Should You Use A Website Builder For Your Business?

In the (not-so-distant) past, decent web design and development was hard to come by. To achieve a professional look, many businesses went in search of a development team for hire (with creative and technical experts) who could build a website over the course of several weeks, if not months.

However, with the evolution of easy-to-use website builders, today’s sites can be created much faster, with more customization and less out-of-pocket cost. These handy tools offer a peek into what it’s like to be a web designer and developer without having to know intensive to code.

Site builders can create a site in days, not weeks or months. However, you still need to provide creative assets, copy, lead generation forms, videos, and other elements to make your website intriguing to visitors and potential customers. 

If you need a no-frills website with very little investment, this option is for you. A site builder lets designers (or novices) drag and drop items, implement and use site templates and replace placeholders with custom logos, graphics, copy and other content. 

With most builders, content marketing benchmarks can be implemented and the site can responsive and mobile-first (which is why you have to be careful about the builder that you choose if flying solo). 

Here are some things to consider. 

How Does a Website Builder Work?

A site builder delivers tools at your fingertips to create beautiful websites with fluid user experience. Best of all, you don’t need years of design, coding, or development experience.

Some builders are meant for people who have zero design experience, while other builders are EXTREMELY helpful if you want an agency to create the initial design but then make your own changes, as needed.

You can check out some of the most popular website templates and builders here… but we think WP and Shopify are two of the best.

Instead of coding a website from nothing, a builder allows you to save time by building from a template. Since builders only provide a structure with content examples, you may still need content production and marketing services to ensure your site makes an impact.

Many builders allow you to choose a basic template to work around, or you can customize everything yourself. If you know a bit of coding, you can even change a template beyond its core design. 

Easy to Customize

If you don’t know anything about web development, then a builder is a wonderful tool to get a website online quickly. However, you may still want to work with a web designer or developer to help you with details and adding custom elements. 

While website drag and drop builders make it easy to place elements onto your site, you may not be able to escape that “template” look if you don’t have some experience in code. 

With builder templates, you can select from a variety of website designs that match your brand and industry. However, if you don’t customize these with your own images, design tools and unique content, your site could look like other businesses out there (and have less of an impact on new visitors). 

Drag and Drop

The best feature of any builder is how quickly you can create a site with drag and drop capabilities. All you have to do is click on elements and drag them to the spot on the page where you would like them to appear. 

This includes graphics, text boxes, logos, videos, icons, call-to-action-buttons, sign-up forms, and any other element you can think of…you simply use a drag and drop builder to create it. 

Customize and Edit Til Your Heart’s Content 

With these drag and drop tools, you don’t have to worry about someone else fixing basic issues or making content changes on your website. If you see an image out of place or want to add something new, you can log in and quickly update the site using the builder. 

You don’t need to have someone on standby who knows HTML or CSS. You can make changes to your color scheme, elements, font choice, images, event schedule, forms, and any other element on your website using a builder. 

Build a Website in Minutes

Site builders contain a host of fast tools meant to help you design a website in as little as a day. While this will result in a basic design, it helps to dip your toe in the water of creating a website for your business. 

You also don’t need any development skills to create complex websites with animated elements, responsive formats, and smart forms for lead generation. You may have to learn about the builder tool’s features in order to do so, however. 

Easily Manage Your Website 

In addition to creating and building a website, you can use a variety of built-in tools to manage your website. For example, most web builders allow you to track site statistics and download reports on activity. You can also set up a website email address, integrate social media sharing, and add email subscriber sign-ups to build out some of your marketing funnels. 

These tools help you get the most out of your site, and since they’re relatively self-explanatory, you can elevate your traditional means of managing your business with this newly created website. 

Determining The Best Website Builder For Your Business

If you’ve done some searching beforehand, you’ve already heard of the heavy hitters out there. However, there are many website builders that are all style and no substance. 

With those, you’re simply out of luck the moment you want to step out of the box that they place you in. That’s why we recommend using one of the two major site builders out there – WordPress or Shopify.

WordPress

WordPress powers a large portion of the internet with as many as 455 million websites using its templates and plugins. WordPress is free and easy to install, and while there are templates you can use, your ability to transform your site into something completely unique is unparalleled. 

Most people utilize the WordPress builder for blogs and simple websites, but you can also set up a product catalog and online store using its tools and WooCommerce integration. 

Shopify

Shopify used to be the only site-building tool for quick ecommerce stores. And, to a certain extent, it’s still the easiest online builder to use today. 

The whole website builder is designed around ecommerce and building an online store that works seamlessly across devices. It uses a drag and drop tool and has a quick uploader for adding products to a catalog. 

You can build an online store in minutes with this tool, and there are a variety of templates to choose from.  

Want to Build the Best Website for Your Business?

Don’t feel comfortable going it on your own? Our digital creative agency offers web design and development, as well as digital marketing services like online advertising, social media marketing, content production and SEO. 

We help you build your business with proven digital techniques and strategies that deliver customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Contact us today to get started with your consultation!