A business’s website plays a key role in its growth. Instead of hiring a web designer, many entrepreneurs build their own websites. You can easily build a website with DIY website builders. It’s not an easy task!
Certain aspects of DIY websites have a negative influence on the experiences of your (potential) customers. Without your relevant experience, various defects are inevitable.
What are DIY website builders?
Using a DIY website builder, you can easily create a website without knowing any coding. Several of them include templates that you can use to create your own customized theme. Your personal or business website can be built in just a few hours.
Making changes to a website is simple with the intuitive web editor. The online editor allows you to select templates and drag and drop elements to create a customized website. The colors, backgrounds, images, and multimedia on your website can also be customized. You can also change your location and change the map on the website.
Where do DIY websites make mistakes?
Due to the lack of knowledge about web design, not everyone can create a fully functional and professional website. DIY websites can save you money, but it’s a time-consuming process with a lot of potential errors. These errors make your website untraceable or make your visitor drop out quickly.
The biggest drawbacks are:
- difficulty structuring content
- lack of consistency and aesthetics
- on smartphones your website does not meet the many requirements of responsive web design;
- a way too complex navigation that makes visitors drop out quickly
- not be found in Google due to the lack of SEO(-tools);
- correctly interpreting and acting on Google Analytics;
- your website is insecure due to no or poor encryption / SSL;
1. Unclear structure
An unclear structure is probably the biggest problem with DIY websites. Many people have trouble structuring content effectively resulting in missed opportunities to rank well in Google or Bing. Some points where things can go wrong:
- no or illogical layout of pages and content
- visitors do not immediately find what they are looking for
- the lack of very important pages such as an FAQ page or blog
- important or relevant contact details are too difficult or even impossible to find
2. Lack of consistency and aesthetics
With less experienced users, you often see incorrect use of colors and fonts. Too many colors, bad combinations, little contrast, and insufficient white space make visiting your website less pleasant. Simplicity is the way to go when it comes to designing an aesthetically pleasing website.
Different pages of the same website should be noticeably connected by a cohesive style. DIY websites often lack that consistency, aesthetics, and proper use of multimedia.
3. Responsive web design
It is particularly difficult to create a responsive website. Without the right tools and experience, this is almost impossible. You have to deal with different screen sizes, clickable link sizes, fonts, multimedia, etc. Are photos that are displayed large on a monitor also used for display on a smartphone? If do, then your website will be much slower on that smartphone. Also keep in mind that a 4G connection is slower than WiFi, and very much slower than wired internet.
Tablets and smartphones are not typically designed for DIY websites. When it comes to search algorithms that are related to SEO, Google gives priority to mobile-first websites. It is vital that your website continues to look professional on smartphones and tablets.
4. Complex Navigation
Good website design should also be easy and clear to navigate. When there is confusion or no clear and simple structure, visitors to the website will quickly leave. When you create websites without web design experience, it is difficult to estimate what an average internet user considers user-friendly. A neat and simple website is usually rated higher in Google than complex ones.
5. Lack of SEO
Just building a website doesn’t mean people will find and interact with your business. Your potential customers must first be able to find your website in Google results. The higher your website is in those results (ranking), the more potential customers will find you on the internet. DIY websites offer little or no search engine optimization or tools for it, which is a key factor in increasing page rankings and getting them to the top.
6. Interpretation of Google Analytics
For monitoring a website’s traffic, Google Analytics provides valuable data. You can determine where your best referral traffic comes from by looking at your website’s Google Analytics report coming from. Knowledge for interpreting this report is necessary to respond to this. Plus, DIY websites are recognized by the Google servers and thus negatively impact the analysis, if any.
7. Insecure Websites
SSL encryption is how a website establishes a secure connection with the user. Google even ranks sites higher that have SSL encryption. The websites developed with website builders often do not contain any security algorithms.
DIY websites are such an easy target for malware and hackers. So it is necessary to install an antivirus and purchase an SSL certificate. Homemade websites without additional security will compromise your company’s confidential data.
Final Words:
A DIY website can work for a while if you are aware of the mistakes mentioned above. If you are not skilled enough to build a website, it is better to hire a professional service. The website is an important part for the growth of any business. So don’t let them destroy your company or its image. Don’t risk having to rebuild your website later. It will not only increase your sales, but also bring integrity to your company, which will always be more beneficial in the long run.
