The internet has brought us many wonderful things over the last few decades, including the ability to be our own bosses, make more money than we ever imagined, and build entire teams of people who never need to be in the same room to work on a project together. It’s incredible. The internet has also brought with the invention of many do-it-yourself web apps that allow the novice to take on tasks that go way over their head.
When someone starts a business these days, they can find an app to do almost every single function of their business for them. They can download accounting software that negates the need to pay attention to their books; they can download email marketing software that can automate communication between them and their clients; and new business owners can use free software to make phone calls so they never need to pick up the phone again. Seriously, it’s all amazing. Business owners can also build their own websites. Before, you had to hire someone who spent years learning a craft that was worth every penny you spent on them to build you a functional and beautiful website. Now, more and more people are picking up do-it-yourself web design skills and their businesses are suffering for it.
Do-it-yourself web design lacks a lot of things, but the one thing that it lacks is search engine optimization (SEO). When you pay for a website to be built from scratch, or when you use a WordPress website that can be customized from the inside out, your web developer can add SEO capabilities to the backend of your website so you can be found online.
There are several do-it-yourself website packages that are available for free – making it all the more tempting to throw up a website and start a business. Unfortunately, unless you understand how SEO works, your website may never be found. Sure, you can spend hours and thousands of dollars on advertising your website to manually drive traffic to the website…or maybe you could just pay someone to build you a website that would do all those things automatically.
We take a lot of things for granted in our DIY world, but your business should not be one of them. It’s worth the time and effort it takes to find a good web developer and build a website you can be proud of and that works properly.
The other thing to consider about drag and drop websites is that the hosting of these websites is often held by third-party providers so the company selling you the website doesn’t actually own the hosting. It means your downtime could be quite high. When you pay for hosting separately from your website, you have a better guarantee of uptime (the amount of time your website is actually functioning on line) than if you tried to use a drag and drop website template.
If you are strapped for cash and need to publish a website to get started, these drag and drop sites are perfect for short term commitments. But when you are making money and starting to expand your business, invest in a more robust website: your business will thank you.
