On the one hand, I’m missing out on what could be valuable information, but on the other hand, it’s one less thing to worry about. I don’t know who visits my website, what country they’re in, how they got there, what they searched to find it, and other information that analytic tools on hosting platforms can provide.
There’s no way for me to get site analytics ( update : paying for Super and Hostnotion should help). The pages on my website are not in the / format, so that might affect searches ( update : you can use paid tools like Super and Hostnotion or follow the guide provided by fruitionsite that allow you create neat links). I’m not sure how well this competes with standard SEO on hosted websites, but I’ll assume it works. Notion also gives you the option of allowing your page appear in search engines. And as I am not a visual or UI designer it was a bit discouraging.
I don’t have to pay for hosting, and when I inevitably reach the block limit for free accounts ( update : there’s no longer a block limit for free accounts on Notion), it’s still cheaper than regular website hosting on any of the aforementioned platforms.Īs a non-visual designer in tech, creating my website in Notion helped me remove the pressure of “doing too much.” While searching for inspiration for my website, most of what I so was really visual heavy. Or you can make changes in the background: I can move a whole page out of the site, edit it and drag it back into the “website.” Updates go live as you type or add photos or other content. The major pro for me is that it’s very easy to maintain. I got a tip from a Twitter friend that I could simply use the URL redirect function on NameCheap, so I set that up and that was that.
At this time I already had my domain name ( ) but I wasn't sure how to point it to Notion. So I played around with the structure from the wireframes and created pages and blocks and viola, a website appeared. That’s when I had a lightbulb moment: I could create my website in Notion.
I randomly look through Notion templates to see what exciting things people are building with it, so it was in one of those times that I saw a Portfolio tracker. Again, I was using Notion to brainstorm ideas for some of the content that would go on the website, as well as general content strategy. I settled on Webflow and even created wireframes. I checked out all the popular platforms: Squarespace, Webflow, Wordpress. I was "bookmarking" the links in Notion so I could move everything to GitHub later, but the learning curve was too steep and I had been sitting on the resource for too long, so I decided to publish on Notion as it was.Ī while later, I started taking the creation of my website more serious. I had initially wanted to create the guide on GitHub. I had heard a lot about Notion and played around with it a little, even creating a resource called Beginner’s guide to UX research on it. In this article, I talk about how I used Notion to build my personal website and the pros and cons of using Notion to build my website. You can use it as a database, a knowledge base, project management tool, daily planner, or simply take notes or collaborate on docs. Notion is a workspace that allows you create all kinds of things.