The Issues With DIY Website Services

Do-It-Yourself website creators exist for a reason– they’re cheap (often free), easy to use, and they appear to get the job done. In the end, you’ll probably have a website! Hooray! However, what many overlook is that the services that offer these DIY solutions are often not giving you the full package your business will actually need to have a successful site. There’s a big difference between having a website, and having one that can be found among search engine rankings, properly engages customers, and is generating views into real customer leads. Far too often, businesses will fall victim to the appeal of the cheap, DIY options and miss out on several factors that can be crucial to digital marketing:

– To start, many DIY websites leave you no or minimal access to embracing SEO. Search Engine Optimization is critical when it comes to being found online– good SEO techniques mean your optimal customers can find you within search results with relative ease. While the minimal parts available may appear to be enough, it’s still settling in terms of minimizing your SEO flexibility.

In recent years, there have also been mentions of Google de-ranking sites based on the free DIY platforms, so this is another aspect to be wary of. It’s great to have a website, but it won’t be functioning properly if it can’t bring in the right customer traffic.

– Another issue is that these websites aren’t designed specifically with your customers in mind. They’re made to be easy for businesses to make, but not necessarily to be the most user-friendly or to help generate your calls to action or customer leads. When you hire an agency, a website can be tailored specifically to your needs as a business and what your customers will need to get the most from your website. While it is nice to have ease of use with making a DIY site, the most important aspect is still the customer experience.

– Keeping your customers in mind, another downfall of these DIY website creators is that they’re not often mobile friendly. Many can be viewed from a phone, but there have been a lot of complaints that they don’t stand up to the usability and quality of other mobile sites. An actual marketing agency could tailor a mobile friendly design that wouldn’t limit the usability of your site or sacrifice its design features, to lose quality.

– Refreshing your content and altering your design can be a big part of maintaining your website. However, these DIY creation sites hardly allow for it. Many of the websites made with these tools are made by following themes, and if at any point you want to change your theme, that means starting fresh with a new website completely. There’s minimal flexibility when it comes to altering existing content, which is important for a business when updating your site. A good website has refreshing information, maybe some new blogs, prices altered at the time of change, seasonal specials– even with the need to consistently be able to refresh your website, the DIY builders are extremely limiting to your doing so.

– If you’d like further proof of their disadvantages, take a look at some successful websites. Open up one for a big company, maybe even one in your field. Chances are, the top-ranking, most successful sites will have nothing to do with a DIY website creator, for the above reasons and more. If you aspire to give your business its best shot with digital marketing, don’t sell it short with a DIY website.

When looking to make a website focused on your audience, streamlined to perform well, and made usable for not only viewers but also you– give i3 a call. We’ll gladly talk you through our process, in which we analyze the methods that marketing can perform its best for your business, and can lead you through every step of the way.