It's been a while since we wrote an article, and as of today, we are officially back to publishing. We are pleased and honored to do this to tell you about Webflow, our flagship CMS for a little over a year.
First of all, Webflow is a Content Management System (CMS), as is WordPress, Shopify, Prestashop, Wix, Magento, Drupal to name a few. As you know, a CMS is much more than a tool for managing the content of your site. In addition to this primary function, it is a powerful marketing tool to achieve the goals you have (traffic generation, contacts, applications, appointments, etc.).
Over 8 years, we tested more than 20 CMS for dozens of possible use cases. From open source CMS to new ones that exceed standards (Strapi, Storyblock, Prismic, Forestry, Kontent, Contentful, etc.). However, Webflow was the only one to bring us disconcerting flexibility, an unparalleled fluidity in our development process, and simply changed the way we work. The most interesting thing about this evolution is that the satisfaction of our customers has never been higher since using this CMS.
Let's go into a bit more detail with the following parts, but first let's appreciate the Webflow signature.
Your website should be a marketing asset, not a technical challenge.
In this section, we will list the main problems we encounter with CMS on the market. Not being satisfied with your CMS is a frequent situation since the possibilities it offers do not always meet our expectations.
Using a CMS like Wordpress requires a minimum of technical knowledge (hosting, DNS, database, etc.). Let's not go into the details of other CMS, but in this universe it is common to use paid templates (customizable website templates). In addition to that, it is common to use a builder.
It is a page builder with drag-and-drop logic which allows you to manage various parts of the site, however other elements remain opaque and inaccessible if you do not use code.
The problem is that at one point or another, if you want to go further to create your site, you will be forced to write lines of code, without necessarily being sure of the final result.
Compare this to a black box: you will have to make changes in your CMS without understanding the elements that have an impact on what you want to change.
The time required to master a CMS varies greatly, and several elements must be taken into account. If the user has already used other CMS, the learning curve is often much faster than new users. But if the user has never used a CMS, the task can be much more complex on some.
The Adobe Experience Manager Sites CMS is not the easiest to use, a CMS like Magento can make you nauseous when you need to manage your online store. WordPress can cause the same sensation if the CMS is enhanced with 50 plugins with notifications in all directions, unclear tabs and hashed content management in several spaces.
Some CMS make real efforts to improve the experience of their user by offering a back office that is as simple as possible, and by simplifying the way to modify parts. We can mention Webflow, Wix, Jimdo, Jimdo, Squarespace, Shopify, and there are many others.
The problem with these CMS, which are surprisingly easy to use, is that the creation of websites is becoming possible for everyone. However, this is not enough that it is good for SEO, fast for users and scalable over time for future needs.
According to the latest figures for 2022, the Share of mobile traffic represents 60% of web traffic compared to 38% for computers.
Managing the visual rendering of the site according to the screens can be a real challenge. Not all CMS allow you to get a real-time overview of the mobile, so yes you can do it with an emulator like Responsive Viewer, but you'll be wasting time in your creative process.
In addition, Google downgrades websites that are not optimized for mobile. If you don't appear well in search results on phones or tablets, your website probably doesn't comply with all best practices for all devices (computers, phones, tablets).
For some CMS, extensions are one of their main strengths. Take WordPress for example, there are tens of thousands of them out there. You will find them for all your needs, and the majority of them are free.
But without knowing it, adding extensions (plugins) can slow down your website and create unexpected bugs. Some sites (directly linked to the construction of this site) are not adapted to add numerous plugins. Adding plugins is also a risk for the security of your site since some malicious scripts (which you will certainly not find) are dangerous.
First, the loading speed of your website may increase since the number of scripts to load the site evolves. Second, some plugins will not work together and may have harmful consequences for the functioning of your site.
To quote just the Webflow quote from the beginning of this article, your site should be a marketing asset, not a technical challenge. At Angular, we are convinced by this.
Regardless of your site's goals, you'll need to attract traffic to reach them. To achieve your goals, you will need to test numerous tools and practices that will converge on your goals.
A CMS should allow you to easily install elements concerning the tracking of your site in order to monitor the behavior of your visitors. Easy means that you are able with Google Tag Manager to add valid selectors to be autonomous on these tracking topics.
It should also allow you to optimize natural referencing (SEO): configure the technical elements of your pages, optimize the markup of your texts, modify the content and add new ones easily. You must also be able to manage the domain name, configure redirections, and control basic elements such as the robots.txt, the site map (sitemap.xml) or the Google Search Console property.
And finally, to mention only the minimum required in this article, you need to be able to connect your forms to external tools in order to increase your number of contacts. The easiest method is often to use Zapier (we do it a lot), otherwise you'll have to use native integrations between tools, but they don't always exist.
On the web, your worst enemy is loading speed. If your performance does not meet the expectations of visitors, but also of search engines, you may have serious problems.
User experience is a key success factor for converting, and engines downgrade sites that take a long time to load. Nobody wants to wait 5 seconds for a response, especially with the arrival of 5G.
Performances are influenced by 3 elements:
Choosing a theme solely for its design without having the knowledge to watch the performances is a common mistake that leads to a disability from the start.
According to experts in the field, there is a breakdown you should know:
The choice of CMS therefore has a direct impact on the performance of a site, but an important part obviously depends on the use of the owner. Even if you know how to optimize images, manage the cache, add redirects, reduce scripts according to pages, make a dynamic site static, sometimes it is the CMS that is the main concern for poor performance.
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It is a real concern to depend on technical experts to manage your site. The simplest elements like - updating pages, modifying images, creating landing pages, creating landing pages, publishing blog posts, modifying sections or even modifying dynamic elements - must be done without any technical knowledge.
Regardless of the CMS, you will always (in our opinion) need maintenance to have a safety net and ensure the proper functioning of your site. Obviously, the platform and the functionalities that you implement in your site will have an impact on the cost of maintaining it.
Language management is a challenge that some CMS dare to take on, others let extensions take care of this part (and some do it very well), but it's completely normal.
Implementing a multilingual solution on your site involves several subjects:
When you are faced with these language management topics, you must take these elements into account, otherwise you risk making mistakes that will have a major impact on your visibility, and performance.
Not all CMS allow you to easily manage the translation of a site. Even our favorite Webflow requires some skills or a tool to successfully carry out an international project.
Webflow is an intuitive, efficient and scalable no-code platform that allows teams to be aligned within the same platform. The CMS makes it possible to meet the needs of each user:
The promise of Webflow is that thanks to their platform, all stakeholders can focus on what everyone does best. And we think that this is very true since Webflow brings disconcerting independence to our users, and we only have positive feedback.
“I have become allergic to Wordpress since you introduced me to Webflow” Emilie Bardalou, Delight
No-code is not the first argument that we will put forward since as soon as we want to integrate advanced functionalities, we have to add code manually. But this is not a limit; on the contrary, it is a considerable advantage compared to other CMS on the market.
Another promise is to drastically reduce the time it takes to get online. This can be explained in this way:
Thanks to agile design and design management in addition to development, the testing phase takes days, not weeks. We come from a world where sites were built in React from scratch.
With Webflow, our process is initially 2 to 3 times faster depending on the projects, but in addition to that the sites are 20 to 30% faster. With React, the sites were in orbit, with Webflow we no longer have the words.
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The key to convincing your technical director (CTO) to use Webflow is not to highlight the functionalities and advantages of the CMS. Instead, you should ask them if they want to continue to take care of the company site or if they prefer to devote their resources to developing the product or solution.
All sectors are undergoing changes, site development has long remained one of the most inefficient processes on the web. We were the first to not be a fan of “no-code”.
But after taking the time to push the limits of Webflow for our customers, we think that using it is a smarter way to be than those who stay rooted in the old ways.
Webflow offers a system for managing site components in the form of mini models called “Components”. Thanks to this, it is possible to modify all the templates at the top of the page in a few seconds, to modify all the CTAs (call-to-action) of the site, to modify the various menus, the footers, and much more.
The limit will be your imagination, you can transform as many divs as you want into “Components”.
Thanks to Webflow, you will save a lot of time. This is ultimately, with a long-term vision, a much more interesting return on investment than a few hundred euros saved on site maintenance.
Bugs that happen magically do not exist at Webflow, unless you made a mistake in the back office or if a library used evolves, in this case this is caused by an external dependency. What you need to remember is that not having to keep extensions up to date to make your site work allows you to get rid of a thorn in your side.
With Webflow, you don't need to use HTML, CSS, or JavaScript code to make your site responsive. Once the parameters have been defined on the main medium (desktop), Webflow takes care of creating a clean code allowing your site to be fully responsive design.
The editor not only makes it easy to create a mobile-friendly site, but also allows you to create a custom view for tablets and oversized screens. Regardless of how your visitors discover your website, you can offer them an experience adapted to their devices.
90% of pirated CMS are WordPress sites, 4.6% Magento, 4.3% Joomla, 3.7% Drupal, 0.6% PrestaShop, etc.
The vulnerability of sites almost always comes from popular extensions that are not updated frequently enough, and from the version of CMS that leaves potential flaws.
With Webflow, you won't have to worry about this problem, and you can trust them because:
Being independent is the ultimate desire of all marketing teams, what a relief to be able to go quickly, and not to wait for the X sprint from your technical team, which has many other concerns to manage rather than implementing a B variant on the landing page.
Webflow allows this reality, the designer and the marketer become owners of the site, they are no longer just actors.
Webflow gives us the impression of having superpowers, the site evolves as quickly as the functionalities to be highlighted. Webflow allows marketing teams to be even more ambitious and creative since they have full powers to implement their evolutions.
Do you want to test AB testing on a landing page? Don't worry, you can install Google Optimize in just 5 minutes. And thanks to the famous Webflow university, you will find answers to all your concerns. Whether it's setting up Google Analytics events or adding new tools.
What about performance? Webflow excels, we have hearts in our eyes when we do speed tests on the sites we design. On the Webflow site, you can read customer cases of major startups that have migrated to this CMS and they unanimously mention growth rates that are unparalleled elsewhere.
Thanks to Webflow, we managed to drastically improve the performance of all the sites designed, to the point of doing better than a custom site under React.
There is also a part that allows you to create an e-commerce site on Webflow, but we will not talk about it in this article, we will add the link soon in this paragraph.
This article is twice as long as expected, but it's hard to say less when we have so much to say on such a subject. This 1st article on Webflow is only the beginning of a long series, we encourage you to follow us to receive the next ones, and do not hesitate to make an appointment to find out more about our Webflow agency, we love meeting people.
We strongly recommend that you take stock of the performance of your site, and find out if your CMS is an obstacle to your success. To find out more, make a request on our free resource.