Introduction
Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals provide an unmissable opportunity for founders, solo entrepreneurs, and small business owners to significantly upgrade their online presence at a discounted price. Quality website builders like Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress.com offer enticing discounts of 30-50% off their annual plans during this shopping season. This allows busy founders to quickly establish a professional looking website, launch a blog, or even build an e-commerce store without breaking the bank.
A well-designed website brings much-needed credibility and trust that can help your early-stage startup stand out. According to a 2021 survey, 72% of consumers are more likely to trust businesses with professionally designed websites. With beautiful templates, easy drag and drop editors, and built-in e-commerce features, discounted website builders empower entrepreneurs to showcase their business online and attract more customers. The SEO and marketing tools that come with paid plans enable better search engine visibility to drive organic traffic. For bootstrapped founders and indie makers, these Black Friday website builder deals are an unmissable opportunity to level up your web presence.
This guide will highlight the top 6 website builder discounts, compare 15 key features, showcase real-world examples of popular templates and themes, and explain the benefits of 5 value-added services. By leveraging these limited-time offers, you can build a stunning website that transforms how potential customers perceive your brand. Let's dive in and explore how upgrading with Black Friday deals can take your online presence to the next level as a founder.
Popular Website Builders Offering Deals
The major website building platforms like Wix, Squarespace and WordPress.com run some of the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. Here are the specific savings you can expect this shopping season:
Wix
- Wix provides a free basic plan but paid plans unlock more features and customization.
- For Black Friday, Wix is offering discounts up to 50% off annual plans like the Unlimited and Business VIP.
- Key features include 500+ designer templates, an SEO wizard, built-in analytics and more.
- Integrated e-commerce, free domain registration, unlimited bandwidth and ad vouchers make Wix a great choice for online stores.
Squarespace
- Squarespace has no free plan option but is renowned for beautiful designer templates.
- For Black Friday and Cyber Monday, annual plans like Personal and Business are discounted by 30% saving you $144.
- Squarespace is acclaimed for its award-winning templates, easy customization and responsive design.
- Built-in e-commerce, SEO optimization and analytics help you sell online and drive traffic.
WordPress.com
- WordPress.com provides managed WordPress hosting plans to easily build a website.
- This Black Friday, get 35% off annual WordPress.com plans like Premium and eCommerce.
- WordPress makes it easy to setup with custom themes, SEO and marketing integrations.
- Get unlimited storage, a free CDN and automatic updates.
Key Website Builder Features to Compare
When comparing Black Friday website builder deals, look for these 15 key features:
Design Customization
- An intuitive drag and drop builder with professional templates makes customizing your design easy.
- Customize fonts, color schemes, layouts and more to match your brand.
- Header, footer, page and blog customization help polish your site navigation and layout.
- Animation effects like parallax scrolling, embedded videos, popups, and image galleries can take your website to the next level.
- A/B testing and hundreds of third-party integrations provide advanced options as you scale up.
SEO Optimization
- Built-in SEO features help improve your search engine rankings so customers can find you.
- Edit meta titles and descriptions, submit XML sitemaps and more.
- Use keyword targeting and rank tracking to optimize your content.
- SEO wizards and one-click optimizations make search engine visibility easy.
- Page speed and image optimizations ensure fast load times for better ranking.
E-Commerce Features
- Integrated e-commerce platforms make it easy to sell products or services online.
- Get real-time shipping rates, tax calculations and discount codes built-in.
- Manage inventory, track orders and handle secure payments.
- Quickly create an online store with shopping carts optimized for conversions.
- Use coupons, gift cards and seamlessly sell physical/digital products.
Blogging Capabilities
- Make it easy to share company updates, tutorials or industry insights through blogging.
- Modern blog themes with comment sections foster engagement.
- Integrations with social media scheduling help blog content reach more people.
- SEO optimized permalinks, tagging and metadata for discoverability.
- Drive email subscribers with popups and newsletter integrations like MailChimp.
Forms and Lead Generation
- Build unlimited forms to capture leads, survey customers or book appointments.
- Integrate form builders like Typeform or embed Calendly for scheduling.
- Add popups, slide-ins and sticky bars to increase conversions.
- Send data to CRM or email marketing platforms for follow up.
- Build multi-page forms with conditional logic and calculated fields.
Security
- SSL encryption, firewall security and DDoS protection keeps sites safe.
- Role-based user access controls and activity logs for visibility.
- Automatic vulnerability scans and updates protect against threats.
- Daily off-site backups provide quick restore options.
- Integrate single sign-on (SSO) for secure access.
Speed and Performance
- CDNs, caching and image optimization deliver fast page loads.
- Minify CSS, JS and HTML code automatically to optimize performance.
- Easily move to dedicated or cloud hosting plans as traffic grows.
- Efficient database usage and query caching speeds up dynamic sites.
- Integrate performance monitoring to identify bottlenecks.
Top Website Templates and Themes
Here are some top website templates and themes discounted website builders offer for different niches:
Portfolio Themes
- Showcase your work with templates like Ascend for photographers, designers and creatives.
- Minimalist grid layouts and full-screen galleries make projects pop.
- Visual-focused designs feature large images and videos.
- Portfolio themes use hover effects and animations to engage visitors.
- Check out photography, agency and portfolio templates.
Blog Themes
- Blog themes like Narrative help you share stories and engage readers.
- Modern magazine layouts showcase featured and trending content.
- Share posts by category, add author bios and timestamps to build credibility.
- SEO-optimized templates help your blog rank higher.
- Browse travel, food, lifestyle and parenting blog themes.
E-Commerce Themes
- Create a shopping destination with e-commerce themes like Shopper.
- Templates optimized for product showcases, carts and checkouts.
- Showcase products with image galleries and promotion sections.
- Built-in support for shopping carts, accounts and inventory management.
- Choose between apparel, jewelry, electronics or bookstore themes.
Top Value-Added Services to Utilize
Take advantage of these additional services with discounted website builder plans:
Managed Hosting
- Get up to 300% faster load times and higher uptime with optimized managed hosting.
- 24/7 expert monitoring and on-demand backups provide peace of mind.
- Automatic security and plugin updates take care of the technical aspects.
- One-click restores make recovery from issues seamless.
Premium Integrations
- Unlock hundreds of premium integrations to extend functionality.
- Embed calendars, forums, polls, slideshows and more to engage visitors.
- Connect top email marketing, live chat, CRM and analytics platforms.
- Link custom domains and leverage third-party APIs with ease.
Marketing and Analytics
- Make data-driven decisions with built-in analytics like Google Analytics.
- Track keywords, backlinks, referrals and run A/B tests to optimize SEO and marketing.
- Schedule social media posts and send email newsletters right from your site.
- Visitor tracking provides customer insights to boost conversions.
- Identify sales funnels and boost conversions with heatmap tracking.
Conclusion
This Black Friday shopping season presents an ideal opportunity for founders to invest in a professional online presence at a discounted price. Comparing the top website builder offers, features, templates and services enables you to make the right choice for your startup. Establishing a polished website, blog or online store can significantly elevate your credibility and help you attract more customers. The intuitive drag and drop editors make getting up and running quick and painless even without any coding skills. Don't miss out on these limited-time Black Friday deals to take your web presence to the next level!