Having a well-built website is crucial to the success of any business during this digital age. Unfortunately, many are lured by the promises of a DIY website builder to create their business’s online home. While they promise easy-to-use tools and a low initial price, they don’t mention what you really end up paying for when you sign the contract.
Website builders take away the control you would have if you created the website from scratch. This includes manipulating simple design elements and navigation arrangements with more complex coding. This limits your ability to implement advanced SEO strategies on the site, prevents you from fully customizing the site in development, and a lot more. In the end, the website is never yours. You just rent it.
Poor SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
For any website, the goal is to be easily found by online searchers. The easier it is for people to find your website through search engines like Google or Bing, the higher your site visit numbers and the likelihood of making a sale/customer. The best way to increase visibility in these channels is done through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices.
DIY website builders limit what you can do with these SEO tools. They can keep traffic from your site and have other shortcomings that definitely hurt page ranking.
Nowhere To Grow
Your website should grow with your business. With website builders, predetermined templates are offered to the creator with only the ability to customize simple elements. This lack of design/editing features hinders you from truly customizing the site to fit your business’s unique needs and its continued growth.
No two companies are exactly alike, nor are their online marketing needs. Your website should be as unique as your business.
Lack Of Security
Many templated sites do not provide high security for your site. If your site gets hacked, there is little that can be done because the only person routinely monitoring your site and whether it is safe/secured is you. If your site gets hacked, it can take days or even months before the security breach is noticed by the site builder. This is most problematic if your company collects client data. It can become a really BIG problem.
Poor Design And User Experience
Most templated designs lack the “wow” factor everyone desires from a website. It can be difficult to find a well-designed template on a website builder, and most of the great ones are overused. This leaves hundreds of businesses sharing a nearly identical website.
You Don’t Know Your Website
The last, and biggest problem, with site builders is that you never own your website when creating it through a web builder. They do. Simple as that.
Templated site providers can also raise their rates and delete any of the broadcasted services/functions at any time. It can also stop supporting any given template whenever they want without notice.
Another factor hindering your ownership is the inability to transfer your site to another hosting company when you are ready to spread your wings.
The site may also be left behind and become outdated if the builder lacks the tools to update it. Essentially, you are paying hundreds of dollars a month to be held captive in a subscription. Don’t let that happen.
Building a website properly is a detailed and sophisticated process. It can be difficult to predict the risks you may face throughout its creation. It is important to look at all factors going into creating your site. From the foundation to the finishing touches. It takes multiple people with special skills, talents, and abilities to achieve something that will withstand the test of time. It’s like building a home. That is why you need to invest in the best web developers to build an effective website for your business.
The creative specialists at TOTAL have been transforming businesses just like yours with custom, purpose-built websites for 20 years. Our websites are custom, purpose-built sites to meet the individual needs of each client and their web visitors. We make it easy for you to succeed online. Contact our web design and development company in Syracuse for a FREE no-obligation web review and see how we can take your website further.