Over the past few years, drag-and-drop template website services have gotten a lot more popular. It’s easy to see why: who doesn’t love the idea of paying a few dollars to have a professional website design in just a few minutes?
While the prices associated with these services are very low, they don’t actually provide a great deal of lasting value. We have to point this out because we end up redesigning dozens of these sites for small business owners every year.
To understand why this happens so frequently, let’s look at the biggest reasons drag-and-drop website templates aren’t as great of a deal as they are made out to be…
Drag-and-Drop Features Come with a Hidden Price
When you see one of these services advertised, it’s usually the case that a smiling business owner is entering their content into a template and getting their site online in minutes. It looks like a lot of fun.
We won’t argue that this kind of functionality is entertaining and convenient. The problem, though, is that you are paying for that convenience. Not in upfront fees, but in future sales and functionality.
Drag-and-drop website templates are built to be applicable to almost any kind of company. For that reason, they are light on features and stuffed full of code that won’t be used on most websites. The result is that you won’t be able to do a lot of things you’d like (like optimize your website for fast page loading or good search visibility) while being stuck with little apps you would never use in your company. These can slow your pages down, cause errors, and prevent you from installing other tools that would be more useful.
Speaking of which, when you use a website template service you are stuck with the tools that they have chosen for you. No matter what’s going on in your business, you have to stick to the same plug-ins that everyone else is using even though they might not match your current needs. Even worse, it gets harder to migrate your content the longer you keep your template site.
Aesthetics Isn’t the Most Important Piece
The ads and testimonials used on template websites emphasize that you can get a professional-looking layout without spending much time or money. That’s true, but it also misses the point.
While website aesthetics matter, they don’t make or break your company’s profitability. What really adds to your bottom line is functionality (in terms of web development) and a sustainable online marketing plan. In other words, you have to have a website that works the way people want it to, and it needs to draw in customers so you can create leads or sales.
This is another area where drag-and-drop template websites come up short. They are built to be quick, cheap, and look good at first glance. But when it comes to having your business discovered on Google, optimizing for local searches, or generating inbound leads (as examples), the sites perform poorly. And of course, if you need any kind of custom features – or just want your web presence to look different than your competitors’ sites – they can’t help you there either.
Are You Getting a Great Deal on Business Web Design?
Template websites have their place. If you’re just starting a part-time business from your garage, want to promote your hobby, or simply don’t have any money to spend on web design, then beginning with a template service can be a reasonable idea. However, if you have an established company that you (and possibly others) depend on for income, then the trade-offs are just too significant.
To find out how easy and affordable it is to get a website that will actually work for your business, contact the online marketing and sales growth experts at Weblinx today!