Why Our Designers Are Doodling Over Duda: The Inside Scoop on Our Go-To Website Builder
Hey there, digital dreamers and web wanderers! Have you ever wondered why our bellette designers are so smitten with Duda for crafting client websites? Well, pull up a chair and let’s dive into the delightful world of Duda, where website woes transform into digital dazzle. Here’s the lowdown on why Duda has become a bit of a darling in our studio.
The Dazzling Pros of Duda
- Drag, Drop, Design – It’s That Easy! Our team adores Duda’s user-friendly interface. With its drag-and-drop goodness, even the most code-shy among us can become web wizards in no time. It’s like playing with digital Lego blocks, but instead of a toy castle, you’re building sleek, professional websites.
- Looks Good Anywhere: Responsive Design Whether you’re viewing on a vintage desktop or the latest smartphone, Duda sites automatically adjust for a flawless display. This responsiveness ensures our clients’ websites look great and function perfectly across all devices, which is a big win for user experience and a huge relief for our designers who don’t need to fuss over different versions.
- All-In-One Arsenal From e-commerce solutions and blogging to SEO tools, Duda comes stacked with built-in features right out of the box. This integrated approach means we can spend more time designing and less time duct-taping different plugins together. It’s like having a Swiss Army knife in our design toolkit!
- Speedy Gonzalez Has Nothing on Duda A slow website is a no-go in our books. Thankfully, Duda websites load faster than a kangaroo on a skateboard, thanks to optimised images and CDN services. This means happier visitors and better SEO rankings, making both us and our clients do a happy dance.
- Help at the Ready When we hit a snag, Duda’s stellar customer support team is just a call or click away. Whether it’s a quick chat or a deep dive into a technical issue, they’ve got our backs, and that peace of mind is priceless.
We love Duda because we can include so much more of the functionality clients want. It’s planning down to the wire(frame), it’s as customisable as you want and we spend less time coding and more time putting the design together without the losing speed or functionality options you need. Brad likens it to a pie with all the fillings! Before Duda we could design you a brilliant looking crust, but the content was a bit on the thin side because our time (and your budget) was taken up in resolving code communications to make everything play nicely together.
The Cons: Every Rose Has Its Thorn
- Premium Price Tag As the saying goes, you often get what you pay for! While Duda is fantastic, it’s not the cheapest kid on the block. The cost is dependent on the level of customisation and complexity of functionality, especially if we’re activating advanced features or managing multiple sites. But we still believe this is the best bang for buck option we’ve come across in the current market.
- Customisation Conundrums For all its user-friendliness, Duda does put a cap on how wild we can go with customisation. Sometimes, the design styles, while sleek, keep us on a bit of a short leash if you are after bespoke from the get go. It’s a trade-off between convenience and creative control.
- E-commerce: Not the Frontrunner Duda wasn’t at the forefront of online shopping at first, but it’s made lots of improvements of late and now comes with powerful tools and features including an AI assistant that instantly generates product & category descriptions and SEO metadata, custom payment gateways and stores, plus training and support. If you’re planning to be the next Amazon, you might find its features a bit limiting.
- Template Lock-In Chosen a template and had a change of heart? Switching your Duda template can feel like trying to change your order at a busy restaurant—better brace for a bit of a hassle, or you might just have to start afresh.
- Breaking Up Is Hard to Do Falling out of love with Duda? Moving your site to another platform can be a bit like a digital “It’s not you, it’s me.” Not the easiest of breakups, since exporting content isn’t straightforward.
Duda is best suited for small to medium-sized businesses and agencies that need a balance of ease of use, professionalism, and efficiency in website building and management, without the need for deep technical customisation. If it is the next step up heavy hitting technical customisation you're after HutSix is our recommendation. Check out their process and get in touch via this link, they are doing some amazing work and bring a down to earth ‘let’s get to the brass tacks’ approach with their regional Australia origins.
Why We Stick with Duda
Duda is our go-to for a reason. It strikes just the right balance between ease of use and robust features, keeping both our team and our clients over the moon (most of the time). For us, the benefits of working with Duda—like boosting our design efficiency and not having to worry about technical gremlins—far outweigh the drawbacks.
So, there you have it—the bellette breakdown on why Duda is a darling in our design den. Whether you’re a potential client pondering platforms or a curious cat in the creative industry, we hope this insight helps you navigate your digital destiny! 🌟🚀
We’re always happy to quote and at bellette.com.au/contact there’s a handy ‘Get a quote’ link where you can load up your organisation specific info for us to get back to you with pricing out your ideas.
If you’re feeling like Duda could be your digital dream too, but need a sounding board, drop us a line, and let’s create something spectacular together. 💌
P | 1800 006 936
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Before 1997, before bellette was even a thing, I was working for other media companies, selling airtime, ads, and what I now know was a broken idea. Everyone was an “expert.” Agencies full of buzzwords, all talking about top of mind awareness . That was the holy grail. ROI wasn’t a word anyone wanted to hear. You just threw money at it and hoped it stuck. It drove me nuts. I couldn’t keep selling something that didn’t work, so I went looking for answers. That’s when the early days of bellette began. I was knee-deep in creating ads - fast, rough, full of trial and error. We’d be out there at 7 a.m. , camera in hand, filming Greg Neck trying to get his lines out while Chris stood off to the side giving him a hard time every time he messed one up, it was raw, loud, and full of life. Those mornings were pure Territory chaos, but they taught me something important. You could see what worked. You could watch the ads go live, see people walk through the doors, buy the product, and walk out smiling. That was real ROI , a feeling that what you created actually mattered. That’s what drove me in those early days of bellette, chasing that same sense of return . When I spoke about that idea to new clients, it felt hollow. ROI sounded like a pitch line, it wasn't a purpose. I knew it meant something, I just didn’t have the anchor yet. Not until later, when a book in a bargain bin set me straight. Every weekend I’d wander into Dymocks , back when Bev Ellis owned it in the Alice Plaza , and dig through the bargain bin looking for answers. Old marketing books, sales guides, psychology reads — anything I could get my hands on. Then one day, buried deep in the pile, I found a little purple book by Seth Godin — Purple Cow . Inside was a line that stopped me cold: “You’re either remarkable or invisible. Make your product worth talking about, or you’ll fade away.” That was it. That was the spark. It made me realise that everyone, no matter who they are or what they do, should be famous for what they do . Not famous for shouting louder, but for being remarkable. That’s where bellette really began. Back then it was just Kate , Bear , and me, late nights, caffeine, and pure stubbornness in a one-bedroom flat on Undoolya Road . Then many years later came Jim and Fred , who’ve grown up right in the middle of it all. Over the years, plenty of people have said, “I don’t get it.” Even a few old bellette crew couldn’t see it. But it’s stuck. Every part of me still wants to do this, to make the world see you, know you, and understand what makes you remarkable. Like Shrek says, “Ogres are like onions, they have layers.” So do people. So do brands. The first ten years of bellette were all about ROI - Return on Investment . We helped retailers measure what worked, what sold, and what didn’t. But as bellette grew, so did the meaning. Now ROI means Return on Impact. These days, we work with councils, NGOs, and government organisations , helping them show the difference they make. Because when you run a great council, deliver services that matter, or do something that changes lives - you should be known for it. Many years later too, Jim and Fred are famous in their own right, which I’m not sure they enjoy. But just like the tagline, the world knows them for who they are and what they bring to the world. Jim brings the dangerous curiosity, seeing the detail others miss. Fred brings the quirky creative, unfiltered, and full of spark. Together they balance each other out, just like the best in brothers should do. But not because of me, but because they’ve become the living embodiment of it. They’re proof that being famous isn’t about followers or noise, it’s about being known for what you bring to the table, and doing it with purpose. That’s what we do. We don’t just make stuff. We make you known . We make you seen . We make you famous . Because it’s not about us It’s about you . You do something well. You make a difference. And we’ll make sure the world knows it. Here’s to the next chapter of bellette , still chasing the purple cow, still making the good ones famous. Nearly three decades on, and we’re just getting started.
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