7 Reasons DIY Website Builders Are a Bad Idea

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A good website is crucial to the success of your business. It is one of the most important ways in which you can make others become familiar with your brand and understand the products/services you offer. A very good custom website built by a web design company or digital marketing agency can be expensive. This has led many businesses to seek other options to create a website.

Why DIY Websites are a Bad IdeaIf you’re starting a new business or experiencing tough times due to the pandemic, you may be looking to create a website on a limited budget. You may even be seeking out ways to build your website for free. There are many DIY website builders such as Wix, Squarespace and Weebly providing the ability to create a website on your own. While they promote the ability easily build your own website for a fraction of the cost of a professionally developed one, the reality is going the DIY website route simply isn’t a good idea.

When it comes to websites, as with anything in life, you get what you pay for. While a professionally developed website will cost more money, it is an investment in your business that will pay dividends for years to come. Conversely, there are many reasons why using a DIY website builder will create problems for your business in the long run.

A DIY Website Won’t Stand Out or Reflect Your Brand

DIY platforms utilize generic website templates. This means the same navigation structure, styles and layout will be used on every website created by that builder. You’ll have a limited ability to alter the design in a way that will make your website look unique and stand out to visitors. Instead, it will look very similar to hundreds of other websites they’ve seen which were created by that DIY website builder.

One of the most important purposes of your website is to build your brand. This requires a tremendous amount of customization. You want the color schemes to exactly match your brand colors, you want your logo prominently displayed in the most effective location, and you want your website organized in a way that effectively tells your brand story. These goals are very difficult to achieve without a custom website built by an experienced professional web designer.

Poor Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Why DIY Websites are a Bad Idea - SEOHaving a great website won’t do you any good if no one can find it. That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in. Your website needs to be properly optimized to rank highly on search engines such as Google, and DIY website builders don’t offer strong SEO capabilities.

Most DIY website builders won’t allow Google to verify your website in their Webmaster Tools, and this will hurt your search rankings. In addition, most of these websites don’t integrate with Google Analytics, preventing you from acquiring the important data necessary to evaluate the performance of your website and formulate a proper SEO strategy. In many instances, these websites also lack the ability to perform on-page optimization for internal website pages.

SEO is extremely complicated, and the best practices are constantly evolving as Google’s algorithms change. There are many aspects involved in crafting a successful SEO campaign, including:

  • Comprehensive keyword research
  • An analysis of search query data to know what your audience is searching for
  • On-page optimization (title tags, meta descriptions, alt text for images)
  • Back-end optimization of the entire site
  • Proper in-site linking
  • Off-site backlinks
  • Utilization of geo-targeting terms to help you show up for relevant searches in your area

Unless you have an experienced SEO specialist working at your business, it will be challenging for you to achieve successful SEO results on your own, especially with the limited SEO capabilities offered by DIY website builders. In addition, you will need someone monitoring your Analytics data on a regular basis in order to adjust your strategy as needed based on current search ranking performance.

When you work with a custom web design company or digital marketing agency, your new website will be set up according to SEO best practices. You will also have the ability to receive ongoing SEO services from a specialist who can set your website up for long-term success.

Poor Content

Well-written, custom content is crucial to a successful website. Your content accomplishes several important goals:

  • Tells your story to your audience and helps build your brand
  • Provides comprehensive information that establishes you as an authority in your field in order to build trust with your audience
  • Improves your search rankings by letting Google know that your page is addressing certain search queries and keywords

Poorly written content will make your website look less professional, and it will be less likely to connect with your audience. Ultimately, this can hurt your ability to convert website visitors into new clients and customers.

When you use a DIY website builder, you’ll be responsible for creating all of the content yourself. This takes a tremendous amount of time. In addition, it requires a specific technique. Your content must tell a story that conveys your brand and connects with your audience. When you pay for a professionally built custom website, you will receive custom content written by a marketing professional who understands how to write for your audience as well as for the search engines. This will significantly improve the success of your website.

Not Mobile Friendly

Mobile devices now make up more than 50% of all web traffic worldwideWhy DIY Websites are a Bad Idea - Responsiveness. When you include tablets, this percentage is even higher. It’s crucial that your website is formatted in a way that will provide a good user experience on mobile devices.

The best way to ensure a good mobile user experience is to build your website with responsive design. This will allow your website to adjust to the size and dimensions of the screen used to view it. Not only is this important for user experience, but also for your search rankings. Google will penalize websites that aren’t mobile friendly, causing them to rank lower on search results.

DIY websites aren’t built using responsive design. This means you will have a challenging time addressing the needs of mobile users, and your website will perform poorer on search engines.

Poor Customer Support

There are many components involved in a properly functioning website and as with all technology, it’s easy for a glitch to cause one of these components to malfunction. Some issues you might experience include:

  • Your website goes down
  • You receive error messages on certain pages
  • Images or content boxes aren’t being displayed correctly
  • Web pages are taking longer than normal to load
  • Elements of your website stop functioning properly

These issues require the assistance of a knowledgeable customer support expert. Unfortunately, the customer support services provided by DIY website builders are usually very limited. This could make it challenging to fix any issues with your website.

Limited Functionality

DIY website builders often use outdated code in order to deliver their services affordably and make it easy for novice website builders to use their platform. This can result in several problems with website performance, including:

  • Slow website speed – Your website will be hosted on a server containing hundreds of other sites, resulting in limited bandwidth that will cause your website to load slowly. Most people will leave a website if it takes more than 3 seconds for the page to load, so a slow speed can drive away a lot of traffic.
  • Lack of security – Using a shared server also creates security issues for your website. If any of the websites on the server gets hacked, it can potentially leave all the other sites vulnerable to security breaches as well.
  • Clunky navigation – Your navigation structure helps users access all the information on your website. It should be set up with your users’ needs in mind, and these needs will vary based on the specifics of your business. When you’re constrained by the preset navigation structure of a DIY website template, you may find that it doesn’t address the needs of your target audience. This will provide a poor user experience and potentially drive traffic away from your website.

You Don’t Own the Website

Often, you won’t own your website when you use a DIY website builder. In many instances, the DIY builder may own the design, content and images used on your website. If you stop paying for their services, you may find that you’re unable to use these assets in the future. This will force you to start over and build another new website from scratch.

In addition, you’re not able to migrate a website to another server when it is created by a DIY builder. This means that you’re unable to use a different host down the road. Essentially, you’re stuck on their platform and server for the lifetime of that website.

Webolutions Can Help

At Webolutions, we create custom websites that will help your business grow and thrive. Our team is equipped to handle all of your digital marketing needs and ensure you’re set up for success every step of the way.

Our web development team will work closely with you to ensure the design and layout of your site reflects your company’s brand, tells your story and addresses the unique needs of your audience. You’ll benefit from our team of SEO specialists and content creators who will help ensure your website uses the latest SEO best practices. Our customer support team is available around the clock to ensure any issues with your website are addressed quickly.

Your custom website will be able to meet the evolving needs of your business as it grows. When you work with Webolutions, you’ll have a dedicated partner committed to the long-term success of your company.

Please give us a call at 303-997-3467 today to learn about our custom web design solutions. We provide digital marketing services nationwide from our offices in Denver, Colorado.

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