The 4 Most Common Ways Businesses Build a Website

A small business owner direct-messaged me on Reddit a few days ago, asking, 'What is the best way to go about building a basic website?'

There are a lot of options for building websites these days, so that’s a great question. It also could have a bunch of different answers, because it’s situational.

The 4 most common ways to build a website are

1. Use a managed website builder (just login and get started platforms)
2. Host your own Content Management System (something like WordPress on a server)
3. Get technical (modifying the code in a template)
4. Pay a professional

We're going to go over each of these, looking at the pros and cons of each one, and advice to help you with each path.

Use A Managed Website Builder

If you're reading this blog post, you've probably seen ads for these builders on YouTube. Pay $16 to $52 per month and you can do all the work yourself.

We're talking about Squarespace, Weebly, Wix, Webflow, Shopify, etc.

Pros

• User-Friendly Interface: These platforms try to make simple to use interfaces to makes it accessible for those without web design experience, allowing business owners to create and manage their own websites without learning the technical details.
• Hosting Included: Oftentimes, the hosting is built in, simplifying the process by eliminating the need to learn about DNS, servers, deployments, or file transfer protocols.
• No deposit required: Various pricing plans that can be more affordable to get started compared to hiring a professional web designer or developer.

Cons

• Learning Curve: Don't underestimate how long it take to learn the skills needed to build your website. The time spent learning to use a builder might be better utilized in focusing on core business operations. A professional can set up the website more efficiently, ensuring a higher-quality outcome.
• Limited Solutions: A universal tool won't be able to do everything well. You may have to get extra creative in how you hack something together. When it's done, it may be subpar.
• Maintenance: another chore to add to your list of things to do.
• Locked In: These platforms provide no easy way to migrate your website. If you decide to move your website to a new host, platform, or server, you will have to completely rebuild it. Back to square one.

Advice

Depending on your situation, a website builder may be a perfect fit for you. If that's the case, here's some cautionary advice.

You are going to run into website builders offered by hosting providers. These are terrible. They create really slow websites. They use deceptive pricing, and you will be locked in with a slow host.

Avoid website builders offered by companies like GoDaddy, HostGator, etc. Here’s why.

These companies are a web hosting company first. They’ve made their millions selling what’s called “Shared Hosting.” What that means is that they use one server to host a bunch of different websites. It’s the cheapest way for them to host customers' websites. It’s also the slowest because everybody’s website is pulling from the same server’s resources.

Because of the way they choose to host, they are able to claim to be extremely affordable. They hook people in with deals like $2/month (small print: renews at regular rate). Then they renew at the regular rate because, once you have the website taken care of, you probably won’t want to deal with moving it somewhere else.

But the problem for them is that you still can. If they upset you enough with their bad tech support, speeds, or pricing, you can just grab your code and plop it on some other host.

When they saw companies like Squarespace doing well, many of these companies built a tool that does the same thing. But, it does it with much less quality (I’ve recently replaced one built with BlueHost's website builder, and the code it spit out was horrendous). Boom! They're competing, and they’ve removed that emergency exit.

You won’t be able to just grab your website and move it. You’re going to have to completely rebuild it somewhere else.

And again, sure, you can say the same thing about Squarespace. You can’t just move a Squarespace site over to Wix; you’ll have to rebuild it. But these other tools that aren’t owned by hosting companies haven’t been dishonest with their pricing.

Myself and most other people I know have had many shady, bad experiences with shared-hosting companies.

If you want to use a website builder, use a service dedicated to building websites.

Last note: These builders seem affordable at first, but in the long term, the monthly costs can end up being more than hiring a professional might have been.

Host your own Content Management System

If this path (or the next one) interest you, be aware that they both have a lot of technical pitfalls to avoid, and it will take a lot of time to build a nice website.

A Content Management System (CMS) will allow you to update your content without navigating through code files. The content is stored in a database, and you login with a username and password to update it through a user interface.

There are a lot of Content Management Systems out there.

• WordPress
• Joomla
• Drupal
• CraftCMS
• Statamic

The most popular Content Management System (CMS) used on the web is WordPress.

Pros

• Plenty of Resources: Most of these platforms have a lot of templates to choose from, and plugin stores. This can give you a great starting point, and tools to help you with performance, search engine optimization, and more.
• A Nice Content Editing Experience: These platforms aim to make content editing simple and enjoyable.
• No deposit required: Since you'll be building the website yourself.

Cons

• Learning Curve: The learning curve will be more steep than using a website builder platform. You may have to dive into some technical details with initial setup.
• Security and Maintenance: Vulnerabilities are found for popular systems and plugins often. You'll need to keep everything up to date yourself.
• Depending on Others: If you use a plugin, it may later be abandoned. Which will be a headache to replace if a security vulnerability is found in it.
• Performance Issues: Universal Templates are often slow. This is from code bloat. You simply can't have a fast template that looks to please every creator. Add too many plugins on top of that, and Google won't be impressed.
• Hosting: The systems listed above are all written in PHP. You'll need a server configured for the system, and database hosting.

Advice

If you are trying to save money with a CMS like WordPress, here's some cautionary advice.

The WordPress ecosystem is filled to the brim with subscription services. Pay a yearly price for you template. Pay a yearly price for SEO plugin. Pay a yearly price for the drag and drop builder. Pay a monthly price for image optimization.

People that go this route will sometimes end up spending far more in the long run than they would have if they hired a professional.

Think about the time you're willing to spend finding solutions, how much you're willing to spend when you've exhausted that time. You may want to research pricing of plugins, services, and templates before you decide to go this route.

Get Technical with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

If you are comfortable digging into some code, then you can purchase a web template for cheap and modify the files yourself.

There are a lot of reputable stores that sell these templates.

• Theme Forest
• Template Monster
• Pixelarity

Pros

• Simple to Host: These types of websites are the simplest to work with from a technical perspective. No server-side logic. No databases. Just simple information. Upload your files and you're good to go!
• Cost-Effective: HTML5 templates are often more affordable than hiring a web designer or developer.
• Find your Niche: Often times you can find a template to fit your company niche. This will help save you a lot of time.

Cons

• No Server Side Logic: You will be limited with how much your website can do. Without a backend programming language (like PHP, Python, Java, etc), you will be creating a website that is probably just informational.
• Template Bloat: Templates often come with a lot of unnecessary code, which can slow down your website.
• Total Control: While templates can be customized, your ability to make changes is limited by your knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. If you are already skilled in these languages then move this into the pros section.
• Learning Curve: Even with a template, there’s a learning curve associated with setting up and maintaining your website. You may need to learn some basic HTML and CSS to make minor adjustments.

Advice

My Warning if you take this path. Universal templates often try to solve problems for each customer.

This causes excessive code file sizes. Because poor performance leads to people hitting the back button, Google will rank your website lower.

You don't need to build a plumbing website, roofing contractor website, clothing shop, restaurant, and hotel website.

You are building a website for a specific industry. So search for that.

Last note: Use this HTML validator to check your work after making changes. If you mismatch html tags or forget to close them, it can cause big issues with your site.

Pay A Professional

There's a lot to building a DIY website. These are some of the tasks you'll have to tackle.

• Writing content
• Learning about SEO
• Dealing with DNS
• Dealing with hosting
• Performing maintenance
• Writing code
• etc.

Professionals are already efficient at all of these things. That expertise is valuable.

If the time you spend focusing on your business will create revenue that offsets the cost of hiring a professional, then this your best strategy.

Pros

• Expertise and Experience: Agencies bring a wealth of experience and expertise in design, development, and user experience. They stay updated with the latest trends and technologies.
• Professional Quality: Higher quality designs and website performance lead to higher search engine rankings.
• Efficiency: Faster turnaround times. Agencies develop processes to maximize productivity for everyone.
• Support and Maintenance: Ongoing support and maintenance services ensure your website stays up-to-date and secure. Agencies can handle updates, bug fixes, and improvements.

Cons

• Cost: Hiring an agency can be expensive, especially for small businesses or startups with limited budgets.
• Dependence: Without having the knowledge from building it yourself, you'll be dependent on the agency for updates and changes.
• Timeline: Project timelines can sometimes extend beyond initial estimates, delaying your website launch.

Advice

Not all agencies are equal. There will always be tradeoffs between Quality, Time, and Budget.

Here's a diagram that showcases the pros and cons based on your budget and expectations.

Finally, don't be afraid to reach out to agencies. They should be able to talk to you about your project free of charge. This is a great way to see if the two of you will make a good fit for your project.

To Conclude

There is no simple best answer. The best choice hinges on your budget, time, technical ability, and long-term goals for your website. Evaluate these factors carefully to decide which path aligns best with your business needs and capabilities. Whether you DIY or hire a professional web designer, a well-designed website is a valuable asset for your business.

I hope you learned something valuable that can help you with your business goals! See you guys in the next article.