There’s been a lot of commercials for website builders lately and, overall, they seem to be getting better. But just because something’s getting better doesn’t mean that it’s the best option for you.
Website builders are useful if you want to create a conventional and basic website. They provide ready-to-use templates so you can just drag and drop the information and pictures you want. The caveat is, you can’t move things around or adjust the design to suit your needs. The design you pick is the design you get.
If you’ve just started your business, this might work for you. Since your business is new, you might want a website just to get your name out. The Internet is an excellent place to generate business, so you don’t want to forgo the opportunity altogether.
Don’t get bamboozled by the ‘easy as pie’ taglines though. Using a website builder means you’ll need to invest time in place of money. The whole project rests on your shoulders, which means you’ll have to familiarize yourself with the features, find/take the pictures you want to use, and prepare the written content for every page on the site. It’s true what they say – nothing is free.
In fact, ‘free’ website builders often come with hidden costs. For example, it might be free to create the site, but you’ll have to purchase your domain and hosting through the builder to go live. Yikes! You’ll also have to be wary of design ownership conditions. Find out before you invest a lot of time whether your design can be moved to a different hosting service provider. You don’t want to be stuck with the website builder forever; it’s just too risky.
The bottom line? You can’t build a successful business based on the sexiness of your website. If you’re just starting out, you might have to settle for a conventional website and improve on it later. Don’t put the cart before the horse.
On the other hand, maybe your business is well established and you’re looking to expand or grow. Or maybe you just have more working capital than Just-Starting-Out Sally. In that case, we recommend working with a web designer.
A professional web designer has the skills and experience that will be able to incorporate the features you’ve been dreaming of. They can help you tweak the finer details of the layout, and create a seamless online experience for your customers. It’s all about customization and optimization.
That latter feature is what sets apart a designer’s work from a simple template. When you work with a designer that is backed by a marketing company, you get more than just a beautiful looking website. You get a website that’s been designed to look amazing and help generate sales. Remember when we said the sexiness of your website won’t put food on the table? Well, a thoughtfully designed website can.
Your website will need some marketing TLC if it’s to do well on the Internet. Part of this is:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your domain so that people can find your business online,
- Embedding call-to-action buttons throughout your site,
- Figuring out industry specific keywords and long-tail keywords.
It’s a lot, right?
That’s why it might help to turn to a community-minded designer like Jelly Triangle. We sit down with clients to make sure you understand just how and why our designs can be the marketing solution you’ve been looking for. That’s also why we’re different from your friend Jimmy who can promise to deliver a website for less than $500 and within a week. Designing a website takes a lot of careful planning and thoughtful work – you can’t cheat the process or you cheat yourself out of a well-made product.
Try doing it yourself! You’ll see what we mean.
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