66% of companies spend less than $10,000 to design, build, and launch their website.
The truth is that with such powerful website builders nowadays, you don’t really have to pay that much to launch a simple website.
Opting to build your website with the help of a website platform can help you save money on a designer, which is great if you’re a small business or just getting started.
However, in order to optimize your investment and ensure that you’re setting your website up for future success, it’s important to choose the right website platform. Here are a few important things to consider.
Thinking About Long-Term Savings
When choosing the best platform to build a website, you’ll probably compare pricing across different providers and plans. In fact, most small businesses tend to place price at the forefront of their decision-making process.
This makes sense, as you’ll need to learn how to optimize the small budget that you have. But be careful not to simply choose the cheapest plan and call it a day.
When doing your website platform comparison, you’ll want to consider the long-term impact of the decision. When thinking about the long-term, ask yourself:
- Does this website platform offer great functionality that’s going to prevent me from having to spend more on labor and updates in the future?
- Is this website platform secure and will it protect my website from potentially harmful and expensive cyber attacks?
- What features does this website platform offer that will help me save money in contracting out different features of website management?
The last one is a particularly helpful area to look at.
It’s still a good idea to think about outsourcing certain aspects of digital marketing, like SEO and PPC management.
But one important thing most companies overlook is how well the platform performs for onsite technical SEO. Setting this up right from the start can save you lots of money down the road. Bear Fox Marketing offers a free scanning tool for you do use as a final onsite SEO checklist.
Considering Your Growth Options
The best website platform for your company’s needs right now might not be the best platform for your needs as your business grows.
The overall goal is to grow your business, after all, so you need to take this into consideration when choosing the right platform.
Think about whether or not you’re going to:
- Add a blog
- Start selling products
- Need more security features
- Expect to have a high-traffic website in the future
If you’re trying to create and grow a large, high-traffic website then you might need to think about the need for a website platform that also offers great hosting with dedicated servers. The same goes with security features.
Overall, it helps to consider your growth and where you’re going to want to be in a few years.
If your business hinges on growing a blog, then choose a website builder that has lots of great blogging tools that will help you easily optimize and market your blog.
Platforms with Great SEO Tools
While a website builder isn’t going to do all of the work for you when it comes to search engine optimization, there are actually certain platforms that are more SEO-friendly.
Choosing the best website platform for SEO is a smart move in the long-run, as it ensures that all of the site’s basic SEO requirements are taken care of before someone comes in to really strategize and increase the ranking.
This means that the platform should allow you to edit things like:
- URL structure
- Image alt text
- Meta titles
- Meta descriptions
- Structured data
While the winner of the best platform for SEO debate is subjective depending on specific needs, experts generally agree that Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, and WordPress are all great options if you’re going to be doing a lot of SEO work.
Choosing the Right Website Platform
While needs vary from business to business depending on the kind of website they’re trying to build, you should at a very minimum look for a website platform that allows you to:
- Updates content quickly and easily
- Integrate your website with social media tools
- Build landing pages and microsites or pages
- Publish blog posts that are SEO-optimized
These are just a few of the most basic features. If the platform doesn’t offer you these functions, then you can guarantee that it’s going to impact you in the future.
Aside from the above items, however, it’s most important that you sit down and map out a plan. Where does your company want to be in two, three, or five years and how is your website going to help get you there?
First, think about the true costs of that platform’s offerings. While the basic plan might be cheaper, are you going to have to spend thousands on security features or add-ons that should be part of a basic plan?
Then, factor in all of the integrations that you need. Some companies need to easily integrate their website with other platforms and software. This is a huge part of streamlining sales, marketing, and business communication.
Finally, opt for a website builder that is SEO-friendly.
This is the most important aspect of creating a website. It’s going to be hard for a marketing expert to come in and enhance your SEO efforts if the platform doesn’t have certain functionalities.
Getting Help with Website Marketing
Choosing the right website platform is only the beginning of the battle. While it’s true that you certainly need to factor in a few of the above items before choosing a platform, the real work begins after your website is up and running.
Learning how to market your website correctly really depends on how much you’re investing in SEO and PPC, among other things.
And, while you can have the most outstanding website platform in the world, it’s likely that you’ll still need help ensuring that your click-through rate is high and that you’re choosing the right words for your SEO campaigns.
Need help with those areas of website marketing? Contact us to learn more about our SEO services and how we can help you build your business and future-proof your website.