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These days, you don’t need a complex set of skills to design a website, you just need a good website builder. Know the things to consider while choosing a good website builder.
You probably know the importance of having a credible website, but building one isn’t easy. Without any design or coding skills, you won’t know where to start. Fortunately, with today’s advancement in technology, you don’t need a specific set of skills in website designing. The only thing you need is a website builder.
Selecting A Website Builder
Website builders are software that makes customizing and creating a site easy for anyone to do. You don’t even need coding knowledge or skills. Many website builders have an intuitive drag-and-drop interface so you can build your new website seamlessly. If you want to understand website builders better, learn more here.
However, you need to keep in mind that not all website builders are the same. When choosing one, take note of the following aspects:
1. Price
One of the things you should take into consideration is the amount of money you’re willing to spend. When looking for a website builder, take into account things like domain registration and hosting.
It would cost around USD$9 to USD$14.99 a year to buy a new domain name. But the prices vary depending on the domain registrar and extension you choose. Web hosting has different features and prices, ranging from USD$3 to USD$7 monthly.
You also need to invest in things like images and copy for your website. Depending on your budget, choose the most reasonably-priced website builder. If your budget is limited, you can save money by looking for bundle plans tailored for your unique needs. Take advantage of the free plans, trial accounts, or money-back guarantees to check the website builder before committing to it.
2. Ease Of Use
A good website builder must make the process simple and hassle-free. Try to select the one that’s able to help shape your website’s overall look and feel. Moreover, a drag-and-drop feature can make everything easy for you, especially when moving and adding elements. This feature may also come in handy to place any media file you want on your website without the need to code.
Completely control every aspect of your website by choosing a website builder that can make the creation of any type of website possible. For instance, choose a service than can build a membership website, community forums, an eCommerce store, a social network, a landing page, a basic website, and more.
3. Features
All online website builders widely differ in the features and functionalities they offer. Some have excellent-looking and simple templates but with minimal features. For example, limited website builders would provide their users basic social media buttons.
On the other hand, more extensive website builders can offer you a full plugin shop where you can add more complicated elements, such as maps, forms, boxes, subscriptions, pop-ups, and so on. In some cases, you may even place your code if you want something specific. Thus, it’s essential to consider the different features you need.
Check out the following website builder features you might want to consider:
- Multilingual Capabilities: Choose a website builder that can be fully translated into different languages, especially if you’re trying to reach a multilingual audience.
- SEO Tools: A good website builder also has powerful SEO tools that search engines, like Google, love. This is to ensure that your website will have the highest search engine rankings.
- Additional Features: You might want a website builder that can offer extra features and functionality, such as Google Analytics, shopping cart, photo gallery, logo maker, live chat, AI tools, and CSS customization.
4. Support
Not all website builders will provide the same customer support. Some would provide users e-mail support only, and you need to fill in a form and wait for a response. On the other hand, others will have around-the-clock phone and chat support, which can be good if you encounter technical difficulties along the way.
If possible, don’t choose a website builder that doesn’t offer any kind of technical assistance. Often, they offer an online knowledge base or forums users can use, which might not be helpful all the time. If you want a support team that’s always available and provides quick answers to your concerns, check the support functionality of your preferred website builder.
5. Customization Options
Website design templates are good. However, you need to ensure you can transform any template into something great and exceptional. A good website builder can display many options for trials. You could add new pages or switch colors that would suit your website better. Once you’re satisfied with trying out a template, you can lock that choice down.
To exist and compete within a visually diverse online environment, remember that you don’t need to make a common-looking or basic site. Rather, you should create something that would represent your business. It’s crucial to choose a website builder that offers countless customization options. Make your website unique, interesting, relevant, and functional by choosing a website builder that has stable and interesting plugins and templates.
6. Third-Party Integration Capability
If you plan to launch an online store, you’ll require extra services which may include tax calculation, payment gateways, promotion tools, shopping cart functionalities, and so on. Finding a website builder that’s compatible with such major services is always worth it.
If a website builder has a third-party integration capability, it’ll be much easier for you to integrate Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and some e-mail marketing tools. With third-party integration, you can strategize your marketing campaigns better. No need to use or purchase separate tools to attain your sales and marketing goals. In this way, you can concentrate on the essential things you need to establish a good online presence and fully benefit your business.
7. Trial Version
Most website builders often provide a free trial version to their users. In some website builders, you may sign up for a feature-limited package or time-limited trial, which enables you to test all of that specific builder’s features and capabilities.
It’s best for those who want to give the platform a try before availing of any subscription plans. Before subscribing for several months or a year, know what works best for your needs using a free trial version.
Here are the important things you should check out in a trial version:
- User interface intuitiveness
- User-friendly customization or editing tools
- Themes and layouts
- Applicable features you’ll need
- Overall performance
8. Social Share Functionality
As soon as your website is up, the next thing you should do is promote it. To do that effectively, check if a website builder offers good social sharing functionality. It’ll help you push out new content to your social media networks to let your followers know about it. You could also make it easy for your visitors to share your web pages to their respective social networks with just a single click.
Take a look at the other benefits of choosing a website builder with social sharing functionality:
- Increase Customer Reach: Expand your audience reach via social media by taking advantage of highly beneficial features of specific platforms. Some may have analytics tools that could help measure the effectiveness of social media advertising by determining what actions people do on your website. Such tools ensure that your ads will be displayed to the right target audience.
- Increase Brand Awareness: When more social media users see your brand on any popular social media network, you’ll have greater brand exposure. It’s tantamount to having an effective marketing strategy.
- Improve Engagement: Social media is very entertaining. It also serves as a great communication tool between website owners and their intended audience. So, use this platform to boost customer engagement by holding contests (e.g., trivia, dance challenges), posting interesting content, making your videos go viral, and responding to customer queries and concerns.
9. Terms And Payments
Determine the payment terms accepted by your preferred website builders before you spend time creating an account and start choosing a template for your website.
Another thing you should take into consideration is the refund policy. In some cases, you could purchase subscription-based packages, so refunding isn’t possible unless you request a refund quickly after purchase or give proof that there have been some mistakes.
Aside from a refund policy, a money-back guarantee is also essential to consider. This enables you to get your money back within a particular time if the product or service has defects.
10. Responsive Options
Most people browse online through their mobile devices these days. For your website to function well on any platform, it should be mobile-friendly. One way to do it is by building a responsive website. Pick a website builder that’s responsive for this particularity and has unique website templates. As a rule of thumb, the website should have the capability to respond and meet user preferences as well.
Conclusion
In today’s digital world, establishing a robust online presence is crucial for any business to thrive and survive. The more visitors you get, the more you’ll gain paying and loyal customers in the long run. However, this is only possible if your website is well-designed and highly responsive by choosing the right features and terms of a website builder.
Make sure to keep these considerations in mind as they can make a huge difference in choosing the ideal website builder for your needs.
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