With so many options available, choosing the right Website platform for your business can be extremely confusing. Deciding which Website platform is right for your business can be difficult if you don’t know the pros and cons of each one.
To help with this important choice, we decided to compare the most popular Website platforms that are available. This will give you a helping hand to guide you when you’re search for what is out there and it will help you compare them all at once to determine finally, which website platform you should use for your website.
Why Is This Important?
For small to medium businesses, having an online presence has never been more important. Before making a purchase, 80% of potential customers now search online before they decide to make a purchase, and 85% of consumers use the internet to find a local business.
We can all agree, having a website is absolutely necessary for a successful business. So, what’s stopping small to medium businesses from going online? There are a few common challenges that these businesses face when they decide to get a website up and running, these include:
- Deciding on the perfect design for their site
- Getting it built within their schedule
- The amount of required effort
- Determining what features they need
Along with these issues, another one of the issues these businesses face at first is trying to decide which platform to choose for their site – e.g., WordPress, Wix, Weebly, template, custom PHP/HTML/CSS, etc.
What Needs to Be Considered for Your Platform
Choosing the right platform for your website, like anything, will depend on what is right for you. You need to start by determining what you need.
What Can Your New Site Do?
Are you selling merchandise? If yes, a payment processor will be needed on your website platform. Adding new photos or videos regularly? A platform where you can make simple changes without working with a lot of code would be helpful. If you start with what you need your new website to do, you can then choose a platform to make that happen.
How Simple Is It to Use?
You’re going to want a platform that is relatively easy to use unless you’re a hacker. Of course, how easy it is depends on your level of skill. Your time, and money, might be better spent on hiring someone to build the site for you, especially if you struggle with your Gmail account.
How Much Will This Cost?
Price is always going to be a big factor in business decisions. If a website design platform is out of your budget, even if it fits all of your needs, it’s not going to be a good fit for your business. Only consider platforms within your budget and you can avoid window shopping, and looking at platforms that you cannot afford.
Will This Help With SEO?
Search engine optimization is the process that helps a website be found on the first page of search engines such as Google. This process is outside the scope of the article; however, some things need to be done during the website design process to help Google decide whether or not a website should rank higher on relevant search results. A proper website platform can help with this, on-site SEO and off-site SEO can be managed by the platform. On-site SEO, is a technique that is used within the website that helps with SEO. Off-site SEO is a set of techniques that is done using outside platforms or services that also help a website rank. The proper combination of both on-site and off-site SEO will help your site rank and a good website platform will help with this.
What Are the Differences Between These Web Design Platforms?
WordPress
WordPress is an open-source CMS that you can use for your website design.
Pros
- Design freedom and flexibility
- Unlimited functionality
- Not ideal, but suitable enough for SEO
Cons
- Purchasing separate hosting is required.
- Using plugins that you need can slow down page load times.
- Slight learning curve for beginners not familiar with the WordPress Dashboard.
Weebly
This is a CMS website design builder for beginners.
Pros
- Easy and intuitive
- No coding skills necessary
- Email and live chat support
Cons
- Limited functionality and designs
- Not as useful for SEO
- You have no control of your hosting
Wix
Wix is a drag and drop website platform that is useful for beginners.
Pros
- Easy to use and intuitive
- Coding knowledge is not needed
Cons
- Design and functionality are limited
- Not as useful for SEO
- No control of hosting
Final Thoughts
As you have learned, there are many website design platforms to choose from. Ultimately, we favor a custom PHP, HTML, and CSS website to provide the exact features and functionality that our clients want. This allows us endless possibilities when designing a website.
If you are ready to get started developing your new website, contact us today, and let’s get the ball rolling with a fully SEO Optimized Website!