5 Reasons Why You Should Never Use a Free Website Builder like Wix
Having a strong online presence is crucial for businesses, organisations, and individuals
Creating a website is often the first step in establishing that presence. While free website builders like Wix, Weebly and Squarespace may seem like a convenient and budget-friendly option, here are 5 reasons why you should think twice before using them for your website needs.
Limited Customisation and Design Options:
Free website builders offer limited design templates and customisation options. While these templates might be visually appealing, they lack the uniqueness and branding that a professionally designed website can provide. With free builders, you’ll be restricted to the pre-designed templates, limiting your ability to create a truly distinctive online presence. This can make your website look generic and fail to stand out in a crowded digital landscape.
Limited Control and Ownership:
When you use a free website builder, you often sacrifice control and ownership of your website. Many free builders impose their branding, such as a “Powered by Wix” or a similar logo on your site, which can detract from your credibility and professionalism.
To eliminate this branding, utilise a custom domain name, and unleash the full potential of these platforms, you will need to invest in a premium plan, whilst it may seem inexpensive it’s still considerably more than what you would pay for a typical shared hosting plan with a reputable provider.
Moreover, the terms of service may allow the website builder to access and use your content, leaving you with limited control over your intellectual property.
When you build a website using Wix, you won’t have ownership of your website, including its design. You essentially become one of numerous subscribers to the platform, with a revocable license granted to you.
In fact, upon signing up for these services, you are required to agree to these terms and conditions. In the event of any of these companies facing bankruptcy, discontinuing its platform, or removing specific templates, features, or functionalities, you’ll find yourself with no alternative but to adapt to their decisions.
Alternatively, you may be left in a precarious situation with no viable alternatives. For a business, it is unwise to be excessively reliant on an external company over which you have no control.
According to the Wix Help Center:
Your Wix site and all of its content is hosted exclusively on Wix’s servers, and cannot be exported elsewhere.
Specifically, it is not possible to export or embed files, pages or sites, created using the Wix Editor or ADI to another external destination or host.
If you embed a site into an external location, Wix is no longer in control of the way that your site appears or functions, and therefore, cannot provide support. In addition, Google Analytics and search engine crawlers are not able to work properly with an embedded site.
This means that you’ll either need to re-build your entire website from scratch or pay to have your website rebuilt.
Poor SEO and Performance:
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is vital for increasing your website’s visibility on search engines like Google. Free website builders often have limitations when it comes to optimising your site for search engines. They might generate long, complex URLs, lack adequate SEO tools, and have slow-loading sites due to overcrowded servers. These issues can negatively impact your website’s search engine ranking and overall performance.
Limited Scalability and Features:
As your website grows and evolves, you may find that free website builders fall short in terms of scalability and features. They typically lack advanced functionality, e-commerce capabilities, and essential tools that can help your website expand and adapt to changing needs. This can lead to a frustrating and costly transition to a more robust platform in the future.
Unreliable Customer Support:
Free website builders typically offer minimal or no customer support, and when they do, it’s often limited to email or chat support. This can be frustrating when you encounter technical issues or need assistance with your website. In contrast, paid website hosting services often provide 24/7 customer support and troubleshooting, ensuring you have access to help when you need it.
While free website builders like Wix might seem like an attractive option for creating a website, they come with significant drawbacks that can hinder your online success. Limited customisation, branding constraints, SEO challenges, scalability issues, and unreliable customer support can all negatively impact your website and, by extension, your business or personal brand.
If you’re serious about establishing a strong online presence, consider investing in our done-for-you service which offers professional site hosting and customised website design to create a website that truly represents your goals and aspirations.