You have probably seen the ads on TV or heard them on the radio promoting free web builders. As a web development company I am really glad these FREE website builder companies work so hard to get business owners like you to download their builders, because those are usually the same customers that eventually come to us to help them replace their dysfunctional website and to finally end weeks or months of incredible frustration.
I guess there is some truth to the saying that you get what you pay for. The thing is that the Free Builders companies have some dirty little secrets that they don’t tell you. I hope to expose some of these secrets here and now so that you can make an educated decision when moving forward with your web development project.
One of the first rules of marketing is that you want to get someone to enter into your world so as a company you can work to build a relationship with that person and sell them on the benefits of what it is you’re offering. I am not saying there is anything wrong with the approach, in fact I think it is a great strategy which we use in our own business. Offering a free hook where someone can download something free or to get access to something free is a great way to capture someone’s information and to start your relationship with your new prospect.
Just know that your Free Builders is really no different and it is just a hook to get you into that companies marketing database. There are many other services that you will be exposed to once you decide to use the free website builders. But the challenges with the software only begin there.
The first thing you should know is these builders are VERY limiting. If you are a legitimate business looking to build a web presence and brand yourself as a professional in your industry, these site builders can be very detrimental to you. If you are a blogger or run a small local club with no budget for a website, then maybe a site builder may be a good choice for you. Many times you cannot include a custom design or it is extremely difficult to place key elements on your site so they look professional or give you flexibility to get the site to look the way you want.
The biggest challenge site builders have is the fact that they tend to use an internal linking structure. This means that instead of having a web page address like this www.yourwebsite.com/about-us, you would have a web page address that is more like this www.yourwebsite.com/9Zgk38X27-site-9*#GeqOP-9.html or some crazy thing like that. One major issue with that is these types of sites usually have redirects to the company you purchased your FREE builders from and you do not get any ranking credit with the search engines. This is one of the key reasons they give the builders away for free. You are actually helping them market their business rather than gaining any benefit to your business.
Even if this is not the case, it is extremely difficult to get a crazy named page to rank on Google or the other search engines and will definitely affect your ability to get your site to rank and drive traffic or visitors to your site.
If you are unable to rank your site and get visitors to the site, then what is the point of having a website? Furthermore, if you can’t generate traffic and sales from your Free Website Builders, then you are in fact losing money. Even a website that generates a small amount of profits (like $100 per month) will still generate $1,200 per year. Most basic websites can be professionally built for less than that amount and have the potential to generate much, much more than that in profits. When you take the potential profits of your website into account, you are much better off steering clear of Free Builders and just hire a professional web development company.
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