accuracy. Objects are also draggable to other areas of the page etc. Just be careful Support is always available. Resources: First Steps & Learn to use Duda.

If you are going to build a website, why not build one that is more than just pretty? Why not build one that is worthy of being found via solid on-page seo techniques? Depending on your needs (including maintenance) as well as budget, I can most likely build for you a custom website that can look almost exactly like your favorite SquareSpace template but is more technically sound in terms of on-page seo and html errors. Either I can maintain the website for you or show you how to via my affordable desktop software. You can read the full review here for more info on this tool. Contact me for more information.

Rob Shurtleff
The Website Guy