Your website is an incredibly valuable and important asset for your business. In essence, it acts as a virtual storefront to represent your brand online and attract potential leads and customers. They’ll start to learn more about you and keep coming back, which will generate conversions and profit for your business.

Because your website is the primary hub of your online presence, it’s important to know how to create it well. With a multitude of options out there, it can be difficult to know where to start. Let’s take a closer look at the difference between a WordPress website and the various website builder options available.

Drag-and-Drop Website Builders

It’s likely you’ve heard of some of these website builders, such as Squarespace or Wix. At first glance, these types of drag-and-drop builders for a website may seem like an appealing option. They’re easy to use, and they can be a quicker and cheaper alternative to create a website yourself.

However, there’s a lot to consider than just a polished front-end appearance and a smaller price tag.

Pros

Drag-and-drop builders focus on ease of use and affordability, including:

• No coding knowledge required
• An easy drag-and-drop design process
• Convenient templates that look polished and professional
• Included domain registration and web hosting
• Flexible monthly or annual payment options and multiple subscription tiers

Cons

Website builders can seem like a great option, especially for small businesses or beginners. However, many of the drawbacks lie in the backend of your website, or its future potential:

• You’re limited to using only the website builder’s features and options
• You can’t access the full code
• Your website will likely be slowed down by bulky auto-generated code
• You will have limited opportunity to scale your website and its functionality along with your business’s growth

The benefits of a website builder’s simplicity are generally outweighed by its heavy impact and limitations on your business’s future growth. It can also cause negative effects that will impact the backend of your site. Such as slow page loading speed, which can both deteriorate the user experience and your site’s SEO rankings.

It’s important to remember that even though you can make a website look professional with one of these builders, using one can often create a lot of unforeseen problems.

WordPress

WordPress is one of the most widely used content management systems, and powers over 40% of all websites online. Although there’s more to learn when it comes to WordPress, it’s no surprise why it’s such a popular choice.

Pros

The biggest benefit to creating a WordPress site is the sheer amount of control and unlimited options available to tailor your website to your exact needs.

• Complete control and ownership of your website
• Flexibility to create more dynamic websites or special functions like ecommerce stores or membership features
• Expansive options for third-party plugins and themes for endless design and website features
• Themes and plugins are created by web developers who take both your website’s appearance and backend functionality into account

Cons

The downsides to WordPress are often budget limitations for businesses that are just starting out, or the time and skill necessary to get your site up and running, including:

• A steeper learning curve, or the need to hire a web designer or developer to either create or manage your website
• Web hosting and domain registration have to be attained separately, although most web hosting services make it simple to connect with WordPress
• Can potentially cost more if you need to hire a web developer

Although a WordPress website might take a little more time, effort, and skill to create, the benefits will far outweigh the challenges in the future for your business. You’ll be able to achieve a completely customisable, versatile, and scalable website that encompasses all the features your business needs.

Let Us Help

Here at Oracle Tree, we have expertise in designing and developing strategic websites, and can help you create the website of your dreams!

If you need more information or want to discuss your options for creating the perfect website for your business, contact us today, and we can help you get started!

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