Websites: Let the Professionals Handle It
Your website is one of your business’ most important assets. When people don’t know anything about it, they google and look up your website so it needs to seriously pack a punch. Your website is where your potential customers learn more about you, see your products, offerings, hours, and more. Because of how crucial and critical it is, it’s something that needs to be taken seriously and by a professional.
Everything you have and wear – your clothes, shoes, phone, car, bag, wallet, and more – do you design and make them yourselves? No, right? Unless you’re an actual professional yourself in these fields, you wouldn’t trust yourself to make your own things, so why would you trust yourself to make an effective and converting website? Think about it. Your website is way too important to just throw together and do-it-yourself. 😌
What You Are Compromising with Website Builders
Today, there are tons of online platforms that help your business design and create your own website – Wix, Shopify, Squarespace, Weebly, Blogger, and more. These freemium website builders are great if you want something easy. But here’s the thing, websites shouldn’t be easy. If it’s easy, you’re comprising something for ease and that’s something you probably shouldn’t be compromising.
In fact, you’re compromising a lot.
For starters, most website builders are flash-based which means they’re slow, outdated, insecure, and unsearchable for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO is a big part of a successful website as it allows you to appear on Google search results closer to the top and stand out among the competition. How are people going to find your business if they can’t even search it?
Second, most website builders only offer you the option to build 1-pager websites so you can’t have multiple pages like an About, Services, Contact, Blog, Testimonials page, and more. 1-pagers are terrible for SEO and design – who wants to scroll forever and forever to find what they need? No one, that’s for sure.
Third, any built website doesn’t come to be mobile-friendly automatically. So, you need to make sure that your website builder provides you with the option to make it mobile-responsive or work with a developer to make sure it happens. The reality is that the majority of people search and browse on their phones, so if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you’ve already lost out on these people.
Fourth, these websites can’t be migrated and you don’t technically own them. So, if ever you wanted to move your website somewhere else or on a different server, you wouldn’t be able to – it doesn’t belong to you.
Fifth, there are advertisements everywhere and they don’t allow you to work with analytics or data – especially with platforms like Wix, so you would need to consult with a professional. We always skip the advertisements on YouTube as soon as we can and scroll past them on Facebook and Instagram, so why would your visitors want to stay on your website if they’re seeing your website builder advertisements everywhere? Plus, with a website builder you can’t set up Google Analytics or track anything on your website. What’s the point of having a website if you can’t track it?
These reasons are only the tip of the iceberg of why a website builder is not the best idea – imagine the whole glacier!
DIY Websites: Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should
Most website builders have basic structures that allow you to drag-and-drop features and elements into your design, and that’s great – but it’s a template that literally anyone can copy. This means that your website will be average at best and won’t stand out. If you have the same basic design as everyone else (or worse, a 10-year old kid with an Overwatch blog), your visitors won’t be drawn to your website.
As your website is fundamental, it needs to stand out, represent your brand, and be dealt with on a professional level. Yes, having professional work on your website is going to be more expensive than trusting a website builder, but think about it – it’s going to be worth it and really wow your audience and potential customers.
Just because you can design and create your own website, doesn’t mean you should. If you’re interested in creating or upgrading your website, contact us for a free consultation at service@evilnut.ca or 604.704.6605.
