1.1. Working with Elements

Elements function as the building blocks of your pages.  Paragraphs, Videos, and Maps are examples of element types.  These are located at the top of your screen under the “Elements” tab.

To add elements to your page, drag them from the top bar into the content area of your website:

 

To reorder elements, drag them by the blue bar and place them into a new position on top, below or between other elements:

 

To delete an element, just click on the X in its top right corner:

 

If you wish to place elements side by side, please see the 2-Column Element page for assistance.

Elements can also be moved from one page to another by following these instructions.

1.2. Moving an Element Between Pages

To move an element from one page to another, simply click on the element and then click on the green arrow in the upper left corner. Choose the page destination from the page list that appears. Your element will then reload in your destination page.

1.3. Deleting an Element

To delete an element, just click on the element and then click on the red X in its top right corner.

 

You will see a confirmation screen. Simply click Delete to confirm.

1.4. Choosing a Design

The "Design" tab contains a variety of theme/template choices.

Hover your mouse over a design thumbnail to get a preview of the design on your website.

Click the thumbnail to save the design selection for your website.

1.5. Uploading a Header Image

Most designs allow you to upload a custom header image in place of the default.

1. Click on the existing image to expose the "header options" toolbar above your site:

 

2. Note the size of the design's header image so you can upload a new image of the same dimensions:

 

3. If you already have an image of the correct size, click the upload link and select the image file from your computer.

4. If you need to resize/crop your image to fit into the proper dimensions, upload it to www.picnik.com, modify it, and then save it back to your computer before uploading it into Weebly:

At this time, all pages in your site will have the same header image. It is not possible to have different header images on different pages.

1.6. Using the Text Editor

Edit the text within your website by clicking on it to bring up the text editing options above.

 

Adjust the text color or align your text left/center/right/justified:

 

Bold, Italicize, or Underline the text:

Increase or Decrease the font size:

Undo or Redo your changes:

 

1.7. Creating Links

To create a text link

1. Highlight the desired text and click on the link icon in the Element Options toolbar

 

2. Next, you will need to choose which type of link to create.  If you wish to link to an external site, you can do so from the "Website" tab pictured below.

NOTE: Links will become active once your site is published.

 

To link a photo

1. Drag the Picture element to your page and click on it

 

2. An Element Options toolbar will drop down. Click on "Upload new Image" and choose a picture.

 

3. Click on the "Set Link" button. A box will pop up that allows you to choose which type of link to create.

NOTE: Links will become active once your site is published.

 

To link to a file

1. Create a hidden page in your site under the "Pages" tab

 

2. Next, use the File element to upload a file onto this hidden page

 

3. In your main page, select the text you want to link and click on the link icon. Go the File tab, and select the uploaded file from the drop down list.

1.8. Managing Pages

Manage your pages under the "pages" tab in your editor:

From within this tab you can do the following:

Bring up the page properties by clicking a page title in the left column.

Add a New Page (1) by clicking the "New Page" button.

Add a Blog (2) by clicking the "New Blog" button. Learn more about creating a blog here.

Reorder a Page and Create Subpages (3) by dragging the page icon to the left of the page name into a new order. Learn more about creating supbages here.

Rename a Page (4) by editing the text in the "page name" box.

Hide Pages (5) from appearing in the navigation menu by selecting "no" to "show in navigation".  You can link to the hidden pages from visible pages using the text editing/linking tool. Learn more about creating hidden pages here.

Edit your Page Content (6) by clicking on the 'Edit This Page' button.

Password Protect your Page (7) by checking the 'Password Protect?' checkbox. This option will work once you've assigned a sitewide password under the Settings tab in your editor. You can learn more about password protected pages here.

Delete a Page (8) by highlighting the page you wish to delete on the left and then clicking the "delete page" link and confirming.

Save your Changes by clicking the 'Save' button on the bottom right. 

1.9. Creating Sub-Pages

The sub-page features lets you organize your pages within drop-down menus on your Weebly site.

1. In the Weebly editor, click on the Pages tab:

2. Highlight the page you wish to become the subpage:

3. Drag this page to the right until it clicks into place.

 

4. You can also create sub-pages of sub-pages by dragging to the right of subpages, as in this image:

5. When you are finished dragging your pages into a new hierarchy, click save and check out your website menu.

Note: Pages can be dragged back to the left if you want them to appear as primary pages again.

Note: Please make sure that your subpages are not marked "(Hidden)". To un-hide a page, change the "Show in site navigation" option to "Yes".

1.10. Creating Hidden Pages

Occasionally you may want to create pages that do not appear in your navigation bar. You might want to link these pages to text or images within your site. You can create hidden pages to accomplish this!

 

1. Set the pages you want as hidden to not show in the site's navigation menu, under the "Pages" tab of the editor:

 

2. You can link to these hidden pages using text in your primary pages.  Select the text you want to link to your hidden page and click on the link icon:

 

3. Choose the page you want this text to link to:

 

These links will be active once your site is published.

1.11. Password Protect Pages

With password protection enabled on your Weebly site, you can choose to protect the entire site with a password, or just individual pages.

1. To get started, enter a password in the "Site Password" box under the "Settings" tab of the editor.

In this example, "password123" is the password applied to all pages on the site.

2.  To enable passwords only on individual pages, uncheck the appropriate password check boxes under the "Pages" tab of the editor.

 

3. When viewing a password protected page, your website visitors will be presented with a login prompt before they are able to see the content.

Note that once the password is entered, the visitor can freely browse the password protected area.  However, once their browser window is closed, the password will again be required.

1.12. Creating a Blog

Create a blog page under the "Pages" tab of the editor:

 

If you want to make your blog page your site's homepage, drag it to the top of the list:

This is how your blog will look initially:

New Post:
Press this button to start creating a new blog post.

Edit / Delete a Blog Post:
In the upper right hand area of existing blog posts are links to edit or delete the post.

 

After you click the New Post button or edit an existing blog entry, you will enter the blog editing interface, which works just like a normal Weebly page.

Archives Box:
The archives sidebar box automatically groups your previous blog posts according to the month they were written.  Your main blog page will display your ten most recent posts and older posts will automatically be moved to the archives.

Categories Box:
The words entered into the Categories field will be automatically added to the Categories sidebar box after the post is made.  This allows you to group your blog posts by common terms.

RSS Feed:
The RSS link in your sidebar allows your visitors to subscribe to your blog.  People will often subscribe to a blog so they can view the posts with a news aggregator, such as Netvibes or Google Reader.

Trackback URL:
If you are writing a blog post on a similar topic to another blog, and that blog provides a Trackback URL, you can copy that URL into the Trackback URL field on Weebly.  Pressing the send button will then alert the other blog that your blog entry is referencing their blog entry, creating a trackback link from the other blog to yours.  For more information on Trackback URLs, see here.

Delete Blog Comments:
Delete unwanted comments on your blog using the appropriate "Delete Comment" link.  See the image above for clarification.

1.13. Managing Blog & Comment Settings

Once you've created a blog, you may wish to customize certain features of your blog such as comment moderation, the time zone and format, comment notification and more.

To manage your blog, open the blog page within your editor and click on the 'Manage Blog' button.

From here you can:

Manage comments: In the blog management area, under the 'Comments' tab, simply check the box next to the comments you wish to delete or approve and then click on 'Delete' or 'Approve' to make this update.

 

 

Turn comments off or moderate comments: Click on the 'Settings' tab and then choose from the drop down menu to either deny all comments, allow comments automatically or require approval first.

If you choose to require approval, no comments will appear on your site until you approve them in the editor. You will receive an email to the email address associated with your Weebly account alerting you that you have received a comment awaiting approval.

Notify of new comments: Choose to receive notification of new posted comments to the email address associated with your user account at Weebly.

Automatically close comments: We offer the option to close comments on older posts. You can choose to close comments after 30, 60 or 90 days.

Set your date and time format and time zone: By default, the date and time posted on your blog will reflect the time zone of our servers here at Weebly. If you wish to customize this, click on the 'Settings' tab and then choose your time zone and the appropriate date and time format and save.

 

 

 

1.14. Site Settings

Address:
This area displays your current website addresss.  Click on "change site address" in order to change your website address to a different sub-domain of weebly.com, upgrade to your own domain name, or configure and existing domain name with Weebly.  For more information, see publishing. 

Site Title:
This is the name of your website. This will appear in the browser's title bar and on browser tabs when a user views your site. The title will also appear in the bookmarks list if a visitor bookmarks your site and in search results when a search engine links to your site. If you don't want the site title to display at the top of each of your pages, uncheck the box to "show site title on the top of your pages." If you leave the site title blank, then the title bar, tabs, bookmarks, and search results will display your page title as "Weebly Site".

Site Password (a feature of Weebly Pro)
Here you can set a password for your site to protect unauthorized viewers from seeing the content.  For more information on this feature, check out using password protection.

Footer Message (a feature of Weebly Pro)
Here you can remove the default "Create a free website with Weebly" message and replace it with a message of your choosing.

 

Site Description:
Enter a brief description of your website here.  This text will appear below your site title in search engine listings.

Meta Keywords:
Enter keywords (separated by commas) which describe your website content.  It is questioned whether search engines still place weight on meta keywords (due to abuse), but it doesn't hurt to add them.

Footer Code:
Code entered in the Footer Code field will be entered right before the closing </body> tag on your website. This is most commonly used to add Google Analytics to your site for more detailed statistics.

Header Code:

Code entered in the Header Code field will be entered between the <head> and </head> tags on your webpages. This is most commonly used to verify your site with Google or Bing.

 

Archive:
To download a .zip archive/backup of your site, simply click on the link and save it to your computer.
(please note: if you have a blog on your site, it will not work when exported to the .zip file because it relies on Weebly's database)

Un-Publish:
To un-publish your site, click on the un-publish link and confirm. Your site will still be available for editing, but will not be visible to website visitors.

1.15. Publishing Your Site

To publish your website, you have 3 options:

• A subdomain of weebly.com (free)
• Register a new domain through Weebly
  
• Set up a domain you already own (no charge from Weebly)

Choosing a subdomain of weebly.com (for example: yoursite.weebly.com) is a completely free and quick way to get online.  As you type, Weebly will tell you if your desired subdomain is available.

Registering your own domain name through Weebly (for example: www.yoursite.com) is also very easy.  Your website will be visible at the new domain name in minutes without any setup required.  If you are upgrading from a subdomain of weebly.com to your own domain, traffic to your old address will automatically be forwarded to the new one.

In addition, we offer you the ability to publish your site to a domain you already own.

2.1. Adding a Picture

To add a picture to your page:

1. Drag either the 'Paragraph with Picture' element or the 'Picture' element to the content area of your page.

 

2. After clicking on the default picture, you should see the "element options" toolbar appear above your website. Click the link to upload a new picture.

 

3. Browse to find the image on your computer and click "open". You will see the image upload status on the lower right corner of your screen.

 

4. Once uploaded, you will see your image in the editor. You can resize the picture by dragging the red box in the lower right hand corner of the picture.

5. Enter a caption for your picture in the Caption field on the image toolbar. The caption will be displayed underneatht the picture on your website.

6. By default, your image will be linked to the full-size version of the file. You can change this by clicking on the Set Link button in the Image toolbar.

If you'd like to add a photo gallery instead of individual pictures, check out this tutorial.

Note that the picture and file upload tool uses the "flash" plug-in. Your computer may not have flash installed. You can check by visiting this link: http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/about/ and if not, it's a free download and install.

2.2. Using the Photo Gallery Element

Adding pictures to your Weebly site is easy!

The Photo Gallery Element allows you to add pictures to your site, which are automatically resized and arranged in a nice-looking grid format.

Step 1 - Adding the Gallery:  In the Weebly Editor, go to the Elements Toolbar, click on Multimedia, and drag the Photo Gallery element onto your page

 

Step 2 - Uploading Images: To add photos, click on the newly added Photo Gallery element, then click the "Upload New Image(s)" button in the upper left corner, 

NOTE: If you cannot click on the "Upload New Image(s)" link, please make sure that you have the latest version of Flash installed by clicking here.

Step 3 - Uploading Multiple Images: Browse your computer for your gallery pictures.  You can either choose to upload one picture at a time, or upload multiple images at once by holding either the Ctrl key (PC) or the Command key ⌘ (Mac) and clicking on the desired photos.  Then click "Open" to upload your pictures.

 

Step 4 - Gallery Layout: You can customize the look of your gallery by adjusting the number of columns (from 1 to 6) as well as the space between pictures (from 'none' to 'large').

Example A: 3 columns with tiny spacing

Example B: 6 columns with large spacing

Step 5- Setup links and add captions: The gallery element offers you the option to add captions on your images or setup links to other pages or websites.

The chain link icon is used to setup an image link:

The text bubble icon is used to add a caption.

The captions show when you're viewing the gallery images at full size or when hovering your mouse over the thumbnail.

When your site is published, visitors will then be able to click on the images to view the full size versions, complete with next and previous buttons to move through the gallery.

Now you are ready to share your favorite photos with everyone!

2.3. Using the 2-Column Element

Use the Two-Column element to place items side by side.  Drag elements, such as pictures, text, or maps, INSIDE of the column of your choice.

You can even place a 2 column element inside another 2 column element to make 3 columns.

Here is an example of a Two-Column element being used with text blocks and Google AdSense:

 

2.4. Google AdSense - Earn Money

 

Using the Google AdSense element, you can easily place advertising on your Weebly site and generate money from your website traffic. Here is what an example ad might look like:

The ads displayed are automatically targeted to your website's topic and audience.  You get paid when a website visitor clicks on one of your ads.  The amount can range from a few cents per click to more than a dollar per click, depending primarily on the topic of the ad.

Half of your website visitors will see ads that make you money and half the visitors will see ads that make Weebly money.  This way, we are able to split the revenue generated on your website 50/50.  The money you earn from your ads is paid directly from Google.

To add Google Adsense to your website:

1. Drag on the Google AdSense element

 

2. Configure your account

If you are new to AdSense, verify your email address, account type, and language to continue.  If you already have a Google AdSense account, you'll just need to confirm your zip code or last 5 digits of your phone number.  Once complete, check your inbox for a Google verification email.

 

3. Drag Google AdSense Elements onto Your Pages

To maximize the revenue generated from your site, you'll need to place the ads in areas where your visitors are likely to click.  However, at the same time, you do not want your site to appear spammy and prevent people from locating the quality content -- otherwise your visitors will just hit the back button.  Google has created a "heatmap" which shows where people are most likely to click on advertising (the darker the shade of orange, the more clicks that area should receive):

- Advertising in the upper left area of your content or directly in-line with the content has the best results.

- Advertising placed below the content also works well, as people will finish reading and ask themselves, "What can I do next?".

- Experiment with different color palettes.  It's thought that a color palette which matches your site design works best, but bold/contrasting color palettes may also work well.

Here is an example of Google AdSense elements in a Weebly page. Note that we're making use of the two-column element which provides more flexibility with layout options, allowing you to place the ads beside your content.

 

4. Publish your site. Google will reject an Adsense application if your site is not live, so be sure it's available to Google by clicking on the orange Publish button within your editor.

2.5. E-Commerce Features

We offer a simple yet powerful way for you to create an online store through Weebly. Our E-Commerce elements integrate with both PayPal and Google Checkout.

You have all of the Weebly tools available to create your store. Build it out however you want with complete flexibility -- add featured products on the home page, create pages for categories or products, and feature videos, audio and photo galleries to show off your products in the best light.

Best of all, Weebly does not take a cut of your sales, and these features are included free in all Weebly accounts -- so you can get started selling easily and for free!

 

We have created a video overview of the Revenue elements to show you just how fast and easy it can be to set up your store:

 

 

Detailed Instructions:

1. Click on the Revenue tab in the Weebly editor to access the product elements.

There are  4 elements in the "Revenue" category: Product Block, Product Small, Product Regular and Product Large. In this example, we will use the Product Block element. Each style has a different way of organizing your product, so you can have full control over how it is displayed. Even better, mix and match styles to draw attention to certain products over others, include colors variations or other options, and add variety to your store.

Drag one of the elements onto your page. You will be prompted to associate your PayPal or Google Checkout account with Weebly. If you choose Google Checkout, you can access helpful instructions for finding your Merchant ID here.

 

 

2. To upload a picture, click on the blue image and then click on the 'Upload new Image'  link on the product toolbar.

 

3. To add a product name and description, simply click in the product area and type your name and description. You can format your text using the tools on the text editing toolbar.

Note: the Product Block element contains a product name only. The other three product elements offer both product names and descriptions.

 

4. Enter a price by clicking on it and typing in a replacement. Your first product has been created!

 

5.  When you are ready, you should publish to test out your store on your live site as the product elements will not function within the editor.

All of the aspects of the product element are fully customizable. If you click on your product image you will see the toolbar that allows you to:

• Hide the picture.
• Hide the description.
• Change to any other product element without dragging another element.
• Change your button style from 'Add to Cart' to 'Buy Now'.
• Change the position of the block from left to center or right.

 

When you receive orders:

Your orders will be received through either Google Checkout or PayPal and you will receive notification of the sale via email . You will also be able to access your sales history directly by logging into your PayPal or Google Checkout account and viewing the account activity.

Note: To change to and from payment methods, go to your Settings tab and click on E-Commerce Settings.

 

If you wish to create donation links, product options (such as size, color or style) or other more advanced features, please see these instructions for assistance.

2.6. E-Commerce: Setting up Google Checkout

1. First, sign up or log into your Google Checkout account here: http://checkout.google.com/sell

2. Navigate to the "Settings" tab on Google Checkout

 

3. Under the "Integration" section, uncheck the box "My company will only post digitally signed carts".

Note: This checkbox must be unchecked in order to use the Google Checkout shopping cart. Since the information in your shopping carts will not be digitally signed, you should check orders to make sure they contain accurate information, including correct prices, before you ship items.

4. Copy your merchant id in the upper right and paste it into the "Online Store Setup" screen on Weebly:

 

2.7. Using the Contact Form

Weebly has a built-in contact form that will allow your visitors to e-mail you directly from your website.

1. Find the Contact Form element under "More" elements and drag to your page.

2. Click on the form to open the toolbar where you can make changes to the form settings.

Comments submitted through the contact form element are sent to your account's email address by default.  If you'd like to specify a different email address, you can change the address in the form toolbar.

If you are not seeing form submissions in your e-mail, check your Spam or Junk Mail folders. Form submissions will come from the e-mail address the user enters in the form but will have "Weebly Form Submission" in the subject line.

2.8. Using the Custom HTML Element

The Custom HTML element allows you to add a variety of elements that are not yet supported in Weebly.

For example you can add a music player, a calendar, games, PayPal functionality and more.

1. First add the "Custom HTML" element to your site by dragging it to your page.

2. Click on text that says "Click to set custom HTML".  Next, you should see the "element options" toolbar appear above.  Click on the"Edit Custom HTML" link in this toolbar in order to make the custom html element editable:

3. Paste the desired HTML embed code:

4. Click outside the box to save your HTML and display the widget in your page:

Note: You can use client-side programming such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript in the Custom HTML element but Weebly does not support the use of server-side languages like ASP or PHP at this time.

2.9. Video Element (Pro)

The video element allows you to upload a video directly within Weebly, and display the video in a professional, unbranded player.

 

1. The Video element is available under the "Multimedia" category of elements.  Drag this element to the desired location on your website.

2. Once on your page, click on the video element to display the video options bar above.  Click on "Upload new File" link and select the desired video file from your computer:

Note: Video files need to be less than 100MB in size and flash must be installed in order for the file download prompt to appear.  To make sure flash is installed, click here.

Depending on the size of your video and the speed of your internet connection, it may take a few minutes to upload, and then encode, your video. You will see a status message on your screen as indicated:

 

4. When finished, your element will refresh, showing your uploaded video.

2.10. Using the YouTube Video Element

1. Under Multimedia Elements, drag a YouTube element to your page.

2. Click on the white space surrounding the video to expose the "YouTube Video URL" box.

3. Locate the video on YouTube that you'd like to add to your site and copy the video URL.

In the example below, you'd copy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcJmLF4dLVY

4. Paste the YouTube Video URL into the options box on Weebly and click on another part of the page to see your new video appear.

2.11. Audio Player Element (Pro)

Weebly's audio player makes it incredibly easy to add music, podcasts, or other audio files directly into your website.

1. The Audio Player element is available under the "Multimedia" category of elements.  Drag this element to the desired location on your website.

2. Once on your page, click on the play button to pop up the file download prompt.  Select an MP3 file and continue to save it on your site.

Note: Flash must be installed in order for the file download prompt to appear.  To make sure flash is installed, click here.

2.12. How To Upload Files

1.  Drag the File element (under the "Multimedia" category) to provide your visitors with a download link to files you upload:

2. Press the "click here to upload file" link and select the desired file from your computer.

Note: To upload files, you must have flash installed.

If you want to link to files directly from a text link, first upload your files to a hidden page (set "show in navigation" to no) using the file element as described above.  Then, use the text linking tool to link text directly to the file download.

2.13. Embed Documents into your Site

Scribd's "iPaper" allows you to transform PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel and many other file formats into an embeddable document that you can insert directly into your Weebly site for easy viewing.

For example:

 

1. First, visit www.scribd.com, click on the upload button, and choose the file/s you want to display on your Weebly site.

 

2. After your file/s have been chosen, you'll then be prompted to sign up for an account:

3. OPTIONAL: Describe & categorize your document.  Then press the "Save Changes" button.

4. Copy the document embed code.  You can uncheck "Include link to document at top of embed" if you'd prefer.

5. Drag on a Weebly "Custom HTML" element to the location on your site where you'd like the document embedded.

6. Click on the text "Click to set custom HTML" and then click on the "Edit Custom HTML" link in the "Element Options" toolbar you'll see above.

7. The custom HTML text area will become editable so you can paste the embed code that you copied from Scribd.

8. Click outside the custom HTML box to save the code and display your new document!

2.14. Using the Flickr Element

To use this element, you must first have photos uploaded to an account on http://www.flickr.com.

NOTE: Your photos have to have "permissions set to public, or viewable by all", and cannot be set to private.  Also, in Flickr's settings it says "Who can print your photos?".  This needs to be set to "Any Flickr member".  Otherwise, the Flickr element will say "no photos found".

1. In Weebly, click on the default Flickr gallery to expose the "element options" toolbar above.  Enter your Flickr account email address into the bar and press enter to automatically pull your photos from Flickr.

 

2. Instead of displaying all your Flickr photos, you can filter by the "tag" on your photos or by the "set id".

In Flickr, a set is a grouping of photos.  When viewing this set of photos, you can find the set id in the webpage URL.  For example, 72157601851592456 is the set id of the following URL:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8078133@N07/sets/72157601851592456/

3.1. Google Analytics for Better Website Stats

We offer basic statistics with Weebly, but Google Analytics is a free tool used to analyze your website traffic in more depth.

You're able to see:

- How many unique visitors & pageviews your site receives
- Where visitors are coming from (search engines, sites linking to yours, etc.)
- How long visitors stay
- What keywords they use to find your site
- Technical information about their computer (resolution, operating system, etc.)

1. To add Google Analytics to your site, first signup and add your site (ex. http://example.weebly.com) to the account.

2. Copy the block of tracking code provided.

3. Login to the Weebly site you want to be tracked by Google Analytics.

4. Under the "Settings" tab of the editor, paste the Google Analytics code into the "footer code" section (this is within the "Search Engine Optimization" area):

NOTE: This is not the footer message section within "General Settings".

5. Save the settings and republish your website.

Google will now begin tracking the traffic to your website.  Please note that there is a delay between when you add the code to your website and when it will start showing information in Google Analytics.

3.2. Index Your Site with Search Engines

It can take a number of weeks for Google and the other search engines to index your site in the search results.

To speed up this process, you can submit your website to Google manually: http://www.google.com/addurl:

Once you are indexed, the next step is to get ranked in the results.  Popular keywords, such as "auto parts", are very difficult to rank highly for compared to more targeted/niche keywords like "auto parts dealer in San Francisco".  There are many factors that search engines use to rank websites.  In fact, there is an entire field dedicated to this topic called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Here are the basics to SEO:

- Choose targeted, niche keywords for your website.  Your most important keywords should be part of your domain (ex. autoparts.weebly.com).  In addition, you want to mention the keywords in the content of the website numerous times to show that they are significant, particularly in titles.  However, avoid "keyword stuffing".

- The best way to increase your search engine ranking is to get incoming links to your website from websites with a related subject matter.  If the incomming links have the text you are trying to rank for as the "anchor text" of the link, it will help you to rank higher for that search term.  For example, you can see that Weebly ranks well for the search term "free website" because we have a lot of incoming links to our site using the words "free website" in the link.

- Include a descriptive title and meta keywords (available under the "settings" tab).  Meta keywords are no longer of much importance to search engines due to abuse and attempts to game the system.  However, the meta description is still important because it is the text people will see in the search listings and could have a big impact on whether they click through or not.

3.3. Verify Your Site with Google

 

Google Webmaster Tools provides you with reports about your site's incoming links, searches, and general page visibility.

 

1. When you're verifying your site, choose the "meta tag" verification method and copy the meta tag code.

Make sure to copy all the meta tag code. It should look similar to this:

<meta name="google-site-verification" content="ML1tVOfKu_BydumIRvDu7or8Bs0NBkb8XuG2ugd6oa4" />

 

2. Paste the code into the "Header Code" box, located within the "Settings" tab of Weebly, under the "Search Engine Optimizaiton" area.

 

4. Save the settings and republish your site on Weebly

5. Press the "verify" button from within Google Webmaster Tools.

3.4. Verify Your Site with Bing

Similar to Google Webmaster Tools, Bing Webmaster Center provides you with reports about your site's incoming links, searches, and general page visibility.

1. If you don't already have a Windows Live ID you will need to sign up for one here.

2. Go to the Webmaster Add a Site Page and sign in with your Windows Live ID

3. Enter your website address and your sitemap address.

Weebly automatically creates a sitemap for your site.  It is located at http://example.weebly.com/sitemap.xml or http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml in the case that you've published to your own domain name.

4. You'll be provided with two ways to authenticate your site, but meta tag authentication works with Weebly.

Copy the meta tag code.

Make sure to copy all the meta tag code. It should look similar to this:

<meta name="msvalidate.01" content="1CBD9D52DEFB8CE229FDF72CE523" />

Leave this page open.

5. In a new browser page or tab, go to your weebly editor, click on the Settings tab and then click on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Paste your meta tag code into the header code area. Save and re-publish your site.

6. Go back to your Bing Webmaster Center page and click on "Return to Site List" at the bottom of the page.

7. Click on your site link and it will be verified.

If successful, you will be taken to the Webmaster Center page.

4.1. Set up Email with your New Domain

We've integrated with Google Apps to provide email for your domain name (eg. example@yourdomain.com). This provides a complete email solution for 50+ email accounts through the GMail interface, all at no additional cost to you.

Note: If you are publishing to a sub-domain of weebly.com (ie. example.weebly.com), you can not setup email.

 

1. Go to http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new to get started

2. Click that you are the "administrator", enter your domain name, and click "get started.

3. Enter the requested information in next steps.

4. Next you will need to choose your administrator email address. This will also be your username for this email account. Read the Terms of Service and click "I accept. Continue with Setup".

 

Important: If you should get interrupted while completing the following steps, continue the setup process by logging into http://www.google.com/a/your-domain.com (where your-domain.com is replaced with your registered domain) using the administrator email account you just created.

5. Next, you'll see the following screen. Click on "Upload an HTML file" and click Continue.

 

6.  Copy the unique code provided by Google.  In this case, it is "googleffffffffa9651966".

 

7. Now, in a new browser tab or window, go back into the Weebly editor for your website and enter the "Pages" tab.  Create a new page called "googlehostedservice" (do not include .html), set "show in navigation" to no, and then click the blue "edit this page" button.

 

8. Drag a paragraph element onto your new page and enter the code from Step 5.  Once complete, publish the site.

 

9. Go to the verification code page that you left open back at Google, and click Continue. You will see a link to launch the Guide but click on "Skip this guide" for now.

 

10. Click on "activate email". 

 

11. You'll then see a screen of instructions to setup MX records for your domain, but note that if you registered your domain through Weebly, we've already configured these, so just scroll down and click on "I've completed these steps".

Note: If you registered your domain with Weebly prior to 1/14/2009, you may need to request that we setup your MX records.

If you registered your domain through another registrar, you will need to configure your own MX records because Weebly doesn't have access to your domain control panel.

12.  You will see a confirmation screen indicating that MX records are being checked.

 

When complete, email for your domain will be fully setup!

If you are setting up mail for a domain purchased through Weebly, you can login at http://mail.yourdomain.com (where your-domain.com is replaced with your registered domain).

For domains purchased outside of Weebly, you can access your mail by going to http://www.google.com/a/yourdomain.com (where your-domain.com is replaced with your registered domain).

If you experience any difficulties, please contact us here.

4.2. Register a Domain with Weebly

Registering your own domain name through Weebly is very straightforward.  There is no setup required and your website will be visible at your new domain name wthinin minutes.  If you are upgrading from a subdomain of weebly.com to your own domain, traffic to your old address will be automatically forwarded to your new one.

First, start typing your desired domain.  As you type, Weebly will check to see if it is available.

Select .com, .net, or .org from the drop down box to specify your TLD (top level domain).

Once satisfied, press the "continue" button to continue to the purchase page.

On the purchase page, choose how long you would like to register your domain between 1 and 10 years.

Private Registration prevents your personal details from being displayed in the WHOIS database. If you do not select Private registration, the name and contact information of the domain owner will be visible on the internet for anyone who does a WHOIS search.

We've integrated with Google Apps to provide email for your domain name (ex. example@yourdomain.com). This provides a complete email solution for 100+ email accounts through the GMail interface, all at no additional cost to you.

To set up email with your domain, just follow this tutorial.

Registering domains in Weebly is brought to you through a partnership with Register.com. By purchasing this domain, you become the legal owner of the domain name and are entitled to manage it as you see fit through Register.com's fully featured registrar portal available at http://domains.weebly.com.

Please note that once you have registered a domain, you cannot change the name of the domain or cancel your purchase. This is according to the rules of ICANN, the international organization that oversees all domain registrations. We are not able to issue refunds on domain purchases since we have paid for the domain name and cannot get a refund ourselves.

When you register a domain through Weebly, the registration will be set to automatically renew about 45 days before the domain expires. This is to allow time for the payment to clear and prevent downtime for the website in the event that there is a problem with the payment. If you wish to turn off automatic renewal, please submit a request to support@weebly.com. Let us know the domain name and ask to have automatic billing disabled.

4.3. Configure a Domain Already Registered

The custom domain name feature allows you to setup your Weebly site with a domain name you've already registered through another registrar, such as GoDaddy. This is a relatively difficult task, so if you have the choice, it is recommended that you register your domain through Weebly which is automatically setup.

Please note that if you are forwarding your domain name to Weebly, DO NOT enable this option.  Instead forward your domain to your Weebly subdomain (for example: yoursite.weebly.com)

Follow these steps to setup a custom domain on your Weebly website:

1. Login to your Domain Registrar account (ie. GoDaddy, Register.com, 1and1.com, etc)
- For instructions specific to GoDaddy's interface, click here.
- For instructions specific to 1and1's interface, click here.

 

2. Navigate to the domain's DNS Management page.  You are looking to modify the A-Record of your domain, NOT the name servers -- You need to leave your name servers configured with your existing registrar.

 

3. Setup two A-Records with the following settings:

	Host:	Points to address:
1	domain root (usually identified by a * or @ symbol)	199.34.228.100
2	www	199.34.228.100

You may only need to setup one A-Record, depending on your domain registrar's settings.

Check to see that your domain is correctly configured by clicking here.

Note: It can take up to 48 hours (although usually less) for these DNS changes propagate through the internet.

 

4. In the Weebly editor, click to the "settings" tab, and then "choose site address".  Enter your domain name in Option C.

5. Republish your site

If you are seeing a Weebly branded 404 page, this means that you need to publish your site.

If your domain directs you to any other page besides the Weebly 404 page or your Weebly website, this means that your domain's A-Records are not properly configured.  Please double check your settings and follow up with your domain registrar's support staff if necessary.

4.4. Configure a Domain - GoDaddy

1. First login to GoDaddy.

2. On the main menu, click on the "Domain Manager" link in the toolbar on the left side of the screen.

3. Click on the domain name you are configuring.

4. Click on the "Total DNS Control" link.

Note: If, under "Total DNS" you see a message that says "DNS not hosted here", proceed to these instructions.

5. Delete all existing A-Records and the CNAME with host "www".

6. Setup two new A-Records as follows:

• For the first A-Record, set the host to "@" and the points to IP address to "199.34.228.100"

• For the second A-Record, set the host to "www" and the points to IP address to "199.34.228.100"

Note: It can take up to 24-48 hours (although usually less) for these changes to take effect.

Check to see that your domain is correctly configured by clicking here.

You'll know your domain is ready once it directs you to a Weebly branded 404 page.

Once this occurs, just login to edit your Weebly site, click into the "settings" tab, "choose site address", and input "www.yourdomain.com" into Option C.  If by chance, it says there is a problem, press continue anyway and republish the site.

4.5. Configure a Domain - 1&1 Internet

The custom domain name feature allows you to setup your Weebly site with a domain name you've already registered through 1&1.com. This is a relatively difficult task, so if you have the choice, it is recommended that you register your domain through Weebly which is automatically setup.

Please note that if you are forwarding your domain name to Weebly, DO NOT enable this option.  Instead forward your domain to your Weebly subdomain (for example: yoursite.weebly.com)

To configure a domain with Weebly that was registered with 1and1.com:

1) Log in to your 1&1 Internet Web site account.

 

2) Click the "Domains" icon under "Basic Settings"in the Administration tab

 

3) On the Domain Overview page, select the check box for the domain that you are redirecting. On the actions bar, click the DNS button.

4) Then click Edit DNS Settings.

5) On the DNS Settings page, in the Domain Data section, click on the  DNS bubble. In the Advanced DNS Settings section, click Other IP address, then enter Weebly's IP Address in the boxes: 199.34.228.100.

6) Click OK. You should be directed to a Process Complete page.

7) Log out of your 1&1 Internet account.

Note: It can take up to 24-48 hours (although usually less) for these changes to take effect.

Check to see that your domain is correctly configured by clicking here.

You'll know your domain is ready once it directs you to a Weebly branded 404 page.

Once this occurs, just login to edit your Weebly site, click into the "settings" tab, "choose site address", and input "www.yourdomain.com" into Option C.  If by chance, it says there is a problem, press continue anyway and republish the site.

4.6. Adding a Favicon (Pro)

Weebly Pro accounts have the ability to add a favicon. This is a small icon that appears next to the site's URL in a browser's address bar, next to the site name in the Bookmarks list, and next to the page title on a browser tab.

1. Log into Weebly and click on the site you wish to add a favicon to. Click the Settings tab.
   
   
2. Click the Upload button in the Favicon section.
   
   
3. Browse for the image file on your computer and click Upload. Note: The image needs to be square and relatively small. The image will be scaled down to 16x16 pixels. If you get an upload error, try resizing the file to make it smaller.
   
   
4. Click Save at the bottom of the Settings window and publish your website.

Note: If your favicon does not show up on your site right away, try viewing your site in a different browser or on a different computer. Favicons are saved in a different part of the browser's memory than webpages so even after clearing your browser's cache, the favicon may not show up. New visitors will be able to see the favicon the first time they visit the site and it should show up on your computer within a day or two.

4.7. Add a Calendar

1. Sign up for Google Calendar here.

Google Calendar provides powerful scheduling and notifiction options for your calendar.  You'll manage your events from within Google Calendar, and then the updates will automatically appear in the calendar embedded on your Weebly website.

2. Add upcoming events into the calendar.

3. In the calendar list on the left, click on the down-arrow next to the appropriate calendar and select "Calendar settings."

 

4. Scroll down to the bottom section called "Private Address" and click on the "HTML" button:

 

5. Click on the "configuration tool" link:

 

6. Customize the caledar's appearance to your liking and then copy the embed code provided:

7. Paste the embed code into a Custom HTML element on your website (click here for detailed help).

 

8. Click outside the HTML box to save & display the calendar:

4.8. Add a Guestbook

While we don't have an official "Guestbook" feature, you can create one using our blog feature.

1. Under the "Pages" tab, click the "New Blog" button.

2. Title this page "Guestbook":

 

3. Edit your first blog entry (see example below) and press the "Save to Live" button:

 

4.9. Add a Facebook Badge

You can add a Facebook badge to your website using the Custom HTML element in Weebly. Facebook has several badges and widgets to choose from.

1. Select the Facebook Badge you wish to create.
   • Profile Badge - Share information about your Facebook profile on your website
   • Photo Badge - Share your Facebook photos on your website
   • Fan Box - This is only available to application and page admins. Allows visitors to become a fan of your page or application on Facebook
   • Page Badge - This is only available to application and page admins. Share information about your Facebook page on your website.
2. Follow the wizard to customize the badge, then select Other when asked where to add the badge.
   
   
3. Copy the code that is generated. (Hint: Ctrl+C will copy all the selected text)
   
   
4. Log into Weebly and navigate to the page where you want to add the Facebook badge. Drag a Custom HTML element to your page.
   
   
5. Click on the element then click Edit Custom HTML in the toolbar that pops up.
   
   
6. Paste the code you copied into the Custom HTML element and click on another area of the page to save the changes. (Hint: Use Ctrl+V to paste.)

Note: You may wish to place the Facebook badge in a 2-column element so that you can have text and images beside it.

4.10. Add a Twitter Badge

Weebly has a built-in element for adding a Twitter badge to your blog sidebar, but you may want to have a Twitter badge on other pages as well. There are many Twitter badges available on the web and most of them can be added to your Weebly site using a Custom HTML element.

1. Select a Twitter Widget.
   
   
2. Enter your Twitter user name and customize the widget settings if necessary. Click Finish & Grab Code.
   
   
3. Select all of the text in the code box and copy. (Hint: Ctrl+C will copy all selected text)
   
   
4. Log into Weebly and navigate to the page where you want the Twitter badge. Drag a Custom HTML element to your page.
   
   
5. Click on the element and click Edit Custom HTML in the toolbar that pops up.
   
   
6. Paste the code you copied into the Custom HTML element. (Hint: Use Ctrl+V to paste.) Click on another part of the screen to save the changes and see your Twitter badge.
   
   

You may want to place your Twitter badge in a 2-Column element so that you can have text or images beside it.

5.1. Why isn't my domain working?

If you purchased your domain with Weebly, everything is automatically setup, so you probably just need to publish your site. 

The custom domain name feature (Option C: I already own a domain) allows you to setup your Weebly site with a domain name you've already registered through another registrar, such as GoDaddy.  In most cases, the underlying cause of a problem with this option is an incorrectly setup A-Record for your domain.  To properly configure an existing domain name registered outside of Weebly, please click on the links for a step-by-step description of the process:

Set up a GoDaddy Domain

Set up a 1&1 Domain

Set up domains through other registrars

If your A-Record is properly setup, upon visiting your domain, you should see your published Weebly website or will see a Weebly branded 404 page if you site is not yet published.  If you see any other type of page, your A-Record is not properly setup. 

Note that it can take 12-24 hours for DNS (A-Record) updates to propagate through the internet.

5.2. I am having trouble logging in, help!

When logging in, you can use either your user name or email address.

If you think your password or user name might be incorrect, reset it here. A link to reset your password will be sent to your account's email address. Your user name will also be sent in this email. Check the junk/spam folder if you don't see the email arrive as it may have been incorrectly filtered.

If the issue persists, first check that your computer can accept cookies by visiting this link and if you can't, enable them here.

We've heard reports of antivirus software preventing users from logging in.  If you have antivirus software installed, try temporarily disabling it and then logging in.  If this works, you'll need to add Weebly to the software's "safe" or "accepted" list.

5.3. Why don't my AdSense ads show up?

You should of received an email after signing up with Weebly to confirm your account. If you haven't already, you'll need to confirm with Google AdSense that Weebly can access your account.  Please login to your AdSense account https://www.google.com/adsense and make sure there are no outstanding items to complete in order to fully setup the account. 
 
If you still experience a problem, locate your Google AdSense publisher id and ensure that it matches the one Weebly has on file for you.  To see which AdSense account you have setup with Weebly, click on the "Account Settings" button after logging in and then click on "External Accounts".
 
Note that when you first setup AdSense on your site, it can take 24-48 hours for Google to become adjusted to the content of your site and begin serving ads.

5.4. Why isn't my website showing my changes?

First, make sure you have recently published your site and then refresh/reload your browser while viewing the published site.

Oftentimes your browser will display a cached/outdated version of the site to provide a faster browsing experience. Refreshing the page forces the browser to reload the site to the latest version. If you're using Firefox, hold down the shift key and click the refresh/reload button in the browser when viewing the published site. If you're using Internet Explorer, hold down the Ctrl key and press F5 when viewing the published site.

 

5.5. Why isn't my site listed in Google?

It can a number of weeks for new websites to get "indexed" in the search engine listings.  The following page in our support center explains how to get initially indexed & better ranked in search engines:
Getting Indexed by Search Engines

5.6. I can't click on the upload picture button!

If you are experiencing difficulties clicking the link to upload a picture or file, please ensure that you have the latest version of flash installed by visiting: http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/about/.

We've heard reports that the AdBlocking Firefox extension might be interfering with our image upload bar. Can you double check that you do not have this enabled, and if you do, please disable it and try again.

5.7. The Flickr gallery won't show my pictures!

To use this element, you must first have photos uploaded to an account on http://www.flickr.com. 

NOTE: Your photos have to have "permissions set to public, or viewable by all", and cannot be set to private.  Also, in Flickr's settings it says "Who can print your photos?".  This needs to be set to "Any Flickr member".  Otherwise, the Flickr element will say "no photos found".

For a step by step proceedure, please read this tutorial

5.8. Why doesn't the blog work when I downloaded my website to zip?

When your site contains a blog, it must be hosted by Weebly.com and will not work properly in an archived .zip export.  We require that we host the blog & comments because they rely on our database.

5.9. Why can't I click to edit my text?

Text issues usually occur when users are copying and pasting from external programs (such as other websites and MS Word). We recommend first pasting the text into a simple text editor, such as NotePad, and then copying from there into Weebly.  This will remove the external formatting that is added from the original source and prevent conflicts.

If it's not too hard for you, copy the text from the published version of the site to recreate the element, or contact us to fix it.  Please let us know if you copied text from an external source and what program (ie. MS Word) was used.

5.10. Why is my header image cut off?

Many of our designs allow for the uploading of a custom header image.  However, different design themes have different specifications for the header image dimensions (or size).  In most cases, this calls to resize your header image in order to make it fit the design theme correctly. 

If you need to resize/crop your image to fit into the proper dimensions, upload it to www.picnik.com, modify it, and then save it back to your computer before uploading it into Weebly.

The following page at our support center explains how to upload your own header image/logo and re-size it to fit properly: Resizing the Header Image

5.11. Why is there a white box covering my page in edit mode (LINUX)?

The version of flash that you currently have installed does not support transparency.  This is likely because you are using the open source version of flash that came with your linux distribution.

To fix this:

1. Remove the flash package you currently have installed.  If you are using Ubuntu, you can use this command: 

sudo apt-get remove flashplugin-nonfree

2. Visit Adobe’s download page, select the appropriate download, and install the package.

3. Restart your browser.

6.1. Is Weebly Free?

Weebly is free!  There is a charge if you choose to upgrade to your own domain name and we also offer some additional services, such as password protected web pages, as part of our pro account package, but standard service is and always will be available 100% free and feature-packed.

6.2. I want to suggest a new feature!

To suggest and vote for new features in Weebly, click here.

Make sure to review the existing suggestions before making new ones.  We use this information to guage which features which are most important to you guys, which then helps us prioritize Weebly's feature development.

6.3. What's included with Weebly Pro?

Password Protected Pages

Enable password protection to stop unauthorized visitors from seeing your website. You can require a password for your whole website, or just individual pages.  Click here to learn more.

 

Audio Player

Upload and embed audio into your website in 1-step. Weebly's audio player makes it incredibly easy to add music, podcasts, or other audio files into your website for direct playback.  It includes the option to auto-play the audio when the page is loaded.  Click here to learn more.

 

Video Player

Weebly's video element will automatically convert video files for playback directly on your site.  The player is completely unbranded so you can control the visitor experience.  The player has seeking, volume control, and full-size options.

 

Embedded Documents

The embedded document element lets you choose a document file (such as as .doc, .pdf, .xls, .ppt) to be displayed directly in your site for your visitors to view, scroll through, or print.  This is an easy way for visitors to view a document without requiring them to download it and open it on their own.

 

10 Sites Per Account

Create & manage up to 10 different websites within your pro account. All of the pro features listed on this page will be available to you as you build each of your websites.  In comparison, standard Weebly accounts have a limit of 2 websites per account and don't have the pro features active.

Note that if you want to register a new domain name (ie. www.example.com) for any of your websites, the standard registration fee still applies.

Increased File Size Limit

The 5 MB file size limit placed on standard Weebly accounts is removed to allow 100 MB file uploads! We don't even place a limit to the number of 100 MB files allowed, so your storage capacity is virtually unlimited.

 

Premium Support

Our pro users receive the fastest response from our most qualified support staff. When support tickets are received by our system, pro users' questions are placed at the top of the queue.

 

Customize the Weebly Footer Message

You can remove the "Create a free website with Weebly" footer link that is placed at the bottom of your website and replace it with text & links of your own, or nothing at all.

 

Lots of Weebly Love

With your purchase, you also receive lots of Weebly Love :-) We truly appreciate your support and use the money generated from pro accounts to purchase more servers, hire additional developers, and grow Weebly's feature set to ensure it stays the most powerful website creator available.

Thank you!

6.4. How do I put elements next to each other?

Use the "2 column" element to place items side by side.  Just drag elements, such as pictures, text, or maps, INSIDE of the column of your choice.  See here for more detail.

6.5. How do I change my website URL address?

To change the web address (URL) of your website, go under the "settings" tab of the editor and click on "change site address".  From here, you can choose a different address.  Once complete, re-publish your site.

6.6. Can I make changes after my site is published?

Yes, you can always republish your site to save the new changes to the live version.

6.7. How do I create hidden pages?

To create pages that do not appear in your navigation, click into the "pages" tab and set the page option "show in navigation" to "no". Link to these pages by highlighting text in one of your top level pages and clicking on the "www" button that will appear in the toolbar above your website. Select the appropriate page and press save. See here for more detail.

 

6.8. Can I edit my site later?

Yes, the progress on your website is automatically saved as you edit.  You can always edit your site later by logging into your account through www.weebly.com.

6.9. Do you have a comment / guestbook element?

We do not yet have a comments/guestbook element, but we do have a blog feature which allows your visitors to leave comments on your site.  Furthermore, you can add a contact form to your page to accept comments from users which are then emailed to you.

6.10. How do I customize the design & background?

Presently, you can directly modify the HTML & CSS of your website template using the "advanced editing" option under the "Designs" tab of the editor.  However, this feature should be used only if you're familiar with HTML & CSS code.

One of our next big objectives is to allow a much greater range of easy customization options for the designs, such as fonts, background colors, and line spacing.  We are a few months away from releasing these capabilities, but they will provide much greater level of flexibility and personalization than is available currently. 

 

6.11. Can I upload a file?

Use the "file" element, located under the "multimedia" category to upload files to your website.  They will be available for download once your website is published.  If you are experiencing difficulties, please ensure that you have the latest version of flash installed by visiting: http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/about/

6.12. How do I make a sitemap?

Google webmaster tools may ask you to submit a sitemap of your website.  Weebly automatically creates a sitemap for your site.  It is located at http://example.weebly.com/sitemap.xml or http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml in the case that you've published to your own domain name.

6.13. How do I delete a website?

To delete a site, just click on the red x next to the site name on the dashboard/user home page.  However, if you just want to unpublish it and continue editing it, there is an option in the "settings" tab.

6.14. How do I delete my account?

We're sorry to see you go!  To delete your account, click on the "account settings" button after logging in.  You should see the delete account as the option on the bottom.