{"id":8099,"date":"2014-12-09T18:13:25","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T01:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/?p=8099"},"modified":"2022-02-03T05:06:03","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T12:06:03","slug":"14-yola-changes-in-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/14-yola-changes-in-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"14 Yola changes in 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Happy<\/a>2014 came with a variety of milestones.\u00a0Germany won the World Cup. Psy\u2019s Gangnam Style<\/em> became the first video to reach two billion views on YouTube. Apple released the iPhone 6 and 6+ \u2013 the biggest iPhones yet. And the Giants won the World Series (with our headquarters located in San Francisco we had to).<\/p>\n

While reflecting on this year, we were also reminded of the highlights within Yola. In celebration of a successful 2014, let\u2019s take a stroll down memory lane.<\/p>\n

Yola Buildathon
\n<\/b>At the beginning of the year, we held a site-building contest to give Yola users the opportunity to build a business website with our new templates for a chance to win a great range of prizes. With a fantastic turnout, we came up with three winners based on quality of design, functionality, quality of content, and their supporting story:<\/p>\n

1st \u00a0\u00a0Made by Hol
\n<\/a><\/span>2nd\u00a0Hannah Walker Jewellery
\n<\/a>3rd \u00a0Porirua Church<\/a><\/p>\n

Site building ebooks part 1 and 2
\n<\/b>To aid Yola users in their site-building experience, we created the two-part Get Started Building your website <\/i>eBook. This workbook-style guide is broken into two categories \u2013 planning and design. Check them out:<\/p>\n

Get Started Building Your Website \u2013 Part One: Planning
\n<\/a><\/span>Get Started Building Your Website \u2013 Part Two: Design<\/a><\/p>\n

5-minute website fixes
\n<\/b>Back in January, we started the 5-minute website fixes <\/i>blog series. These articles, initially intended to aid users for the Yola Buildathon, were such a hit that we still continue them to this day. Each post highlights ways Yola users can easily change the look of their sites in a few quick steps. They range from creating logos with transparent backgrounds<\/span><\/a> to adding custom buttons to your contact forms<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Next year, we plan to release something special around this popular blog series. Be on the lookout, you won\u2019t want to miss it!<\/p>\n

The Button Widget
\n<\/b>In March, we gave Yola users the ability to build their own custom call-to-action buttons<\/span><\/a> in a matter of seconds. With a few simple clicks, users can create their own custom buttons to match their business website. These buttons can be customized\u00a0by choosing a size, style and color of button, then adding a link location.<\/p>\n

9 million users
\n<\/b>Back in April, we were very excited to announce that the Yola Family\u00a0was 9 million users strong<\/a>. W<\/span>e absolutely couldn\u2019t have done it without all of you!<\/p>\n

Web analytics with SiteWit
\n<\/b>A huge accomplishment we were pleased to announce was our partnership with SiteWit<\/span><\/a>. Now, Yola users have the access to premium analytics right from the My Yola Dashboard for free. Have you found where your site visitors are coming from with SiteWit?<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for more from SiteWit next year.<\/p>\n

Online Store setup and education
\n<\/b>We had two great successes that helped make building an Online Store with Yola easier than ever.\u00a0We implemented a new Yola Online Store Setup Wizard to give users step-by-step guidance on how to setup their Online Store. We also started monthly Get Started Building Your Online Store<\/em> webinars with a live Q&A session. Register your spot today!\u00a0Have you checked out our Online Store Webinars? Register your spot today<\/a>!<\/span><\/p>\n

Five changes in one month
\n<\/b>Back in June, we had a busy month, creating five new features! These new features included:<\/p>\n

– The ability to add images to custom panel widgets
\n– Styled maps that match your site\u2019s color scheme
\n– Even more banner customizations within Style Designer
\n– The ability to add padding to column dividers
\n– Online Store SEO improvements<\/p>\n

Read more about these five features here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

New Yola Mail
\n<\/b>This year, we made Yola Mail even easier. We upgraded to a new intuitive design and added the ability to sync with mobile devices.<\/p>\n

You can learn more about these upgrades here<\/span><\/a>!<\/p>\n

Template gallery
\n<\/b>One of our biggest accomplishments of 2014 was the Template Gallery. Each website template has placeholder content for users to customize and make their own. These flexible and modern website templates are available in our new Template Gallery.\u00a0Check out the Template Gallery here<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 or see some of our templates by category: for<\/p>\n