Which Website Platform Should I Use? 4 Platforms & How to Use Them Effectively
When it comes to building a website, you aren’t short of options. From easy-to-use solutions such as Wix, Squarespace and Shopify, to more complicated but flexible options such as WordPress, you can often get stuck on simply the decision on what CMS (content management system) to choose. Nowadays, they all make web design and web development accessible; though it’s worth looking at their features, as each one has features that suits different types of businesses.
In this article, we’ll guide you through some of the best website platforms, their pros and cons, and talk about what you need to do to ensure you see success.
4 Top Website Platforms for Businesses
WordPress
WordPress is generally considered King when it comes to web development. It’s estimated that there are over 75million sites built on WordPress, so there’s plenty of guidance and knowledge out there to help anyone build a site and troubleshoot any issues. It’s also easy to bring in other people to work on your site, to offer you deeper customisation and additional features. This is where WordPress shines – it’s incredibly flexible.
However, it’s not perfect. With all this flexibility comes some difficulties. Every theme is built differently, as is every plugin, and like kids who go to school together, they don’t always get on swimmingly. It’s not unusual to fall into a rabbit hole trying to fix one little problem, so if you’re not experienced, it’s a good idea to have a web development professional to hand who can answer your questions and help you fix issues that might get thrown up from updates and additions.
Your WordPress site is self-hosted, so you can move it from host-to-host (with not too much difficulty) if your fees become too costly or if you need a better server or plan than your current host offers. It is worth noting that while the free WordPress themes (themes frame your website’s appearance) are good these days, most people will want to buy a template elsewhere. Themes are usually $39 - $59 on sites like ThemeForest.net.
Wix
Wix is one of the easiest platforms if you’re looking for easy web design. While WordPress can be fast, you can easily get a Wix website up and running within just a few hours. It’s easy and automatic to add memberships, a store, audio, video, and more.
However, there is a lack of flexibility when it comes to hosting. Their sites are fast, but if you suddenly grow and have a huge amount of traffic, you may have to reach out to them to see what they can do for you.
If you decide to move, you’re going to have to build an entirely new site elsewhere, and manually move over any older content you want to keep. This essentially means you have to start from scratch, and if you’ve built up good SEO over the years, you may see a dip when you move to a new platform.
Squarespace
Squarespace is essentially the same as Wix – it’s an independent website builder that makes web design fast and easy. Squarespace’s templates are generally more geared toward a minimalistic style, and suits stores and portfolios, but you can do anything with them.
Like Wix, the biggest problems here are the price tag and the fact that you can’t move a Squarespace website to WordPress – at least, not without professional web development and web design professionals to build you a similar website for WordPress. Another con is that if you’re not looking fora minimalist style, you’re probably not going to like their default designs. You can find web design professionals who work exclusively with Squarespace, but obviously it’s not as easy as picking one of the free templates.
Shopify
Shopify is a little like Wix and Squarespace, in that it handles all the hosting for you. The key difference is that it is geared entirely toward ecommerce businesses. If you’re not focused on selling physical or digital products, you don’t need Shopify.
Shopify is easy to use and they have a ton of videos to guide you through how to set up your site and how to run your business more successfully. They have a few free templates included, but they’re not going to knock your customers’ socks off. If you want to have a site that looks truly professional, then you’re going to have to drop some more money for that, and Shopify templates aren’t cheap (think £100+).
Like the other website builders, once you build on Shopify, it’s going to be a headache to leave. Shopify pricing starts at around £15 per month, which is about on par with other ecommerce options on similar platforms.
So how do you choose?
To choose you need to take into account:
Your budget
What you need the website to do now and in the future
What you want your site to look like
How much control you want over moving your website in the future
How much management you want to do (updates, etc)
Although it’s important to select the right platform, you will need to implement web development best practice in order to gain success over your competitors. By following best practice, you will see an increase in both SEO performance and converting leads/sales on your website.
3 Best Practices Used on Every Successful Website
Choose a modern and sleek design: A website is the primary place how to show off your brand online. By having a modern design, you are immediately showing your audience that you are a premier player in your industry, and that is before they read your content. Having an effective design that translates through to your other online channels (social media platforms, display ads etc.) will provide your audience with a consistent experience of your company.
Clear and well-informed content: Having properly formatted content (headings, short paragraphs, relevant content, grammatically) can be the difference between someone buying your products or going somewhere else. This is particularly true when selling if you’re selling to other businesses – if your content is well researched and structured, then you stand a better chance of them registering an interest or buying your services.
Keep the customer journey short: Having a customer journey that has as few clicks to convert a lead or a sale will see your online conversion rates rocket. If you have a piece of content that is gold for your customer or a product page with clinching sales information, then make sure the customer is able to register an interest or buy the product on the very next page. This can be done by having a call to action button that takes them through to the purchase platform or a contact form on the page itself.
Getting the Right Support Could Prove Crucial
Any of the CMSs we’ve discussed today are great choices, but it is important to get your website right early on as it is the cornerstone of your online presence. Getting the right support to help your website development is crucial to ensure that you are adhering to best practice whilst making sure you have a strategy to make your website a success. If you’re looking for guidance or someone to show you the right path to take, we’re here to help.
Get in touch by filling out the form below or learn more about our digital marketing services.
[hubspot portal="9010059" id="3aa936ed-a261-467a-97f9-906dd9b8fee1" type="form"]
