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There are many ways to build a website and Notion Sites is one of the easiest. However, my experience with the service wasn’t great. I’ll tell you why and explain whether you may benefit from using Notion sites yourself.
What Is Notion Sites?
Notion Sites is a feature that lets you publish a website from pages in a Notion workspace. you’re able to add different forms of media, including text and images—I wanted to make a photography portfolio site with the tool.
When you create a website with Notion Sites, it’ll appear like an ordinary site. you’re able to share a link to it with anyone that you’d like to view your content.
You don’t need to do anything extra to get Notion Sites; all plans include the basic offering.
Developing a Website With Notion Sites
It’s incredibly easy to develop a website with Notion Sites. First, you’ll need to create a Notion workspace. If you’re unsure where to start, considergiving these Notion workspace ideas a try. Once you’ve done that, you can use the following instructions to create a website in Notion.
As you can see below, my published website effectively looks like a Notion page that has been shared online:
What I Liked About Notion Sites
Although Notion Sites wasn’t a great choice for me, it does have several advantages that may be enough for you.
1. Setting Up Notion Sites Didn’t Take Long
I run my own travel blog using WordPress.org and I have started several websites. If you don’t have any coding or design experience, the process can be quite time-consuming. Sometimes, you just need to put something up—Notion Sites lets you do that.
While I still needed to customize the content on each of my pages, it literally took a few seconds to publish my website. If you need something quick, Notion Sites is a free and easy option. And if you want to create a blog without spending ages on web design, Notion Sites is an ideal starting point. There aregreat blog sites other than WordPress and Bloggerthat you might also want to check out.
2. You Can Choose Whether Your Site Is Indexed by Google
When I launched my blog, I did everything manually. That included indexing my site on Google; it took me six months to realize that I hadn’t submitted my sitemap! SEO backend stuff is pretty tedious, and I like that Notion lets you quickly choose whether Google indexes your website.
You’ll definitely want to have your website indexed if you’re making a blog, and the same goes for professional portfolios when the aim is to attract customers in your niche. You can also choose to index hobby websites, but you may prefer to keep everything out of search engines instead.
I also liked that Notion Sites let me pick whether I wanted to Google Analytics. If you want to grow your web traffic, or just get an idea of how popular your site is, analytics software like this is essential.
What I Disliked About Notion Sites
Despite the benefits I already mentioned, there were two reasons why I didn’t like using Notion Sites.
1. You Need Notion Plus to Get a Custom Domain
Notion gives you a default domain when you publish your site on a free plan, but in my opinion, it looks quite ugly. I certainly wouldn’t want to share it with a client if I were trying to sell a product or service, for example. To add a custom domain (or multiple domains), you need a Notion Plus subscription.
Since I didn’t want to use my Notion site for anything serious, the domain wasn’t a huge deal. But if you’re making a website in Notion for something bigger (i.e. sharing your resume), I’d suggest upgrading to Notion Plus andgetting a custom domain.
2. The Website Looked Like a Notion Document
Another thing I didn’t like about using Notion Sites is that my website effectively looked like a published Notion document. This isn’t a problem if you want to make a resume, company Wiki, or something similar, but it is a big deal if you’d like your site to look unique.
While Notion does have some customization features, they weren’t on the level that I would have wanted. This could admittedly have something to do with me being so used to WordPress, but it’s still worth thinking about.
Who Is Notion Sites for, and Is It Worth Using?
While I’ve said that Notion Sites wasn’t for me, I do think it’s useful for some people, especially if you get Notion Plus and can add a custom domain. If you’d like to make a simple portfolio site without portrait-orientation images, Notion Sites is a great option (even more so if you’re mainly using text).
Notion Sites is also handy if you’d like to share essential documents, pages, and Wikis with others. For example, if you’re working together on a big project at university, keeping everything in Notion Sites is a great option (though you’re able to also share a workspace and keep it private). It’s also ideal if you don’t care too much about design customization.
I wouldn’t recommend using Notion Sites if you need to create a more substantial website, however. In those cases, WordPress or Squarespace are better options.
