Webflow questions asked most frequently by startups, clients and founders

Webflow is gaining in popularity especially with startups. Nevertheless, there are still lots of people who aren't aren't sure how Webflow compares to other platforms and if a certain functionality is possible with Webflow. That is why in this article I have collected a number of questions frequently asked  by clients and designers alike who are just getting started with the platform.

Is it easy to update the content of our website or will we depend on you? and What if you disappear and can't make updates to our site anymore?

With Webflow you can easily update your website's content, which means text as well as images. For instance, you can add new blog or news articles, change the text on your landing page or add new team members to your "About" page. You can do this all via the so called "Webflow Editor" and don't need to be highly skilled in using Webflow. You can see a brief overview of how the Editor works in the video below:

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If you would like to change the layout or structure of you website (which can be done via the "Webflow Designer"), you can either obtain the skillset yourself (or employ someone who does) or hire one of the many Webflow professionals worldwide. There are more and more designers and developers like myself who have focused on working with Webflow and it shouldn't be difficult to find a designer to help you out. But to reiterate: if you only want to make changes and updates to the content of your site, you can do so easily yourself without having to know the ins and outs of Webflow and the growing number of available Webflow specialists throughout the world makes it easy to find a new service provider in case your current one is not offering their Webflow services anymore.

Why shouldn't we build our site with Wordpress - we are already familiar with this platform?

First things first: there are instances when Wordpress might be the better fit for your project. There is no platform that is a one-size-fits-all, each has advantages and disadvantages. If you are a startup and looking at building your website with Webflow some of the major advantages include:

• Less maintenance work. There are no plugins to update and maintain.
• More site security. As security and the site's backend are managed by Webflow there is less of a chance of security holes, your site being hacked etc.
• No maintenance costs and less maintenance effort. I have already eluded to this in the previous question - since you can update the content of your site yourself, you don't need to hire someone to do this for you. Changes can be actioned quickly by your own team. Need to quickly change the wording on your homepage or add an image to a case study? You can easily do this in-house. This saves costs and frees your team up doing more important things than ringing or emailing your web agency with changes.

So, to summarise: even though you might be more familiar with Wordpress, Webflow has lots of advantages that can come in quite handy if you are in the process of setting up or growing your startup. If you would like to learn more about how Webflow compares to Wordpress, feel free to read the article I have previously written on this topic: A quick comparison between Webflow & Wordpress

How will our site compete on SEO without the Yoast plugin which is available for Wordpress?

One thing is for sure: there are currently no plugins available for Webflow, so you cannot use the Yoast plugin on the platform. However, Yoast is only a tool which helps you optimise your site for better SEO and isn't the sole driver of a great SEO performance. Webflow offers standard SEO optimisation features such as title, meta descriptions, open graph settings etc. However some other helper features that Yoast has built-in already (reading score, keywords) need to be achieved via outside tools. Keep in mind that important things like heading structure, alt tags, page speed which all play a role in how Google ranks your site, can all be optimised via Webflow as well. Obviously writing useful content and keeping your site updated with new content can (and should) also not be forgotten when you set up your site with Webflow. Keen to learn more about how Yoast's features can be replicated within Webflow? You can read more about this in a previous article: Answered: How can I replicate Yoast's SEO features in Webflow?

When we are using Webflow to build our website, can we host it on our own server?

You can do that, but I would not recommend it. With Webflow you can build your site and then export the code which you can upload to a server of your choice as a static website. Alternatively your developers can repurpose the code and develop a custom Wordpress (or similar) site. However, keep in mind that there are certain disadvantages to doing this instead of hosting your site with Webflow directly:

• When you export your code, features such as the Webflow CMS (which allows you to easily update dynamic content like blog posts or case studies), as well as submission forms don't work anymore. You will have to spend additional time to integrate other (often code-based) solutions to compensate.
• Also, if you want to make changes to the layout once the code has been exported and set up on another server, you will have to either make these changes within the code or go back to Webflow, make the changes and re-export the code. If you are hosting with Webflow you can simply do the changes within Webflow and click "publish" to set these changes live. I have actually written a separate article outlining why you should host with Webflow instead of hosting your site on a different server, which you can read here: Answered: Why you should host your site directly with Webflow

Can I create a login area for members-only content?

This is a feature Webflow is currently working on (September 2021) and which will be available at a later point in time. In the meantime there are external provider such as Memberstack which enable membership functionality.

Does Webflow offer Single Sign On and how well does it integrate with other technologies?

Webflow integrates with a variety of other tools and services. It’s best ti take a look at Webflow‘s own integrations and resources site for further details: https://university.webflow.com/integrations Alternatively you might be able to integrate certain technologies via custom code solutions that can added as site wide code or specific to a particular page only. Single Sign On (SSO) is now available for enterprise customers – you can learn more here:  https://webflow.com/enterprise

Other questions that are sometimes asked by startups include:

How does Webflow compare to other platforms such as Squarespace or Wix ( I have actually written an article in regards to Squarespace and Webflow here: xxx)

What is the difference between an Account Plan and a Site Plan? (See my article on this topic here: Webflow pricing and account/site plans explained)

Are there other questions you’d like to have answered? Get in touch via the form below.