Wix Vs Weebly Vs Squarebox

I often get asked “Why would someone want a WordPress when they could get one of these DIY websites cheaper and quicker”?

My answer is usually…

“If you cut your own hair, the front can look okay, but the back will be a disaster”

Why WordPress?

WordPress is transportable.  You can move to whatever hosting company you like.  The others are not, so if you outgrow your website you will have to start from scratch.  When you start a business you are looking for cheaper alternatives to keep costs down, but you must be thinking about your future needs and how a DIY website will suit your company’s growth in 12 months’ time.   I am not saying that DIY websites don’t have a role to play, but for businesses wanting their website to grow with them and meet their future goals, then I would recommend WordPress to start with.

With WordPress you own your own website.  With the others you are really just renting.  I have never been a fan of ‘putting all your eggs in one basket’ and if anything were to happen to one of these companies, you could lose everything.

WordPress has 29,000 plugins to date and rising.  Plugins which will enhance your website users experience and seeing that currently 25% of the world’s websites are WordPress, it has become a very popular and stable website platform.

Your websites are branded by these companies which could portray an amateurish (or cheap) image of your company.   SEO is also another concern as WIX recently had an unpleasant situation where Google un-indexed all their sites for a while.  WordPress has some very good SEO plugins that work well with the big search engines and tend to rank really well.

Lastly it’s all about User Experience (UX) and with WordPress you have much more control over customising your website rather than grabbing a cookie cutter, one size fits all template that isn’t talking to your target audience.

Conclusion:

If you are in business then you need to be in control of your biggest marketing asset – Your Website.  We pick up one or two websites a month from companies out-growing their DIY website and we usually need to start over which is something they could have avoided if they had gone WordPress in the first place.  Think about the future of your website now, and plan for it.  Don’t skimp on your website, or it could cost you more down the track.