Are DIY Website Builders Bad for Business?

DIY Website Builders seem a little too good to be true in their marketing.

And what is really lurking behind the platforms is nothing more than a marketing front?

Here’s my list of things I personally don’t like about DIY Website Builders (for business).

***Disclaimer: This list is my personal opinion as a consultant of what’s wrong with DIY Website Builders. This is includes platforms like Wix, 1&1, Go Daddy, iPage, Weebly and more. These platforms are adequate for Smaller Charities, Club Teams, Church Groups and Personal Use; but I rarely recommend them for business. And my reasoning is below.

1) INSTANT SEO – They act like you will be “instantly” found on Google and search engines will just gladly show up at your door and list you.

2) THE TEMPLATES SUCK. To this day, I have NEVER – and I mean NEVER seen a decent DIY Website Builder with a professional looking template. I don’t mind people using DIY Website builders, especially for Beginners, but you can’t pawn a DIY Website Builder site as PROFESSIONALLY DONE. It is what it is. A DIY Website. A Basic Approach to getting on the web. But they all scream “I AM CHEAP”.

3) BAD CUSTOMIZATION – They have Web Building Wizards that help you out, but they are tedious to customize.

4) FEW EXTENSIONS – They don’t offer near the flexibility as they should.

5) THEY LOOK CHEAP – They all look like simple out of the box websites. BORING.

6) COSTS CAN RISE – They bring you in with the free trial, and say they are affordable . . . but they can still be more expensive than using a professional platform like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal. And after all the “up sell” products they offer you, it can be 5 times as much as a professional open source platform. If you are paying more than $20 for a DIY Website Builder, you are spending too much.

7) HOSTING USUALLY SHARED – This limits what you can do with the sites (see #4 again). Due to security issues and other parameters, there are limited add ons due to shared hosting.

8) Shared IP hosting – I deal with it on occasion. Doesn’t mean I like it.

9) Weak support – Most of these DIY Web Support teams are pretty clueless on support or actual web development. They depend on the DIY Builder Wizards and auto response software to handle issues that arise. They will never admit it, but the 1st level support team is NO different than a customer service rep. You don’t get someone with actual web knowledge until 2nd tier support. After you’ve waited on the phone for 30 minutes. Not much ACTUAL web knowledge with these 1st tier support agents.

10. Horrible Blogging = Bad Publishing = Minimal SEO. Not one DIY Website builder has perfected their blogging features yet. This DIY Website Builders are nothing more than brochures. IF you want better publishing the go to Typepad, WordPress and even Blogger. DIY Web Builder blogging is atrocious.

Summary

IN the end, I am always going to choose WordPress over a DIY Website Builder. Mainly because WordPress offers you everything you need, at a similar rate of the DIY Web Builders. But the professional appearance you can get from a “Premium WordPress Theme” FAR OUTWEIGHS the look and feel of a DIY Web builder. And as a business owner, you should be very concerned with the look and feel of your website. By combining WordPress with a Premium Theme the end result is way more impressive than a DIY Website Builder. And the costs are about the same.

I don’t “DISLIKE” DIY Web Builders – because anything is better than nothing – but I just don’t prefer them to WordPress, Joomla or Drupal. As a business consultant, I’ve always liked to show my clients how to “DO MORE with LESS” – and to put your BEST FOOT FORWARD. These builder don’t do many sites justice.