Every day it seems I see another commercial for a free or cheap do-it-yourself website. While I understand why small business owners would go this route, I often find the ads a bit misleading. In this post, I’d like to discuss the pros and cons of the free DIY website services.
Pros of free website services
The most obvious pro is the price tag. There is no getting around the fact that websites cost money and hiring a professional team to make it costs money. The DIY website service’s main marketing point is the price tag, or lack there of. It costs nothing but your time and effort.
Another tick in the pro column would come from your effort. You might learn a few things about websites as well as how to edit your own! Adding a new skill is never a bad thing, nor is being able to edit your own website.
For many small business owners, it can be difficult to acquire the budget they need for their website, so the two above pros are all they need to hear. But there are a few other things you should know before you dive on in.
The cons of free website services
It requires nothing but your time and effort, and a lot of it. If you are the type of person who likes learning new things and is somewhat tech savy, you have a fighting chance of getting a website together. While they advertise as being “just a few clicks” that is generally far from the truth. Expect there to be a steep learning curve and to put a lot of your own personal time into it. As a small business owner, your time is valuable and often limited. Keep in mind that you will need to invest a large chunk of that time into learning and building the website service.
Secondly, you are often limited on what you can do. Just a week ago, I had a meeting with a client using a free service who for whatever reason could not get a particular image to move to the center of the page. Couldn’t do it. You are often limited to a set of pre made templates and cannot stray from those. Along the same lines, your options for Search engine optimization are limited as well. There are going to be things, coding wise, you just can’t do. If you are the type that “wants it how you want it” this could be a frustrating process.
I’m sure all of you understand the basic idea of you get what you pay for. This proves true in this case. To sum it up, plan on a lot of time and some frustration if you choose this route. For some, it may be the only route, which is fine as well. Having a web presence is usually better than no presence at all.
