Have you ever tried to make your own website? There’s usually two choices — a “self builder” templated site like Wix, Weebly, Shopify, and Squarespace, OR a custom site build in WordPress (our recommendation). It would be completely obvious for us to go down the “techy” road for why we think building your website with WordPress is better than a self builder website. We are a biased marketing company that builds websites from scratch, after all, and we avoid self builder websites like they have cooties.
Why WordPress?
Why do we like WordPress so much? WordPress is to the website building world what Amazon is to retail shopping. It’s faster, it’s better in so many ways, and offers a lot of variety.
Why don’t we like self builders?
This is the best way we can explain it: Let’s say you rent a house for three years (using this timeline as an average time a website should go without some serious attention and investment)… And you paid your rent every month on time, no issues. During the time you lived there, you painted the walls, you cut the lawn, and you bought some furniture to fit the decor and shape of the house. Basically everything within reason of what one would do while renting.
So year three is coming to an end and you have decided to move. You pack up your belongings and move on to the next phase in your life. But before you leave, you stop and ask the landlord for the equity in the house for the three years you were there. How do you think that conversation would go?
Let’s go back to your self managed, low cost, monthly billed subscription website. Let’s say you decide to leave Wix and use GoDaddy. Do you think all those web pages that Google and others have stored in their database are going to travel with you? Nope. Welcome to land of being “dead indexed” and a dead online reputation. Google works because it finds and stores information from every website it can find and stores every ounce of that site that it can — that it can. Do you think Google indexes websites that are built with these tools completely? NOPE! The self builder companies themselves often utilize their clients’ online traffic to increase or improve their own online reputations. Essentially you’re building equity in the actual home-owner’s home.
But self builders are cheaper, right? And for some, they’re realistically “good enough” for their needs. We get it. But for some it’s a huge mistake. Using WordPress, and the people who understand how to build WordPress websites properly (that’s us!) will ensure every page of your website is optimized for Google’s index to help you build equity in your online presence. All your hard work is owned by you!
Look at the long term value, not the short term solution. Yes, the upfront costs will usually be higher, but in the long run you’ll be an owner, not a renter.
