Tips on choosing the right website builder for your small business website!
Your website is your business’s first point of contact for website visitors, and as the old saying goes, ‘first impressions make a lasting impression’.
Therefore, creating an attractive, informative, clear, and user-friendly website is so important in today’s competitive business environment. And to help you tick all these boxes affordably, you will need to choose the best website builder that gives you a mixture of flexibility, free tools, paid add-on tools specific to your business’s niche, and an easy-to-use platform.
A website builder needs:
- Affordable pre-designed templates
- Flexible mobile friendly web design
- Free add-on business specific tools
- Paid add-on business specific tools
- Easy-to-use aesthetic website platform
Eliminating complex code
Website builders were designed to eliminate the need for complex coding to create a web page and to be cost-effective. Web developers can charge less to create a website for your small business because they do not have as much design work to do compared to designing a website from scratch, and once built, there are certain areas of the website that you can modify without the need for coding or web development experience, plus you will need to pay the web dev company a monthly maintenance fee.
Website optimization with ease
They are systems that give you optimized and professional templates that are mobile friendly. All you need to do is choose the template you feel will represent your business. These templates are also adaptable to your niche via add on tools, some free and some paid so you can offer additional interactive functionalities so your website visitors can find exactly the information they are looking for quickly.
Easy to choose your website design
Firstly, one of the golden rules in online marketing is differentiation. Now just because your website is an online resource for information about your brand, services, and products, these factors make your website a marketing tool, and if there is one thing the public are particularly savvy to, it is rip offs. When we say rip offs, we mean those brands that carbon copies of their competitors.
For example, you would easily get caught if you opened a burger chain called ‘Burger Queen’ and named your flagship burger a ‘Gigantic Junior’! Therefore, just because you like the look of a website created by a competitor in your niche, does not mean you should copy their style. Of course, you will need to come up with creative marketing tactics to stand out from your competitors.
Now thanks to today’s flourishing ‘website builder’ market, you no longer have to look in awe of your competitor’s website and think ‘I wish I had the budget for that’. The truth is you do have the budget to create a website that could potentially look better. You just need to know where to look, and usually the first choice for business website builders today is Wix.
Free website tools
When you see websites with built in video, QR code generators, pristine logos, and other built in tools such as invoice generators, full payment systems, customer account logins, and pay stub generators, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by your competitor’s huge investment in their website. Well, here is the good news!
Most of these tools are built into website builders such as Wix. What’s more, is that many of these tools are free! While if they are not free, but business critical, the investment you need to make to include them on your website builder is minimal. In the past, these tools would have cost you a small fortune!
QR code promos: You can create a QR code and place it on your menu, on your shop window, in your taxi, on leaflets or in magazine advertisements. When people scan the code, the scan takes them to your website. Not only that, QR codes are great for promotional deals. For instance, scan the QR code for a 10% discount. QR codes are also great for any measurable marketing campaign your business creates.
DIY logo maker: Designers are becoming increasingly more expensive these days. If you are a new business and you have a logo in mind, then you don’t need to pay through the roof to get that perfect logo. All you need to do is use a free logo maker which just so happens is a tool offered by the Wix website builder package as well.
Video makers: Now to create an ultimately engaging website i.e., to keep people glued to your website and itching for more information, video is the key. Any website builder worth its weight in gold will include a tool that helps you to create or upload videos. Now the trick here is creating and/or uploading a video should not slow the web page down, and the video should play instantly without lag!
Where should you go from here?
Take heed of the advice provided above and find a website builder that will give your small business the tools it needs to create an online presence. Try to be realistic about your expectations and try not to overdo your website so as not to confuse those that land on your website. Having a powerful all encompassing website builder is one thing, but there is still a long road ahead to ensure you create a website that is easy-to-use, informative and projects a positive brand image.
