Websites are a necessity in today’s business world, but you don’t have the skills to design the site, create the content, and do the SEO yourself. So you search for a reliable company who can do all that for you. While searching for your ideal solution, you come across a company that has done hundreds of sites, and with all your company details and a short intro paragraph they can create a site for your business, too. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? Their prices are great, too! Often they are offered by industry… for example, Realtors, Vets, Dentists, Doctors, Therapists, Chiropractors, etc.
So, what does that great Fast-and-Easy template web site price include?
Control: Fast-and-Easy gives you some control. You can choose from a large selection of templates, styles, and colors. They even have provide some pre-written text selections that you can choose to fill out your site. You can’t go off the menu, but there are lots of choices.
Customization: We have all read or heard that uniqueness is important to search engines and customers. With template sites, you choose the details, and even the pre-written content for your site, so Fast-and-Easy assures you that makes your site “custom” and unique. In actuality, there may be hundreds of sites out there that have the same content, and a very similar look and feel.
Searchability: You need a website so customers can find you on the internet. It’s just that simple. Fast-and-Easy offers a menu of choices including text, but do they tell you that ready-made content will NOT be indexed by the search engines? That’s right, search engines like Google are looking for truly unique content that identifies your site as one-of-a-kind. Search engines can even analyze the content so that customers looking for a company like yours can find YOU. That choice of pre-written content that can be found on hundreds of non-competing sites tells Google to ignore your site, because it’s too similar to hundreds of others.
SEO: Fast-and-Easy will tell you your site has been optimized from the start. They’ve built in SEO into their templates, so it’s true. Because of the problems associated with having similar content, even to unrelated sites, you may discover that you need additional, expensive SEO.
What other factors do you need to know about websites before choosing?
So, the Fast-and-Easy template sites are a better price up front, although you may need very expensive work to update or customize your site. It really is fast and easy, and although you may be a little uneasy about the SEO, it’s a website. You’re still on a tight budget and wondering if you can at least get started with a template site and make improvements or even switch to a truly customized site later. Here’s some topics you may want to bring up or research:
Agility: Even if your site is well optimized to begin with, what about when the search engines update what they look for? Updating with industry changes isn’t included in the Fast-and-Easy base price. The additional SEO is pricey or impossible, because it really IS “custom” work. What if a marketing study shows you need a spiffy new button or email capture? Or how about adding a clickable phone number when all your competitors have them? Adding features that aren’t on the menu may take months, or be very expensive. Fast-and-Easy sites aren’t always very upgradeable or adaptable.
Portability: How possible is it to take the content you and your team wrote for your site and move it to a new custom-built site? Fast-and-Easy sites can’t be moved, and because their “original” content belongs to them, you can’t use it elsewhere. Many templates don’t offer an easy solution for you to move just your content, either. After all, that wouldn’t be good for their business model! The unique content you’ve created for your template site is only as portable as your copy-and-paste skills. Template sites are more like renting than owning. Just like an apartment, no matter how much you like the living room you customized, you can only take the furniture with you when you move out, the apartment itself stays behind.
Scalability: Will my website grow with my business? As your business grows, your website will need to grow, too. Many template sites either don’t offer the possibility of changes in the design. When your business model shifts, you need to be able to add content, add and delete features, and have options for things like an online store with a shopping cart feature. You may not need those things now, but a website that can grow with your business will allow for those possibilities. Many of the template sites can’t accommodate those possibilities, even for an additional price.
Value: Is Fast-and-Easy the best value over the long term? Will your template site grow with you? Will Fast-and-Easy make the changes you need over time when you need them? Will they proactively contact you with state-of-the-art changes in marketing and SEO that will give you the opportunity to enhance your site and broaden your marketing reach?
That last set of questions are perhaps the most important ones. If you’re overwhelmed or confused by the choices in creating your first website, or in upgrading to a better website, we can help. We offer a website solution tailored to your needs, circumstances, and budget, that includes:
- Control: You make the choices, and we advise and inform
- Original design
- Original content
- Search Engine Optimization that allows search engines to index your site and point customers your way, right from the start
- Agile design that can be updated or changed when you are ready
- Portable site that belongs to you, and you alone
- Scalable as you grow and change your business
- Value added in our expertise and personal customer service
Contact us today to find out what website solutions we can build for you!
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