3 Reasons Why You Should Build a Fully-Customized Website

As a fully-integrated marketing firm, we’re often asked the question, “Why should I pay your developers to build a fully-customized website when I could easily use Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, etc. for much cheaper?”

While website builder tools can offer a quick, inexpensive solution to the problem of a missing website, it doesn’t always use the space to its full potential. Creating an effective website is more than just throwing your logo and phone number on a page; it requires planned out strategy, precision and expertise that only comes with education and experience in the field.

No Website Structure

Many of these small business sites only need a couple of elements. Instead of fleshing out a site with different pages that are ready to be filled with tailored content, these providers settle for a single-page, scroll-based site with multiple sections stacked on top of each other. Additionally, each of these categories is only separated by full-screen images scrolling at different speeds, accompanied by very little text. These site-builders want you to think that these “flashes” will suffice as a way for Google to crawl your page. However, this lack of structure and information can only cause your organic content to suffer, which will negatively impact prospective customers’ ability to find you.

Bad SEO

A small amount of organic content, combined with the fact that these website builders don’t give you control of the website’s code, will cause your Search Engine Optimization to plummet. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to users’ ability to see your site when performing an online search, as well as their inclination to stay on your site and interact with your content once landing on your page. The better your SEO, the higher you’ll appear as a search engine result and the more people will visit your website. Because website builder tools are trying to cover for any adjustments a user might make to their template, a large amount of “junk code” appears in your source, which only further knocks down your SEO. What’s the point of having a site if the only people who get to it are those who already know your URL?

You Will Look Like Everyone Else

Say someone does land on your site despite your low level of SEO. There are over 1.8 million users on Squarespace alone who utilize the same 1,000 well-designed templates. It’s not hard to see that many of these websites look exactly the same, only differentiated by color palette. While many of these themes are responsive, their designs can only be tailored so much. You don’t have the control or freedom to put items exactly where you want them, which results in many copycat sites.

Choosing a company that specializes in web design offers a control that is lost with pre-made templates. With experts, there is an ability to understand the client’s vision and strategize as a team to bring those ideas to life. That process is simply impossible with a predetermined theme.

When someone asks why you should use a web design agency instead of a website builder, the answer is simple: You get what you pay for. If you’re ready to build a site without limitations to connect your brand to your consumers, give us a call. It’ll be worth it.