There’s a question in our title, and we’re going to answer it immediately.
Yes. If you choose a cheap website solution – you are asking for trouble.
Let’s define our terms and get started.
What is a cheap website solution?
Let’s say that you run a small business and all you need is an informational website, because you want to drive potential customers to your brick-and-mortar store. So, you think to yourself, “I’ll just create a website on one of those platforms where they let you create a website for free. And I can do all the writing myself.”
Free sites
There are several web platforms that allow you to create a website for free on their site. The only problem is that you have to use their domain name as part of your URL, and their ads will appear somewhere on your site. You have no control over what ads are being shown, meaning competitive or questionable products could be shown on your site, hurting your reputation and leading to lost revenue.
The trouble with choosing this alternative is twofold.
Amateurish
Your potential clients expect professional companies to have their own domain name, and to not be “cheap.” Having ads from your website host on your site is the very definition of a cheap website solution.
Poor SEO
Your domain name is actually a keyword that will help in ranking for search engines. It should be your business name, for example, PaulsWidgetFactory.com. (In the past, some people used a keyword for their domain name – for example BestWidgetFactoryinLosAngeles.com. This practice is no longer valid and will result in Google penalties (what does that mean to them?) ).
Ad-free site in conjunction with hosting fee
These same platforms will offer a ‘premium’ service – you pay for hosting and you can have your own domain name, and there will be no ads.
Here again, this is a relatively cheap website solution. You’ll be creating your website yourself, using the provided drag-and-drop website builder, and all you’re paying for is the hosting fees that you’d be paying for anyway.
But there is trouble here, too.
Poor SEO (What does this mean to the user?)
Frankly, drag-and-drop website builders are responsible for some of the poorest-performing websites for business on the internet.
Why?
Missing Pages
Drag-and-drop website builders provide users with a choice of templates, which do not always include pages that search engine crawlers expect to see – such as privacy policies and terms of service pages. And because business owners don’t know these pages are required, they don’t know to include them.
Missing Meta Data
Drag-and-drop website builders typically do not give the user access to the code behind the site – so the user can’t add in metadata (Needs definition) or other essential information that search engine crawlers reward -even if he or she even knows what kind of metadata is required!
Poor Site Speed
Professional website designers know how important site loading speed is to create the optimal user experience. If a page does not load quickly, most users will “bounce” after three seconds. Search engine web crawlers know this and will penalize the page accordingly.
Avoid Trouble, Hire a Professional
Professional website designers have the experience needed to create SEO-optimized websites that web crawlers will reward leading to more traffic. They also have the expertise to advise on a site’s content – the use of keyword-rich, value-added content – that crawlers also reward.
Cheap website solutions typically look cheap and turn off customers. A professionally-designed and maintained site, on the other hand, will be rewarded with click-thrus, conversions, and more income for your business.
Check out SITESTR
There’s a difference between “cheap” sites and “inexpensive” sites. At SiteSTR, we set ourselves apart by providing several services integral to small businesses at an affordable price.
- The SITESTR web platform runs on an advanced version of WordPress. We’ve taken the best of the world’s most popular CMS tool and extended it to work for you.
- Our team of developers build powerful, SEO-Optimized websites right out of the box. With SITESTR, you’ll have a far better ability to compete on Google.
- Phone Support! When you need help arranging a page layout, or have a question about sizing an image, our team is ready to help.
- We make problems go away. We take care of all the backend software updates, configurations, and optimization so you can focus on running your business.
- And when you’re ready to take the next step and start advertising, we can help you there too.
With SITESTR, we worry about the hard stuff so you can focus on running your business. Give us a call today or contact us below. Let’s see how much time and money we can save you.
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