Thanks so much for taking the time to read our Editorial Code. We’re really proud of what we’ve built here, and it’s great to be able to share how we’ve worked to put the “Expert” in “Website Builder Expert” over the years we’ve been online.
Our Editorial Code
A lot of time and effort goes into ensuring we deliver you information that is both accurate and balanced, and we have a number of processes in place to keep it this way:
1. Experience With Builder
We never review a website builder or ecommerce platform without first using it ourselves. Like, never. We actually don’t even understand how you could!
2. Impartial Reviews
We think it’s incredibly important to report on website builders and services fairly and without bias. That’s why we always champion editorial independence in our work – sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly for all platforms, no matter their size, popularity, or how well they’ve ranked in our research. Even our top recommendations have cons that are worth discussing. We want to provide you with all of the information you need to make the right decision for you.
3. Expert Research Process
We’ve worked closely with our Lead Researcher, to develop a fair and quantitative process for evaluating and ranking the products we review – and we stick to it. All of the top website builders and ecommerce platforms go through our full research process.
Natasha started with Website Builder Expert five years ago, bringing expert credentials – a BSc, Ma, and MMRS – to the team. She’s also a member of the Market Research Society. Since then, she’s clocked over 9,600 hours of product research and testing, allowing our writers to share top recommendations with you.
4. User Testing
An important part of this research process is user testing. While we love to get hands-on experience with the builders ourselves, we think it’s important to hear from real users. To start, we give a group of people with mixed technical ability an hour to build a website for a fictitious business using a builder. We then check in with them to see how they found the experience, and how likely they would be to recommend that builder to others. That way, each product isn’t just rated on how good we find it – it’s about how good people like you find it. We always want to paint the full picture.
5. Quality Control
Ahead of publishing, each article written for the site is checked multiple times to ensure it is both generally accurate, and reflective of our research findings. Our writers work closely with the research team and our sub-editor to bring you high-quality content.
6. Regular Updates
But the story doesn’t end when an article is published. The online world is a fast-moving one, and we check for updates every month across the entire site. As products develop, we amend the content and ratings on our site accordingly. That said, if you ever spot something that seems incorrect, please leave us a comment and we’ll get it fixed!
7. How We Make Money
We do make some money (or “affiliate commission”) if you sign up to certain products after visiting our site, but we will always represent a product fairly – “cons” and all. Make no mistake: we are very selective about who we work with, regularly turning down partnerships with companies whose products we just can’t get behind. Our commercial relationships will not impact Website Builder Expert’s editorial integrity.
Most of the products we write about come with either a free trial, a free plan, or a money-back guarantee. Simply put, if you’re not happy to commit to a product after trying it out, we won’t make a cent. It really is in our best interest to only recommend products and services we can genuinely vouch for, and that’s exactly what we do.
And, any affiliate commission we do earn comes directly out of the pocket of the company behind the product. It never costs you, our readers, a penny more than if you’d signed up independently – and that’s the way we like it. Companies have a dedicated budget for affiliate marketing, just as if they’d set aside money for any advertising campaign.
We do make some money (or “affiliate commission”) if you sign up to certain products after visiting our site, but we will always represent a product fairly – “cons” and all. Make no mistake: we are very selective about who we work with, regularly turning down partnerships with companies whose products we just can’t get behind. Our commercial relationships will not impact Website Builder Expert’s editorial integrity.
Most of the products we write about come with either a free trial, a free plan, or a money-back guarantee. Simply put, if you’re not happy to commit to a product after trying it out, we won’t make a cent. It really is in our best interest to only recommend products and services we can genuinely vouch for, and that’s exactly what we do.
And, any affiliate commission we do earn comes directly out of the pocket of the company behind the product. It never costs you, our readers, a penny more than if you’d signed up independently – and that’s the way we like it. Companies have a dedicated budget for affiliate marketing, just as if they’d set aside money for any advertising campaign.