SEO Benefits of Custom Website Design vs Website Builder Platform
As custom website design experts, there is no escaping the endless promises and lure of our archnemesis: website builder platforms. They claim to be easy, instant, free, all-in-one solutions. But are they really?
We get why these are such a great option for your business website. We have also seen firsthand (far too many times may we add) how the builder websites fail to deliver when it comes time for SEO, customization, and all the extras it takes to grow your business.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the nuances of custom website design versus builder platforms, helping you to understand both options and decide what one will best meet your needs today and into the future.
How Custom Website Design Differs from Builder Platforms
Custom Website Design
A custom website design involves creating the website from scratch or tailoring it extensively to meet the specific needs and preferences of a business or individual. Unlike website builder platforms, custom designs are built by professional web designers and developers who have the expertise to create unique, tailored solutions. Many custom website designs include a Content Management System (CMS) that still allows you without technical knowledge to make changes and updates to the website.
Website Builder Platform (the DIY method)
A website builder platform is an online tool or software that allows you to create your website without needing to write code or have extensive technical knowledge. These platforms typically offer pre-designed templates and drag-and-drop interfaces, making it easy for you to customize your website with text, images, and other elements. Popular examples of website builders include Wix, Weebly, GoDaddy, and Squarespace.
Reasons to Choose a Custom Website Design
Tailored to Your Needs and Goals
Prior to jumping into creating your website, you can outline exactly what will be required to meet your goals and make sure the new website will address each need and goal. You do not have to compromise and leave some goals behind in order to fit into a DIY builder website.
Brand Differentiation
If all of your competitors also use website builders, how will you look different? How will you stand out at the end of their research when they’ve looked at several other websites just like yours? With a custom website, you can put your own brand’s fingerprint throughout the design and style.
Scalability and Flexibility
The sky is the limit with custom websites. You’ll be able to adapt to the changing needs of your business, allowing for seamless scalability as your organization grows. This can include adding new features, expanding product lines, or entering new markets. As your business grows so does your website and a simple DIY builder website may not have the capacity to handle all the page additions and growth.
Enhanced Functionality
Custom solutions will allow you the freedom to incorporate advanced features and functionality that are tailored to your workflow and processes, whether its for your Sales and Marketing, IT or HR teams. With a custom website design, you should be able to achieve greater efficiency and productivity.
Greater Control and Ownership
Think of a custom website as owning your own home vs a website builder as renting a home. With home ownership comes the ability to make your own changes and you are saving on monthly “rental” costs that are never actually regrouped. You aren’t actually investing in a property that belongs to you with website builder platforms. And if you choose to walk away from your selected website builder platform you risk losing your website or not regrouping certain assets you thought you owned that are important to your online presence and authority.
Long-term Cost Savings
Yes, you may notice that the initial upfront costs of a custom website are higher for a custom solution, but there are significant long-term cost savings. You likely won’t be paying ongoing (ie monthly) licensing fees or subscription costs associated with the off-the-shelf solutions.
Personalized Support and Maintenance
All of your questions, concerns, issues or updates are addressed promptly and efficiently because you have access to an actual design and development team and not just a support chat or help ticket. A custom web designer is probably working with a few dozen business owners and can provide prompt responses whereas some of the most popular DIY website builder platforms have thousands of customers to take care of.
SEO Ready
Almost all website builders have stiff restrictions in place when it comes to improving the SEO friendliness of the website. Previously mentioned scalability, functionality and control play a big role in how you can implement SEO strategies into a custom website vs a website builder.
Professional, Expert Advice
A custom website design package typically comes with an awesome lineup of people who know exactly what it takes to launch an impressive website that follows best practices in terms of design, experience, and optimization. They take all of the guesswork out of the process. Essentially they help remove the overwhelm you’ll likely experience when trying to build the website on your own.
Free Up your Time
Yes, website builder platforms all promise they are easy and quick to use but there is still a learning curve. It’ll take time to figure out what you want your website to look like, adding images, customizing placeholders, figuring out hosting, and more. We like to think that your time is much better used on the tasks and jobs that actually earn you income – while leaving some of the technical work outside of your specialty to the experts.
When a DIY Website Builder is Good Enough
Just do a search for website builders and you’ll find endless options that promise to deliver on cost, ease of use, and speed. There is obviously a time and place for these types of websites and they are useful, as evidenced by all of the companies offering this service and thousands of businesses using them.
Here are seven reasons why using a DIY website builder platform may be right for you:
- You have a very limited upfront budget – if you find budget constraints keeping you from footing the upfront costs of a custom website design you may opt for a more generic solution that you can piece together on your own. It may prove to be cost-effective for the short term until you can grow your business a little or collect more resources to embark on the custom website journey.
- You need to get your website up today – quick deployment is often a strong benefit of these builder platforms you can find online. Most of the top platforms market themselves as “quick and easy”, with pre-built templates and configurations that allow for a fast launch.
- You have very standard, basic requirements – there may be no need for customization as feature and functionality requirements are very basic. A non-custom solution may be perfectly fine for you when you do not need advanced features or workflows – or if your website is very small, just a handful of pages.
- You want to test the waters – you may find basic website builders a viable way to test the market before investing in custom development. The generic website may prove to be a lower-risk way to gauge interest and gather feedback.
- You don’t expect or need a lot of website traffic –basic website builders are not designed to attract or handle high levels of traffic but that may be perfectly fine with you. Perhaps you just need a website to put on your business cards or offline marketing materials.
- You don’t need integration with third-party services – your website may not need to handle third-party payment gateways, CRM systems, and analytics tools that can otherwise be difficult to connect with a builder website.
- You only need a website for a short time – maybe you opt to use a website builder for a temporary website until your custom website design is ready, or you only need a website for a few months for an event, fundraiser, or other promotional reason. Little time and effort upfront for a short usage period makes sense.
Are There Any Downfalls of Custom Website Design to Consider?
We recognize that there are some criticisms of custom website design. These do not need to be big red flags – instead, you just need to recognize that they exist and make sure that they don’t get in your way.
Upfront Costs – custom website design has a higher upfront cost to launch, especially for complex or highly customized designs.
Maintenance – while builder platforms often come with built-in maintenance services, you will need to implement your own ongoing maintenance and security updates for your custom solution website. Your website designer and/or developer can help you stay on top of this.
Time to Develop and Launch – because custom websites have so many options for customization it can take longer to properly plan for and design your new website. It is far from a drag-and-drop solution, but in the end, almost always gets you a superior website.
Dependency on Developer – if you do not establish a strong and trusting relationship with your design team, you may find you start to depend on external developers to make timely updates and changes to the site.
Potential for Inconsistency – custom website designs (especially as they become large and complex) can struggle with inconsistencies in design, functionality or user experience across different pages or sections.
Overthinking – because the sky is the limit there is an inherent risk of overthinking or over-engineering your website with unnecessary features or complexity that can potentially impact performance and user experience.
What’s Our Experience With the Two?
It’s time for our experts to weigh in and share our own experiences.
Spoiler alert – as SEOs and Website Designers we are going to have a natural bias towards the custom website design option. And here’s why …
In our 25 years in business helping companies create and grow their website presence, we have not had one successful campaign run on a basic builder website platform. They either give our Technical SEO team limited access to the backend coding we need to get to in order to improve speed, URL structure, or other ranking factors. Or else they just aren’t ready to handle higher levels of traffic that SEO can attract or the hosting is not at a calibre required by most reputable businesses.
Upon configuring their custom WordPress website design they are ready to start on a strategic SEO campaign, with their builder platform website just a speed bump left in their past.
Still Unsure? Let’s Chat About Your Website
We get it – it can seem confusing to who you can trust and where to get your information from when trying to decide how to build and launch your new website. Our team is available to chat about your specific situation – give us a call at 1-888-262-6687 or connect with us online.
There are also more resources on our website to check out:
- The True Cost of a Website Builder
- Website Builder Options that Are Easy & Affordable
- Benefits of an Effective WordPress Website Design
Leaning toward a custom website design? Check out our work in our Website Portfolio!
