Website builders are becoming popular among many clients. Is a website builder right for your business? You may be seeing the low price tags and low monthly fees associated with website builders. In this article we will go over the advantages and disadvantages of website builders.

Some advantages of website builders are as follows.

    * you can make changes at any time with usually no extra costs.
    * Plenty of free tools such as blogs, photo galleries, shopping carts and guest books.
    * Low price tag and monthly fee

Now some disadvantages of using a website builder.

    * Most website builders claim you do not need to be computer literate or web savvy. This is a true misconception. If you have no idea how a website works then you most likely have no idea how a website should generate leads.
    * Making a website user friendly and not have that self made look to it is very difficult when using website builders.
    * Making changes is easy but so is using a Content Management System with a custom design.
    * Should you be building and managing the website? As a business owner leverage is key. By hiring a professional web design company to create your site and print materials you will save time and frustration. (Most likely your site will look more professional and be able to compete with larger scale businesses)
    * Higher monthly costs. You are paying a monthly fee to use the website builder. By having a design firm setup a custom website with CMS you can make changes anytime and have much more flexibility.
    * No layout flexibility and more self made look
    * If you need additional functionality and its not in the website builder system then it cannot be done.
    * If ecommerce is supplied most likely you can only use certain merchants and is not a full functional shopping cart like customized carts.
    * Some free website builders will put ads, logos and links on your site making it look very unprofessional.
    * You don’t own the design of your website.
    * You cannot move your website to other hosting companies to save money.

Bottom line is using website builders is great for small projects or someone who is on a tight budget. Will you be successful using a website builder? Most likely not. You still need to consider SEO, marketing, navigation structuring, user friendly designs, load time, professional look, updating content, someone having the same design as you, looking cheap etc etc. I can go on for a long time giving you reasons why not to use a website builder. If you are a serious business owner and looking to generate serious buyers or serious leads you should have a professional custom designed site.