Learning how to code is too much effort for most casual website owners, which is why they usually turn to the idea of website builders. These platforms usually operate on a drag-and-drop principle and this makes them ideal for those with no background in this field. Unfortunately, being able to build a decent website and knowing how to do so are two completely different things. Additionally, this system has some drawbacks which are too serious to ignore. With this in mind, here are five reasons why you should avoid website builders.
1. They Are Too Expensive
One of the things a lot of people don’t know about website builders is that they keep charging for as long as the website is standing. Because of this, you are A) never the real owner of your own website and B) paying much more than an average web designer would charge you. The longer you keep the website up the worse it gets and over the course of years, you stand to lose a small fortune.
2. Generic Look
Another thing you need to keep in mind is that there are currently 644 million active websites on the internet, which makes your chances of being unique quite slim. Still, not being unique is not the same thing as being generic. The problem with most of the builder-made websites is a fact that they are usually made in the same template, which will make your website completely blend in with the lower-tier of your industry.
3. Bad First Impression
You have only one shot to make a great first impression and making your website up to this task is the key thing in achieving it. There are so many things you should keep your eye out for like the form of your layout, the color of the CTA button and the intuitiveness of the navigation. It can be beneficial to reach out to a digital marketing company that handles website creation, development and are also professionals in search engine optimization. When compared to the price of the builder maintenance and the risk of your website looking generic, this option seems to be by far the most cost-effective one.
4. Domain Name Problems
Next issue with website builders lies in the fact that some engines force you to make a sub-domain under their own domain. Needless to say, this is quite bad for your business seeing how it makes you look unprofessional, aside from making your domain significantly harder to memorize. In turn, this means that some of your clients won’t be able to find you, which would result in a direct loss of business. Luckily, both of these problems can easily be avoided.
5. Bad for Your Brand
Finally, turning your business into a brand is one of the most important things you need to focus on. Taking a closer look at most of the above-listed four reason will give you some basic idea on why a website builder may prevent you in making this plan come to life. You see, the lack of quality URL is just the tip of the iceberg. Combined with a generic look, a bad first impression and ridiculously expensive maintenance, you will turn your website into a branding nightmare.
In Conclusion
Sure, a generalization of any kind is usually a bad practice, so, saying that website builders are outright bad for your business is not necessarily true. Various builders offer different services and terms, which means that some of the above-mentioned problems won’t apply to them. Furthermore, in the case where the majority of your target demographic doesn’t prefer an online approach (baby boomers or older), you might do well even with something a bit more basic. Nonetheless, for all those who plan to work on their online presence a bit more, going with website builder usually tends to be a bad practice.
It’s just a website and that may have worked in the past, but in 2016, if you want to grow your online presence, you need to employ social media, SEO and most of all, inbound content marketing so you can truly tell your story directly to your target audience. Or embrace Wix, SquareSpace, Go-Daddy and all the rest; where SEO is stone-age, the websites look no better than what was common in AOL days, and they firmly lock you out of digital marketing efforts such as content marketing.