Convenience is the king of the digital world, and digital marketing doesn’t miss the mark. Voice search, apps, online ordering, and more are pushing for the top spot with consumers by making it super easy to do just about everything. This brings website builders to become a large market in today’s online industry. Further along in this article, we will outline the cons of top website builders that many business owners experience after getting on board.
Meant to cut out the cost and collaboration with both large and smaller sized agencies, website builders are gaining popularity with business owners for their DIY capabilities. However, gaining convenience can sometimes mean compromising other qualities, as is the case with using a popular website builder for doing all of the work of creating, hosting, AND optimizing your website. We will get into more detail about the disadvantages of these builders below.
Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, Shopify – these are some of the big names you may have come to hear in the past year or two. You may have even seen some nice-looking websites business owners have made for themselves using the builders. There is more than meets the eye here, and the need to remember that other “eyes” are watching parts of your website you may not be able to see, namely search engines.
Chances are you have invested a lot into your business so far and don’t want any part of its foundation, like a website, to offer superficial and flimsy support. Let alone overspend on it! Top website builders that have grown even more in popularity are charging the prices that reflect their renown.
For example, hosting with Wix.com charges roughly $13/mo. For their lower-end plans that offer limited space and functionality. While this may not be a large amount of money in and of itself, the website hosting industry averages payments for much less. That being said, choosing the least expensive hosting is not ideal, as it can mean poor security and reliability. Finding a good middle ground is key for adequate hosting for your website.
To learn more about finding a secure and reliable hosting provider with top-notch support, contact OCGnow at (904) 600-3600.
Keeping up with your competition and eventually pushing ahead of the game requires that your entire online presence does the same. Some top website builders have only recently moved away from outdated technologies like Flash. It would be a setback to buy into a website builder company that has put more work and investment into its image than the strength of its product. Agencies that perform frequent industry research can provide a leg-up in this area for representing your business with the utmost cutting edge.
Just about anyone who has done some looking into DIY website options has seen a call to the importance of the SEO of that site. It stands for Search Engine Optimization and is the very heart of how easily your website is found online in search results. Referenced again, Wix has a major voice for the importance of SEO. However, their tools and tips don’t pack the punch that is needed for effective and competitive digital marketing.
When you find that at the end of the road of a problem-solving promise lies a user guide of how to take care of the rest of it yourself, you might find that the service wasn’t all it was cracked to be. That said, SEO optimization differs based on the website builder you choose. A professional designer will ensure that your website has all the critical tools such as meta titles, meta descriptions, and more for a comprehensively SEO-optimized website.
Furthermore, website builders offer limited customization options and control. Yes, you get templates that you can modify. But there’s very little that you can add to them, and the end product can look very generic. Well, compared to a professional website which tends to be customized for you from scratch. In addition, site builders restrict the number of pages you get. To get more pages, you may have to pay a higher subscription.
This is not an issue with professional websites. In addition, the best website designers and developers make it their mission to bring your vision to life. And while you might spend “more” on a professionally done website than a website builder, you will get a thoroughly done site for your business.
Besides, top website builders rarely support site portability. Imagine having a website already, and all you need is a hosting service and domain to make it live, yet you can’t. WordPress, Weebly, and Squarespace do offer site portability. Still, the choices are limited. Plus, you don’t technically own your website if you build it with a website builder.
That means you would have to start over if you wanted to switch website providers as you can’t take out the source code from any website builder. With a professionally done website, you own every single element of the site, including the source code and any other content. This makes it effortless for you to migrate to other hosting providers if the need arises.
For more information about how detrimental and successful proper SEO is for your website, visit our website.
The points mentioned above are only some of the collective reasons that DIY website design, hosting, and optimization might not deliver the results you are looking for out of a solid online presence for your business. For those in need of a personal website, then a website builder may serve your needs. But if you are looking to gain the competitive edge in your industry and need an agency that is flexible enough to accommodate the stage you are in, give your Online Capital Group a call today at (904) 600-3600 to schedule a free evaluation of your current online presence and discuss how to get things up and running.
