Creating a website has become straightforward due to the popularity of website builders like Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, and Shopify. These tools are user-friendly and offer a high degree of customization. However, is visually building a website truly the best approach? In this discussion, I will outline some drawbacks of using these tools and services.
Table of Contents
- Website performance problems
- Not the best option for SEO
- Dependency and Closed-ecosystem
- Website migration problems
- Increased cost of ownership
Website performance problems
Visual website builders often generate excessive code for your website. By simply dragging and dropping pre-made code snippets, you may increase your website’s load time and diminish overall performance.
Not the best option for SEO
Since you can only see the front-end (visual) part of the website, it’s challenging to implement SEO (Search Engine Optimization) effectively. Your optimization efforts will largely depend on the quality of your website’s content. If the content is strong, your website may perform well. However, performance has become increasingly important for SEO. Visual web builders can decrease your website’s performance, which may negatively impact your SEO results.
Dependency and Closed-ecosystem
Your website will rely on a web builder tool, which can lead to various issues. If the web builder makes significant changes to its system, it could cause problems for your website. Additionally, these web builder tools or services may be discontinued. Therefore, it’s not advisable to depend on another ecosystem for your website, especially if you are managing a business site.
Website migration problems
Migrating your website to a different service, host, or server can be challenging or even impossible. In many cases, you risk losing the data stored on your website during this process. Once you use a web builder tool, you become dependent on it; switching providers may require you to start your website from scratch.
Increased cost of ownership
The traditional approach to creating a website offers significantly greater control and ownership. In this method, you hire a web designer or developer to build your site, which typically involves a higher initial cost compared to using website builders. However, in the long run, this traditional method often proves to be more cost-effective. Additionally, maintenance fees for visually-based website builders can be the same or even higher than those for custom-built websites.
Disclaimer: This article does not review any website builders or represent them negatively. Copyright and trademark for the mentioned brands belong to their respective owners.