In a world where small businesses strive to establish an online presence, Eddie Machaalani recognized a pressing need for a streamlined solution, leading to the creation of Zarla.
In an interview with
Website Planet, Eddie shares insights from over two decades of experience in web design and e-commerce, highlighting his journey from launching Ezysite to developing BigCommerce. Zarla stands out by offering an intuitive platform that not only simplifies website creation but also adheres to SEO best practices, ensuring that users can focus on their core business while their online presence flourishes.
With a commitment to continuous improvement, Zarla aims to enhance local businesses’ ability to generate leads and engage customers effectively.
What motivated you to create Zarla as a tool for entrepreneurs and small businesses?
I’ve been passionate about helping small businesses launch and grow for as long as I can remember. Around 20 years ago before website builders were a thing, I started a company called “Ezysite”. It was a service-based web design business, with the goal of helping SMBs launch their website quickly. That journey led me to build an online HTML editor called WebEdit Pro, and eventually, we ended up launching
An e-commerce platform that became super successful, Bigcommerce. Once I had stepped out of BigCommerce and OpenAI hit the scene, it became evident to me that my vision 20 years ago of helping an SMB quickly launch a website and start getting leads so they could focus on what they do best – could now become a reality.
How does Zarla simplify the process of building a website for users?
My team and I have been in the small business space for over 20+ years. We know the frustrations they face and we also know what makes a successful small business website. We took this experience and wrapped it into Zarla. When a user builds a website using Zarla, they’re not just getting AI help with images, content, etc, but they’re also getting years of experience as developers, marketers, and designers all wrapped into one. The website that Zarla produces, is designed out of the box for conversions, and we use as many SEO best practices as possible.
Can you explain the key features that set Zarla apart from other website builders?
Firstly, the websites we produce just look a whole lot better than most others out of the box. Past that, however, we’ve focussed on a few key differentiators.
The look and feel of the website should match a user’s brand and what the market expects from that kind of website. For example, if you build a car detailing website with Zarla, you’ll notice trendy images, dark colors, and fonts that match what you’d expect from a luxury car detailer. Instantly they’ll stand out from the pack.
We also utilize SEO best practices. Our Google page speed insight scores rival many other website builders. We average over 90+ for desktops and mobiles in the high 80s to 90s. Our websites are also responsive out of the box and don’t need any special code, or multiple versions just to maintain a responsive website.
Lastly, editing a website shouldn’t just be on a desktop. Our editor allows you to edit your entire website, upload images, and update testimonials all on your phone. You’ll be surprised how many website builders don’t let you do this.
What common challenges do users face when creating their website, and how does Zarla address them?
Users are still faced with having to choose a theme, edit that theme, know what to edit, what to write, what images to choose, what colors to use, where to have their forms, what sections to have on their website, and often still need to worry about how to make that page load fast, or deal with bloated plugins or hire a web designer to do all of the above for them. Zarla takes care of everything out of the box. Sure we allow you to edit your website, but out of the box most of the sites generated are fully functional and you could launch an entire business off that website.
How do you ensure that Zarla remains user-friendly for individuals with varying technical skills?
Great question. This becomes harder to do as we add more features so we restrict ourselves to making sure our product is seamlessly buildable and editable on mobile. That restricted real estate makes sure we’re only adding the features our users absolutely need and we’re doing so in a smart way. We also constantly update our website building algorithms so out of the box, new websites have the latest features, designs, and optimizations so they don’t need to be concerned with much else.
What future enhancements are you planning to make to improve the user experience on Zarla?
Our core focus is websites for local businesses. Our goal is to help those businesses launch their website, but also collect reviews, publish them on Google, and generate leads and revenue. We’ll be using a combination of years of experience + AI to make that process seamless and easy.
Find out more at:
www.zarla.com
