There are more than 1.7 billion webpages online now. These websites serve as digital personas and may be found in many different fields, such as news, social networking, eCommerce, blogging, portfolios, landing pages, and more. Having a website is essential for every business or organization that wants a presence online in the modern era.
In this light, a plethora of website builders promising effortless website development and installation have emerged in recent years. However, until the release of Notion a few years ago, the barrier to entry had remained high because most of these tools still require some design know-how.
Since Notion was not designed to be used for website creation, it has some restrictions in this area, such as a limited set of supported website types and the requirement to utilize a separate service for domain hosting.
For this reason, you can host your Notion website on a separate domain using a few different services. However, most of them have limited features and do not justify the membership price.
Potion is a new service that claims to make it easy to make professional-looking websites (Notion websites with unique domains) quickly and easily, all while maintaining high standards for search engine optimization and page load times.
Just what does this Potion consist of?
Potion is a Notion add-on that facilitates the deployment of Notion websites on a user-specified domain. It does this by transforming Notion into a content management system (CMS), which allows you to manage the content of your website or webpage entirely within Notion.
While there are other Notion website builders out there that provide a service similar to Potion, most of them have very limited features and don’t allow you to do much more than host your Notion site on a custom domain.
Potion, on the other hand, triumphs over rival services like this on account of the breadth of its own offers. Because it not only helps you connect your Notion website to a personal domain, but also gives you with:
Options for altering a website’s visual style
The SEO Functions: for the sake of a higher page rank
Optimizing web pages to reduce wait times
Create SEO-friendly links to pages on your site with ease using dynamic URLs.
What Kinds of Websites Does Potion Allow You to Make?
There are several distinct styles from which to choose while designing a website. Learning to code increases your chances of making a website that is nearly perfect in every way. Though it can be used to construct a unique website, Notion has several restrictions in terms of design and other features that limit its applicability.
Since your website’s content is still stored on Notion, Potion is constrained by the same constraints. Potion complements Notion in its ability to create portfolios, landing pages, blogs, help docs, career pages, and information product sales pages.
The benefits of using Notion as a content management system are numerous.
If you want complete say over where and how things appear on your page, as well as how they interact with one another, then coding your site from scratch is the way to go. However, people without prior experience in the field who are interested in building a website should look elsewhere, as this method necessitates a working knowledge of numerous website technologies.
A conventional content management system (CMS) can help with this to some extent, but you’ll still need to put in some work to make the most of it. The note-taking functionality and other customization choices (including Notion templates) that make filling material on a page more easier make Notion a significantly more effective choice than traditional CMS platforms for most of your website’s needs in this regard.
Moreover, Notion’s drag-and-drop functionality, which allows you to move the elements of the webpage to suit your preference, and its instantaneous syncing feature, which updates the webpage when you make changes to it in Notion, further strengthen its case as an ideal CMS for most use cases.
However, you should be aware of the drawbacks of using Notion as a CMS: it is not particularly effective for data management, and it has few options for customizing the look and placement of on-page items.
Due mostly to its constraints, such as poor internal organization and a lack of page blocks, Notion’s database capabilities is severely constrained. Therefore, Potion can’t do much to help. When used in conjunction with Potion, Notion overcomes the former’s shortcomings in terms of website aesthetics and formatting. Because now you can use Potion templates and alter their CSS settings to suit your needs, you may give your website a unique look and feel.
Potion: How Do I Use It?
Potion requires a few things before you can begin using it. Two things are required to launch a Notion website: a unique domain name and a page in Notion with the material you wish to promote.
Getting a domain is as simple as making a purchase at one of the many domain registrars on the web (such Google Domains, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Bluehost, or Hostinger).
After that, make a new page on Notion (the app or the website). Learn the fundamentals of Notion page creation by consulting our beginner’s guide. If you want to show it off on the web, you’ll need to make this page public, too. [If you want to learn how to make a website with Notion, check out our tutorial].
Now that the prerequisites have been satisfied, you may connect your own domain name to your Notion page and begin making aesthetic adjustments.
The first step is to create a Potion account. Potion has three pricing tiers to accommodate users with varying needs and requirements, such as the number of websites they already maintain or wish to launch.
After logging in, go to Sites on the left side menu and then to the Add New Site button in the upper right.
Identify the Notion page you wish to redirect to your custom domain and enter its URL in the corresponding fields on the Setup page. Choose to proceed.
Please make the necessary entries in the DNS section. Go to your domain registrar’s DNS settings to view your domain’s record. Basically, all you have to do to connect a root domain to an IP address is make an A record entry in Potion. You must also set up an A record for your domain name if you intend to use subdomains. [If you want to know how to set up a domain, check out Potion’s handy instructions]. Keep on by clicking the Continue button.
Finally, in the Options tab, you can choose the default font, favicon, and site picture for your Notion website. Add a description that will show on Google and other search engines to further explain your website’s function. When the first configuration is finished, select Continue.
Your domain’s forwarding to your Notion site may take some time depending on your domain registrar. This should take place within a few hours at the latest. If, however, it takes more than 24 hours, you should get in touch with your domain supplier for help.
After the domain propagation is finished, you’ll be able to access your Notion page’s content on your custom domain. Searching for your domain in a browser will tell you if it’s been pointed to your Notion site.
By default, Potion will create URLs for your website pages that are optimized for search engines. You can utilize Pretty Urls, though, to give individual webpages on your site custom addresses. Choose Pretty Urls on the left side of the Potion interface to accomplish this. The Notion Page URL and Pretty Slug fields are where you’ll enter the URL of the page you’re editing and the slug you’ve chosen for it, respectively.
Now you may open your website in Notion and edit its structure by adding or removing elements (blocks). To make alterations to the way it looks, revisit Potion and select your site from the list of Sites. The next step is to go to Live Editor via the left-hand menu and play about with the various stylistic options.
Snippet Injection is a method through which a web developer can alter the look and functionality of a website by inserting pre-written HTML and CSS code. In addition, Potion lets you integrate analytics from services like Google Analytics, Fathom, SimpleAnalytics, Panelbear, etc., into your Notion website for a more complete picture of your site’s performance and visitor behavior.
Below is a video tutorial that should help you through any process in Potion.
Potion: A Reliable Tool for Developing Custom Notion Websites
If you want a custom domain for your Notion site, Potion is the easiest solution to utilize. It offers good SEO and page loading times, of course, but it also helps you take your Notion website live on a custom domain and includes extra tools that let you personalize some of its parts to your desire.
The combination of Notion and Potion should be adequate for your needs if you want to create a portfolio, personal blog, landing page, or similar website on a custom domain.
The lowest monthly price for one website on Potion is $8. For an additional $16 and $24 a month, you can host up to 3 and 8 websites, respectively. All packages can be paid for on a monthly or yearly basis. Potion also provides a 7-day free trial so that you can evaluate the service before committing to a paid subscription.
Just recently, Potion was highlighted on Product Hunt and named one of their products of the day.
Look into the Potion.