Why you should avoid Website Builders
An online website builder allows people to create their own website. Some are free, some cost around £5-£20/month or even more if you purchase more features. While they seem fantastic, some are free and thats great and some are very LOW price and easily affordable to create your own website, but there are many reasons that business owners should never use them.
Building your own website with online website builder is like a mini metro, but a highly-targeted, custom website design, is like driving a bugatti veyron. Sure, both will get fyou from A to B, but where as driving a bugatti veyron is going to get you the looks and great attention to your business website and more visitors, a mini metro isn't going to get you much attention.
The Template look
Online website builders are designed to save you money, they are mainly based around a already built template where you can then customize your own website with limited features, using templates that has been used by thousands if not millions of people, do you really think thats going to get much much attention? How do you know your customers haven't seen other websites using the same design?
The internet is very visual medium, so a bland website with a basic design isn't going to be attracting a lot of people to your business, some templates look great on online website builders, but think of how many people are actually using them? Umm. yes.
So, how do they work?
The code behind the online website builders is very big, and most of that large code is unnecessary and very messy. Yup, this means that it can slow down the speed of a website on most connections. We don't know why they are built like this, but the code is required to allow thousands, if not millions of people to use the same template. Yup, it can get very complex, even if your website does not use all if the website builders options.
Very bad SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Yup, online website builders are not the only issue for poor coding and affects the speed of your website. Online website builders are VERY bad for SEO too. They editiable characteristics of an online website builder are the title tags of your pages and the content.
We have seen many online website builders use urls like: ''www.yourwebsite.com/90192/12/page1.html''. – Does that URL really tell search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing what exactly your page is about? Nope. Is that bad for business? Yup. Not only bad name name conventions, we haven’t seen an online website builder that lets you even edit your Meta Tags of your pages, or your image descriptions.
Yup, you have absolutely no control over your link structure. When search engines crawl your pages, it makes it rather difficult for a search engine spider to know where the content is, since your website is made up of extraneous code, even the smallest programming error could confuse a search engine into thinking your content is part of the code, and the other way around.
Website Builder Features
The main selling point of online website builders, is that they offer many features for it's users at the very LOW price. You can add a calendar, contact form, or forum with the press of a button. But do you have any control over the look or functionality of those features? Nope. Are these “features” as bare-boned as they can possibility be? Yes. What do you do when your business website needs a feature that cannot be added with a website builder? Umm. Yup. Your pretty much stuck with what you have.
Thats why sometimes its always a good idea to go with web design companys which offer you great support with your site, they can go in add and edit anything quick and easily. With website builders, do you really think that the bunch of developers will help you as much when they have millions of customers? Probally not.
Don't be stupid. Think about it.
There is a very big reason why professional web design and development companys still exist. You may have 15 pages of great information about your business, but does it sell? The purpose of any website should turn visitors into buyers, with a bad design, slow speed, and very BAD seo website, do you really think you can turn visitors into buyers, leads or signups or think the customer is going to return to your business?
If you don't have any experience with making a website, don't just go and purchase a online website builder because it's cheaper and expect to get everything with it. You are damaging your business more when your trying to save it money. Don't ve stupid, think about who you go with and what you are using.
The benefits of using them
There are a few benefits using an online website builder, when compared to a professionaly designed website created by a web design company to match everything you want. The one benefit of the builder is the cost. If your business is on a very LOW budget. Having your website online with a online website builder is better than not having a website at all.
But think about paying the monthly costs for the website builder, think about what you are using and how it can affect your business, think about the support with your website, do the website builder company offer FREE 24/7 quick support like most web design companys? If you have a problem will they go in and solve the issue for you free of charge? Sometimes it's always better to pay a little more, because just because it's cheaper, doesn't mean its better. You could be damaging your business when using such design tools.
Do you agree or disagree? Leave a comment.
Loyd Knight
Founding director, Loyd Knight remains in charge of the new business and is responsible for everything that goes on. Loyd brings the wealth of usability, design and problem solving skills to all of our projects.
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Could not agree more. I have saw many people use these sort of sites. You should of included PICZO that is another service that is widely used. Many people go with these kind of companies but do not realise the consequences of damaging their business. Great overall post and nice explanations of each!
I personally think that PICZO was more for teens/kids than small to medium businesses. I don't think that would really be needed on the list, it is a website builder, but we are mainly talking about business websites in tearm of the builders for their organizations. Thanks for your comment.
I personally was going to use moonfruit as they offer a trial then after they make you pay. Total rip off if you ask me. You are better off paying a web design/freelancer to do the work for you..
Very nice post with great positives and negatives. I couldn’t agree more. I’ve tested most of these free and paid builders and the features is limited to mainly Google maps, Contact form, and calanders. I’ve checked the source code on each page also and there is code as stated which isn’t needed.
1&1 my website isn't very good in terms of editing things as ive used it myself to make a review on my blog about it. The customer support haven't got a clue on Web design or Development and they don't help you one bit. 1&1 Hosting isn't very good either, infact all of the services they offer are crap and i would just avoid them.
You should avoid all website builders if im honest about it, none of them are good, if you are wanting a website you might as well learn the basics of html + CSS and code one yourself, because the design and development of the builders they provide are rubbish, not to mention the seo too.
Interesting review, as said above its better to actually learn it yourself, i was using moonfruit a while back and decided to quit after a few weeks. Check out w3schools for the basics of html. It might take you around a month or 2 but its ideal if running a business.
Other option would be to go with a web design company to create the site for you. Not to note that if you learn html yourself you need to understand the aspects of it working for different browsers, keeping the site up to date and the webhosting too. If you are not ready for this go with a web design company and pay the one off charge for a site to be created.
When with a design agency, atleast you know that if you have any problems they are always there to help. Coding and running a website yourself can be a little frustrating if you don't have any ideas of the basics.
"don't just go and purchase a online website builder because it's cheaper and expect to get everything with it" – Quoted from the post. Totally agree.
- Dan
Danny@host2.net