Introducing Zoho Sites 2.0: A new dimension in website building

We're excited to announce the launch of Zoho Sites 2.0! Our latest update brings a more powerful, intuitive, and user-friendly platform for business websites. We invite you to experience these benefits, enhance your online presence, and increase conversion rates.

Who is Zoho Sites meant for? 

Zoho Sites is an ideal solution for various businesses, including entrepreneurs, professionals, and startups. If you want to start online and expand your market reach, the Zoho Sites Starter Plan provides you with the tools to do so.

Mid-sized enterprises can use the enhanced Pro Plan with additional features that help improve their digital operations. We also have a plan for agencies to enable them to build and manage multiple websites from a single place.

So, what makes Zoho Sites the ideal website builder for businesses? Let's dive in and explore its exciting new features.

What's new  

1. Refreshed UI

Experience a smooth and user-friendly interface with our redesigned dashboard and settings in Zoho Sites 2.0. We've streamlined navigation to eliminate the hassle of hunting for features for an enhanced user journey.

The new UI has additional header styles, spacing options, auto-suggest features, and updates such as the author blog profile (profile pic, name, and bio) baked into the UI. This focus on user-friendliness and feature expansion makes it easier to build and manage websites, allowing even novices to website building to get things done quickly.

2. Introducing Subsites

Zoho Sites introduces Subsites*, a feature that enables businesses to create micro-sites out of the box. This feature helps provide targeted content to engage better with visitors, provide the benefits of SEO, and improve user experience and brand consistency.

For instance, a travel agency website may broadly showcase its services and travel packages for its entire audience. With Subsites, the agency can now create specialized micro-sites for their regional tourism markets. A subsite for India could focus on the country's rich cultural heritage along with specialized travel packages such as heritage tours, adventure trips, or spiritual journeys specific to India. Similarly, it can have several subsites covering the rest of its regional markets as well.

This works great in cases where specific business aspects need to be showcased to different audience segments, and the navigation isn’t limited to a single page. Visitors remain on the subsite and aren’t distracted by information on other pages that might cater to a completely different segment.

* This feature will require activating the Pro plan and the Subsite add-on.

3. Multilingual capabilities

Our highly anticipated multilingual* feature helps businesses expand their global digital footprint.

Consider a business that operates in both the US and France. With the multilingual feature, a business's website can seamlessly switch between English and French, catering to its users in both countries.

The multilingual website feature also allows users to choose between manual and automatic translation options. Additionally, you can customize layouts, font styles, and design elements for each subsite. This ensures that each subsite resonates well with its intended audience.

* This feature will require activating the Pro plan and Subsite add-on.

4. Built-in RTL support

Here's a feature that businesses operating in the Middle East will love!

Right-to-left (RTL) languages, such as Arabic, are written and read from right to left. With nearly 10% of the world's population communicating in RTL languages, having a website in RTL is a significant business opportunity for our users to establish a meaningful connection with audiences in Middle Eastern regions.

Zoho Sites supports RTL out of the box and will adjust everything from text alignment and layout to navigation to align with the natural reading flow of RTL languages without requiring any plugins. This feature enhances the website experience for native speakers and makes it more intuitive, accessible, and engaging.

5. Expansive menu updates

A mega menu* displays numerous choices in a dropdown format and effectively presents online content. In this way, it helps cover a broad range of topics or services while providing the benefit of simple navigation for complex websites.

For instance, with this feature, a travel and tourism business can create a menu that covers many topics ranging from cultural tours to adrenaline-pumping adventures. This structured navigation makes the trip-planning process more efficient and enjoyable for visitors. It also enhances the usability and accessibility of the website.

* This feature will require activating the Pro plan and the mega menu add-on.

6. Visual menu icons and menu highlighting

Menu icons* serve as quick visual cues that help visitors understand menu options instantly. For example, a “Download” icon beside the download button makes navigation more intuitive.

You can also highlight specific menu items*, making it an excellent tool for directing viewers to essential pages like “Contact Us,” “Get Started,” or “Special Offers,” for example.

These menu enhancements improve a website's visual appeal, usability, and visitor engagement. And as we all know, a website visitor who finds what they’re looking for quickly is more likely to engage and convert.

* This feature will require activating the Pro plan.

7. Comprehensive SEO reports

Zoho Sites offers all-new SEO reports and tools* that analyze your website's performance. You can use these insights to optimize your SEO readiness, keywords, links, headers, social preview images, and more to improve your site's visibility on search engines.

For a business, here are some advantages of this feature:

• Visibility: Improved SEO results in higher ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs), increasing a business's visibility to prospective customers.

• Traffic: Higher visibility also increases organic traffic, essential for businesses to attract more customers.

• Competitive edge: Businesses can analyze their SEO strategies and use them to stay ahead of the competition.

• Better digital marketing: Effective SEO optimization improves the return on investment (ROI) of marketing, which enhances your business's reach and engagement.

* This feature will require activating the Pro plan and the SEO tools add-on.

8. Advanced schema generator

The advanced schema generator* in Zoho Sites is designed to increase your website's visibility in search results. For a more detailed understanding, you can read this article regarding an introduction to schema and how to use it on your website.

Incorporating important information about your brand, person, or business on your webpage makes this content more accessible to search engines** for indexing. Adding structured data, like your business's star rating, reviews, exact address, etc., to your website boosts your chances of appearing with an eye-catching and detailed listing on search engine results***. This, in turn, leads to benefits such as increased visibility via web searches, brand differentiation, an improved search experience for prospects, and enhanced local SEO benefits.

* This feature will require activating the Pro plan.

**Learn more about how Google uses schema here.

***While the schema generator improves search result visibility, combining its use with other SEO best practices provides optimal results.

9. Reusable saved sections

Reusable saved sections is another new feature that allows users to save a particular section of their website. These sections can then be reused on the same page or a subsite with just a few clicks.

For example, consider a digital marketing agency that frequently needs to refresh its website with new case studies, blog articles, and service offerings. Using the reusable saved sections feature, the company can create a standardized template for its case studies, ensuring each one maintains a consistent look that aligns with the agency's branding.

Reusable saved sections also save significant time for businesses that frequently update or redesign their websites by eliminating the need to design each section from scratch.

10. Custom social profiles

Custom social profiles let businesses easily link their social media to their website. This feature enriches the visitor's experience, offering a holistic brand experience and encouraging them to engage with your brand beyond just the website.

This creates a unified online identity, with visitors connecting smoothly with your brand across platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, X, and others. You can also include links to your business's blog, a personal portfolio, or any other relevant online presence, as part of your connected brand identity.

11. Individual page publishing

The individual page publishing* feature lets you control your website's content updates incrementally.

Imagine a real estate agency regularly updating its website with new property listings, market insights, customer testimonials, and event announcements. The website needs to provide the latest information on available properties and market trends. At the same time, there’s also the risk of publishing information that’s not yet ready for listing.

The individual page publish feature addresses this issue by allowing businesses to roll out content in real time while eliminating the risk of publishing draft or unfinished pages.

* This feature will require activating the Pro plan.

Wrapping up  

Zoho Sites is more than just a website builder—it's a new dimension in creating, managing, and experiencing business websites for both your businesses and their customers or users.

Whether you're a startup on the rise, a thriving business, or an enterprise carving out your unique path, Zoho Sites is an ideal platform to help your venture thrive. Explore Zoho Sites today to boost your digital footprint and delight your customers.

To schedule a detailed demo with our onboarding team, contact us at support@zohosites.com.

Happy website building!