Digital Advertising With No SEO Upsell

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Modern Web Design

Today, it’s easier than ever to build a website. AI can even build it for you. Let’s take a closer look, and see if it’s right for you.

  • The most affordable option
  • Can change your site whenever you want
  • No dealing with a third party
  • Minimized security risks
  • The most time consuming option, depending on the builder’s skills and experience
  • Easier-to-use web builders have less features than other platforms
  • Harder-to-use web builders can be harder to master
  • Harder-to-use web builders may involve dealing with site hosting, page speed, SSL, etc.
  • Results vary depending on the platform
  • Results vary based on the builder’s skills, knowledge, experience, time availability, etc.
  • Can be frustrating and time-consuming at times or for certain individuals

Ideally, the website builder (whether it be the business owner or someone hired in the company) should have plenty of time to properly build and maintain the site, and should at least have the following traits and skills.

 

  • Patience: Web Design can be aggravating, sometimes by glitches or just by choosing colors
  • Perseverence: If it doesn’t look right, don’t stop till it does (just don’t get carried away)
  • Photo Editing: While stock images can tell a point, images of your own add to your credibility.
  • Organization: Confused customers are unlikely to be paying customers.
  • Copy Writing: A beautiful website won’t do you any good if it can’t sell
  • Design: Good copy writing won’t do you any good if it isn’t presented right

If you believe this is a good option for you, great!!! You can do this. Here’s some tips to help you succeed!

 

  • There’s a lot of great web builders out there, but not all may be right for you. Find a few that interest you, then look up YouTube tutorials to see how they work, and what’s compatible with you.
  • WordPress with the right theme is powerful and offers the best results, but involves things like SSL, Accessibility, Hosting, Page speed, etc. For beginning web designers, I recommend using platforms that take care of all this for you.
  • Before you begin building, write down everything about your site and what you want your website to do and say. For example, make a list of selling points, slogans, customer reviews, things that set you apart, special technology or skills used in your business, etc. The more the better, then you can trim down later.
  • Web design is very similar to writing a persuasive essay. After all, the goal of a website is usually to persuade and then encourage a specific action. Your home page is your introductory paragraph. All other pages should support the main idea of your site (i.e. choose my Taco restaurant), while addressing any counter-arguments. Everything should then point to 1-2 specific “next steps” your site-visitors can take.
  • Ask for other people’s opinions, especially when you’re new. Constructive criticisim could turn a good website into a great one.
  • Don’t bother with blogging (unless you’re making a blog site). It’s benefits can be argued. Personally, I think your time can be used in more productive ways.
  • Don’t trust AI. While it’s powerful, I find there’s usually a kink or two that requires human supervision at the least.
  • For ease-of-use web builders, I fondly remember Web Flow for more advanced building, and Weebly for something more easy to use. 
  • If you’d like some free advice, just ask via the contact page.
FAQs
How long does it take to build a website?

It really just depends. The platform you use, your skill and experience, any glitches along the way, time spent perfecting, the number of pages you need, advanced features like logins or e-commerce, and more can affect the time required.

For a quality website, I personally believe 2-4 weeks a reasonable investment of time.

Why don't you recommend WordPress for beginners?

While the results can be exceedingly powerful, it adds a bunch of extra steps that not everyone is ready to deal with. Here’s a few:

SSL: Stands for “secure sockets layer.” All it does is make a secure connection between you and whatever website you’re looking at, so it’s safer. If you click on your URL bar now, you’ll see that the URL begins with HTTPS. This means it has SSL, or a secure connection. Websites without this begin with HTTP. 

Accessibility: Your website must be viewable by anyone, including those using screen readers. Not only is this a good feature to have, but it prevents you from being sued. AccessiBe usually solves this though.

Hosting: Websites are stored on servers owned by private companies. To use WordPress, you often need to purchase space on these servers. Sometimes it’s simple, sometimes it’s not.

Page Speed: The longer a website takes to load, the less likely a customer will consider staying. Things like image sizes, 

Updating: With WordPress sites, you need to update the WordPress platform, along with any available themes and plugins, on a regular basis. Usually it works out well. Sometimes, a website can break until it’s fixed.

Are there any disadvantages of easy-to-use web builders?

A few, but depending on your needs, they may not matter to you.

When you use a web builder made by a single company, the features offered are generally limited to whatever that company allows. For example, if the company doesn’t have any fancy animations, then your site won’t have any fancy animations.

Meanwhile, WordPress is something called “open-source.” This means WordPress allows individuals and companies to take the code they made and make custom additions to it that are open to the community to use, sometimes at a price. This results in unlimited possibilities and potential for your website.

So, in short, easy-to-use web builders may be good, but limited. 

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