When you are thinking about web design for your Canberra business it is tempting to take it into your own hands. Your business is your baby. You’re the one who’s been there from the beginning, you’ve been doing everything from answering the phones to processing the accounts from day one. Why shouldn’t you use a free website builder like WIX?

Well, there are so many reasons. Most important to remember is that you get what you pay for. So, what are you getting when you don’t pay? Here are the top three reasons you shouldn’t use WIX for your business website:

1 – WIX is free and easy

Now, these might sound like good things. But free and easy are not what you should be looking for in a website. WIX doesn’t know what your customers want, or what Google is looking for either.

WIX makes it easy to gloss over important website elements such as search engine optimisation. Google is interested in your page titles, your content and the structure of your site. WIX doesn’t tell you any of this nor makes it easy to edit the way Google sees (and therefore ranks) these parts of your website.

2 – Web design with Canberra Web will evolve and grow

Building a website isn’t supposed to be easy. Forget what WIX is telling you. Website building, digital marketing and website design are complex areas. They are also changing and evolving all the time. The way people use the internet changes over time. The way Google sorts and ranks content on the web changes daily.

Therefore, you need to work with a web design Canberra based business who can help you build an integrated and high performing site for today and one which will take your business into the future. Your relationship with your website builder should be an ongoing one. As your products change and your customers change so too should your website. A high-quality full-service web site builder like Canberra Web will also be monitoring how your website is ranking and how it’s being used. This allows them to make continuous adjustments to keep you at the top of your game, and your website at the top of search engine results.

3 – WIX isn’t a free website building platform

A WIX website is only free if you are happy to have their banner ad at the top of every page of your site. This takes up valuable space at the top of your web page which could be being used to promote your business and complement your branding. It also tells every visitor that you have scrimped on your website build and design. So where else are you cutting corners in your business?

The only way to get rid of the WIX banner ads is to sign up for a monthly payment plan. You also can’t add Google Analytics to a free WIX website. So something that seemed like a free and easy option isn’t free at all.

5 reasons to skip Wix for your new website

Just as there are many ways to skin a cat, there are actually thousands of ways to build a website.

So if you're doing some 'How to build a website' research, you may have come across a three-letter solution that sounds tempting: Wix.

Actually, Wix is pretty popular when it comes to 'drag and drop' websites. But it's not all beer and skittles.

On the face of it, Wix seems pretty tempting. It's a turn-key website solution, you use all of their tools to build your site, it then sits on the Wix servers and you handle everything from the admin controls.

So what's the issue? Looks look at what's wrong with Wix:

1. Lack of control
   
   If you want to be able to fully control every aspect of your site and use advanced features as they become available, Wix will let you down. Yes, it's easy and convenient, but Wix websites are a bit of a straight-jacket.
   
   
2. Cost
   
   Wix is pricier than comparable others in the market, like Squarespace and Weebly. And when you think about the cost of hosting your own WordPress site, then Wix really is costly, without even offering a lot of bandwidth or storage.
   
   
3. Design
   
   So even with the easy 'drag and drop' format, you'll still get frustrated when designing with Wix. That's because it will actually let you drop anywhere, even if it's a really silly place. This means it can take ages to get a design that actually looks professional.
   
   
4. The apps
   
   If you want to go beyond the standard features, you'll need to use the Wix app store. But you may be disappointed: are they really great apps or simply Iframes - a 'window' that is not really your site at all?
   
   
5. SEO
   
   To get people on your site, you need to appear in Google results. But the Google 'bots' don't seem to like Wix due to the way it presents content with the technology that is called Ajax. In short, a normal HTML site is more Google-friendly.

Of course, everyone has their opinion, but here at Canberra Web, we think there are far better options. If you're looking for quality web design in Canberra, get in touch with the professionals today.

It might be tempting to use free website builders like WIX and Weebly. They’re cheap and they seem so simple for you to put a website together – what could go wrong?

But like with anything, you get what you pay for, and your website is no different.

If you decide to go with the cheapest or free option, you might regret it later.

Free website builders aren’t great for SEO

Many of the free website builders out there aren’t search engine optimised. This means when you build your site, it will be a struggle for it to rank highly in Google searches. And this could spell disaster for your business.

The structure and code of a website affect how SEO-friendly it is, and these free websites aren’t very SEO friendly at all. Some of them are built completely in Flash, which certainly isn’t Google-friendly.

Unfortunately, you don’t have code control when you use these free websites, so you can’t even change the coding if you wanted to.

Mostly one-page websites

Another element for websites which rank poorly is when they have just one page.

Google loves websites with multiple pages, as these are seen to be more informative, and yet many of the free website builders only feature one page.

This can be very limiting, not simply for your online presence but also for your business.

A website that’s lacking structure

Another issue with these small websites is that they often don’t have a beneficial website structure. And it is this structure which is very important for SEO.

For example, if your website is organised in a detailed way, it will have a hierarchy, and this is something that search engines like Google love.

This means a blog post might have a hierarchy such as www.examplewebsite.com/blog/free-website-builder

Google loves these URLs as it helps them to pinpoint content on the web, meaning it can find your content. If your website isn’t full of these kinds of links, then Google won’t look favourably on you.

These are just some of the many reasons why you should avoid online free website builders.

If you’re looking for a new website, why not go with a Wordpress design Canberra-based business such as Canberra Web? We can help! Get in touch today for more information.