The Hidden Truth About D.I.Y. Website Builders
originally published on coupleofcreatives.com
Today, building a website has never been easier (according to those fancy advertisements you see). Do it yourself website builders exist to help get you off the ground running and may seem like a dream come true but as with any solution, there are some major side effects you need to be aware of.
Tools such as Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, Divi Theme Builder, Semplice and more are all similar D.I.Y. solutions built for people looking to build a website fast and with little budget. Sounds perfect right? Keep reading…
On the outside, these solutions advertise having a lot of options, great looks, and easy implementation (some of which are actually true).
Sadly, until you buy in, do you discover the limitations and “lacklusterness” of a website made with a website builder.
Under the hood, these websites crafted with D.I.Y. builders are riddled with massive code bases in an effort to support anything you may throw at it in terms of content on your website. This often means more errors, slower page load speeds, and underperforming user experiences.
D.I.Y. websites are bloated with features you won’t use
Using a D.I.Y. website builder often means you have a lot of control over virtually endless options available to you.
This may sound great but what if you don’t need “endless” options? Unfortunately, you can’t just disable these options and have them disappear into outer space. They are still there whether you utilize them or not and impact your websites performance greatly.
Your theme design will likely look like someone else’s
With so many themes on the market it’s likely you can find something pretty original. If you have ever used a “popular” theme then you can probably guess somewhere else in the world someone has decided to do the same.
Your website won’t optimally be branded
Is this a big issue? Not necessarily but if you are a business interested in standing apart from your competitors you can’t rely on a D.I.Y. solution long term. In the end, someone will have something too similar and your customers may take notice. This makes your brand less impactful and might even deter your customers from purchasing from you. Don’t give them the reason to do so.
Your website’s performance will suffer
As I’ve stated before that all those magical features inside your D.I.Y. website builder really bog down the performance. If you a lot of features this may not be a concern to you but if you only need a few you may opt for a more customized solution.
A custom approach would help you maintain a lean code base thus rendering your website as fast as possible for your users/customers. This is especially important for those visiting your website from a mobile device which these days is an ever increasing percentage of people.
A D.I.Y. website builder will limit your creativity
While a D.I.Y. website builder may give you a lot of freedom to author content, there are quite a lot of limitations going on in terms of design. You can often pick different colors and fonts for your website but in terms of designing an original layout that isn’t so predictable, you’re out of luck.
To get something truly original you need a custom design that is custom developed into a branded solution for your business or purpose.
Are D.I.Y. website builders really all that bad?
Truthfully, D.I.Y. website builders have come a long way. Many themes look really great and offer virtually endless features. They work on all devices and even can be crafted from the ground up using tools within the builder.
Unfortunately, with all this good comes some bad as I’ve outlined before. Performance almost always suffers, updates are hard due to poor UX within the builder itself, your website’s design isn’t truly authentic, and your creativity is limited to the constraints of the website builder.
Where do we fit in?
At Couple of Creatives we have ample experience creating/contributing to D.I.Y. website builders as well as utilizing them to address the needs of some customers with limited budgets.
While we don’t advertise this as a longstanding solution we are happy to help you craft a pre-existing theme into a solution that works for you until your budget is available to create a custom branded solution.
If you have an interest in how we work or are curious if we are available to take on your next project, get in touch with us. We are happy to offer an hour of free consulting to truly figure out the best solutions for both your branding and website problems.
Originally published at coupleofcreatives.com on November 15, 2016.
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