How does WordPress compare with the major website builder platforms?
When you first decide that your new business needs a website, you will need to make a decision on which web design platform to use. Should I build it myself or hire someone else to do it? If I choose to build it myself; which web design platform should I choose? These are all important questions for a business owner and having some experience in this area; I will share my recommendations.
There are many do-it-yourself website platforms availalble and all allow you to a build a basic website. Some of the most popular are: WIX, GoDaddy, SquareSpace, Homestead and Webs.com . If you need to build a website in a hurry; you can use a website builder and complete the task in 10 hours or so. Most website builders have templates to choose from and will allow you to build custom pages with text and images. Many new businesses build their first website on these platform but are they really the best choice for your business?
Well, it could be or maybe not. It depends on a few factors. Some of these factors include:
- Is your business in a major market with many competitors or are you in an area with little competition? (maybe in a small town)
- Does your website builder allow you to manipulate SEO elements like title tags, meta descriptions, <h> elements or ALT tags for images?
- Are you planning to hand the website maintenance over to a professional at some point or are you committed to maintaining the site yourself?
- Is your website builder able to grow with your business; maybe add an e-commerce function or a complex contact form?
In my experience: if you are in a relatively non-competitive market and intend to build a simple website and maintain it yourself for the foreseeable future, then a website builder is sufficient for your needs. Of the platforms mentioned above, my favorite is Webs.com with a PRO membership.
However, if you plan on competing with many websites and need the flexibility to grow your website or perhaps hand off the responsibilities to someone else, then my recommendation is WordPress.
WordPress is free to download, open source and approximately 25% of all new websites worldwide are being built on WordPress. In most towns, you will find many competent professionals who can maintain your website for an hourly rate ranging between $30.00 and $75.00. A worldwide cadre of developers are constantly developing new “widgets” which offer new features and enhancements to WordPress sites. There even is a two-day conference in many major cities called WordCamp devoted entirely to WordPress users and developers.
Additionally, WordPress is customizable, easy to maintain and optimize for SEO elements. Google ranks WordPress sites highly in the search engines especially when fresh content is added regularly via the included blog functionality. Can you build a WordPress site yourself? Yes you can, although the learning curve will be greater than your typical web builder platform, but entirely worth it in the long run. Just choose a quality, pre-built theme that is consistent with your needs and let your imagination soar! One word of caution is that you need to update your WordPress site occasionally to keep it secure from hackers (because it is opensource) so don’t build it and forget about it.
TaylorTown SEO specializes in WordPress development and we also maintain WordPress sites for small and mid-sized businesses. . If you should choose the WordPress platform, we will be glad to help you with theme selection, design, optimization and maintenance. Just give us a call at (321) 230-3197.
