Custom Coded Sites vs Wix, Wordpress (Web Builders)

Key Takeaways

• Static websites, and custom coded websites, load and perform better than sites made with web builders. Performance is a major factor in how your customers perceive your website. If a website loads too slow, chances are that a potential client will leave before seeing what your business is all about.
• Google indexes websites based on a number of factors. One of the most important factors being website performance. A fast, easy to utilize website is far more likely to be ranked higher on Google as opposed to a slow website.
• Mobile performance is king. Our websites are coded with mobile in mind. The majority of web builders perform terribly on mobile due to a large amount of bloat (excess data to load, incorrect image sizes, etc.) which can hurt your Google rankings.
• Wordpress, while being convenient and accessible, is prone to vulnerabilities, is easier to hack, and can become a liability to your business. Static websites, like ours, are virtually impenetrable due to a lack of entry points, which means your website will never fail.

Custom Websites: An Overview

Websites come in all sorts of different styles. Some sites are basically a brochure for a business while others can be a full fledged application for various services. These brochure sites are usually called Static websites. Static websites generally don't change too much and are there to serve to provide information. On the other end of the spectrum we have dynamic websites. These websites do change quite a bit and usually use code to provide interactivity, or some means of performing various actions. A good example is any time we buy anything online. That 'Buy Now' button creates an action for the website to perform that allows us to exchange currency for goods online.

So what does this have to do with anything? Well, it boils down to performance between the two and to understand what type of website is needed to begin with. For may small businesses, they don't need fancy bells and whistles of an enterprise application to get their job done. They need something that shows who they are, what they do, and how people can reach them. That's it. There is no need for any other types of applications or code to weigh them down. This should seem obvious, however, there are quite a few businesses out there that are using enterprise options to build their websites. Wordpress, Wix, Squarespace, and many more of these web builders offer static websites, but with the burden of an enterprise application. Some Wordpress websites may seem simple, but underneath is a lot of bloat and unneccessary code. This bloat will slow your website down, decreasing your performance, and making your website less likely to be seen by potential clients.

A custom website, like the ones we build here at Pale Black Dot, will not have this extra code. Our custom sites are tailored to use only what's necessary to showcase your business. It is a priority to ensure that your webpage is scoring top marks on Google because we understand how important it is for your business and your clients. Have you ever left a website because it was taking too long to load? Of course you have. We all have. Our goal is to make sure your website loads quick, is easy to navigate, and helps you and your business.

Mobile is King

These days, we surf a lot on our phones. We are constantly watching videos, looking up places to eat, and conducting business on our phones. That is no different for customers searching for a business or service that they need at that moment. Mobile performance for websites is an absolute must for this reason. For this reason, developers will make websites suitable for all screens. This is called responsiveness, and is the reason movies, shows and everything in between will look good on any screen no matter what. The same applies for websites. We need to ensure that websites are viewable for potential customers on any device, especially phones. Our custom websites are always mobile responsive. We always develop for mobile first because we understand that that is the most important device for people to be able to find your business.

To make a website mobile responsive and high performance, a lot of different factors need to be taken into account. This includes layout, design, photos, text, and everything else in between. Perhaps one of the most important factors is ensuring all media (photos, videos, etc) is sized and adjusted correctly. Photos take up a lot of space, and if not resized and compressed properly, could slow your website down a lot.

Web builders rarely take these factors into account and many amateur developers don't even consider this. And why would they? How would they know? Businesses are just trying their best to ensure they are on the web and people can find them. However, uploading images that are too large, not taking into account how anything will look on mobile, and not understanding how all these factors come into play can be damaging to a business. People won't stick around to sit and wait for a website like before. Everything has to be fast, and easy to use. On top of that, web builders like Wordpress already come with a ton of bloat, and now we have oversized images and unresponsive mobile sites? The answer should be clear that custom is just better.

Invest in your Website

In my experience there are two types of people: business owners, and entrepreneurs. One of the most common mistakes business owners make when it comes to a website is that they see it as an expense, rather than an investment. Entrepreneurs understand that when you spend money on the business it’s an investment INTO the business, not an expense, and can justify the value of it by seeing the return that investment will bring.

We sell websites at $150 a month. Some might be thinking “why should I pay every month for years?” Think about this way, with all the benefits our static sites have, did it bring in more than $150 a month in value this month? The answers almost always going to be yes. A painter, for example, would make $800+ per new client. If my site brings in only an extra 1 client per month that’s a $650 return. And if that client then starts to spread the word and that nets you even more clients? Even better. The goal is give your business another means of organically bringing in more clientele. On top of that, you have a developer at the tip of your fingertips whenever you need something changed, updated, or you have any questions. We're not just a web design agency. We are now a partner invested in the success of your business.

So with all these cheap and quick options available to build a website, it’s important to know that a great website will never come from that price point. It should actually be a deterrent. If I had to get surgery, I certainly wouldn’t trust the doc I found online to do it for about $350 when it costs $4000 everywhere else. It just screams lack of quality and lack of effort and somewhere along the line they are skipping a few steps to crank it out as fast as possible to make as much money as possible with as little effort as possible. Your business deserves better. If you want the cheap site, expect cheap results. But if you want it done right, that’s where a developer comes in.

Final Thoughts

Look, for how bad of wrap web builders I've given them (and should give them) in this article, web builders can still be a powerful tool for business owners. Maybe you're a small business just starting out and can't afford a custom website. There's nothing wrong with using these tools. However, at the end of the day, if you are looking to make an investment into your business, a custom website is a great place to start.

The beautiful thing about our business model is that we put small businesses first. We want to work with you to develop the site you need to succeed. Which is why we offer payment plans instead of these absurd price tags that other agencies offer. The $150 a month with $0 down payment is there because we know some small businesses can't afford to drop a large amount of money on a website right away. Our agency can do this because it's just one guy - me! I don't have any overhead, or staff to pay. Which means that I can provide an affordable, accessible and great service to local small businesses right here in the heart of Omaha.