What You Can And Can't Do With Webflow's Website Editor

We use a platform called Webflow to develop our websites, and have developed this post to help new or existing clients gain an understanding of what you can and can't do within the Webflow Editor.

Having started with template-based systems such as Joomla and Wordpress, we wanted something that offered more freedom in terms of design and creativity; whilst also matching our need for efficiency and a good structure.

Having found Webflow, loved the benefits and the ease of use as a website developer, we've used the platform for over five years now as well as providing input into future features and developments.

While this is by no means a definitive list, it's based on the feedback from our current clients and our experience using the Editor also.

If you want a quick overview, here's what you can do through the Webflow editor:

• edit the general text on any page of a website;
• easily add new content to a news or blog-type page;
• edit existing content (text, images) of a news or blog-type post;
• change most images across the website; and
• instantly make any change live.

And if you're wondering what you can't easily do:

• add new pages;
• add new menu items;
• change backend setup;
• change some photos; and
• edit responsive (mobile and tablet views).

From the list above, most of the 'can't do' items above are in place from Webflow because they open the opportunity to make some errors on a website.

But if you're interested in learning more about any of the above points, read on...

General information about our Webflow setup:

The first thing to note is that Wakeford Digital owns (and pays for) the over-arching Webflow account.

A client website sits within this account plan and this is to save on having to also pay platform costs for every website.

(Dom's note: For whatever reason, if you ever wanted to move away from Wakeford Digital, we can either export your entire website to be uploaded to your own hosting server or you can pay for your own Webflow account plan and the site can be transferred to this).

Webflow also uses in-built hosting.

About Webflow's hosting:

Using the in-built hosting means that instead of having to export and upload all website files to an external host every time you want to update a website, you as a client can utilise Webflow's client editor to make any changes.

Learn more about why we recommend hosting with Webflow at our other recent blog post.

Publishing changes live to your website is also incredibly easy and making these updates is no different to using a word processor or filling in a form.

What you can do within Webflow as a client:

Edit the existing, general content on any page of your website:

If this is changing the wording on your 'about us' page, or updating your contact information, you can do this easily with the editor. You log in from the Google Chrome web browser, make any changes, then hit the 'publish' button to make these changes instantly live on your website.

Change most primary images on your website:

Some icons etc. may require some additional styling (see below), but you can add images into text areas or easily update existing images on your website.

Learn about optimising your images for a website at this blog post.

Add new items (or edit existing) to pages like blogs, news, staff profiles etc:

Any content or page setup in the content management system (CMS) enables you to add new items to it. New items will also automatically be added to the relevant pages or areas of the website. You can also easily add new categories to the CMS - for example, if you need a news category or new type of staff member to add people in.

Change and update page titles, meta descriptions etc:

You can easily update SEO information such as page titles, meta-descriptions and social media previews, for example. While it's recommended to not change these too much (as through Wakeford Digital we've most likely optimised these already), it is available for clients who want to be more hands on with their website.

What you can't do in the Webflow editor (and why):

You can't add a new page to the website:

We understand this may be a hesitation, however previous experience suggests this is not a bad thing. Creating new pages, shuffling content areas or doing major changes as a client opens up the opportunity for errors, both on that page and the website overall.

What's the work around? This isn't a regular request we receive, however when we do, it's often as simple as duplicating a relevant page already on the website. Client's can then quickly log in and update or edit the existing content with the new information; or we can do it for you, saving time and costs.

Change some primary photos or text (i.e. background photos in sliders):

As above, some images sit in a unique place and these are a little trickier to change.

What's the work around? Often, we will will setup these images to be in places that don't require regular changes, or automatically get detected. Changing these, if required, is a very quick and simple task for Wakeford Digital so simply send us an email and we'll get onto this right away.

Add a new menu item or change where a menu item points:

As with the addition of a new page above, this can get complicated if you don't know what to do.

What's the work around? Requiring a new menu item usually coincides with some additional work to a website. When this is the case, this is usually an easy task to perform by Wakeford Digital, simply get in touch and we will promptly add the new menu and page.

Change the layout of responsive views:

As above, to avoid any problems, you can't edit the responsive mobile and tablet views of a website through Webflow's client editor. Mobile and tablet views are a very important aspect of website design; and need to stay optimised from both a performance and search engine optmisation point of view.

Edit the backend setup information, through Webflow.

This sits within the broader Webflow account plan, which is run (and paid for) by Wakeford Digital. Any backend changes are usually adding another domain name, any security work etc. and are rarely changed.

How do backups work?

Within the Wakeford Digital account, Webflow takes regular backups of a website and stores these within the project themselves.

If a client uses the editor and does something that causes an issue, the website can usually be restored to an earlier version.

Webflow websites (minus CMS data) can also be manually exported. Wakeford Digital does this every month, and provides these backups to a client for their safe keeping. We also export the CMS data and provide this for your reference.

In closing...

We hope that this answers some of the initial questions you may have - but if you've got anything further, you can always get in touch with us.