How to Choose the Best Website Builder?
July 27, 2020The global web is welcoming millions of users every day, and websites are the best forms of online representation. Millions of freelancers, entrepreneurs, and small business owners look towards website builders to make their dream websites.
Website builder software creates functional and professional-looking websites within minutes via a simple drag-and-drop editor. When deciding on a website builder, it’s paramount to know that you are offered great value along with feature-rich websites.
How to choose the best website builder when there are a plethora of options available in the market today. Get ready to ace the skill of finding the best website builders and SaaS online software.
What Features Does A Good Website Builder Offer?
Source: w3schools.com
1. Responsive Templates
It doesn’t matter that template you choose for your business, blog or digital store website; the templates will run across all the devices. Some WYSIWYG page editors give you the liberty to edit mobile site versions within the editor.
2. Quick Website Design
Most website builder comparisons have yielded that you can build a fully-featured website within minutes with zero coding skills. Sign-in, choose a plan, pick a template and publish. That’s it.
3. Intuitive Editing
You can add a necessary element anywhere that you want with the help of the simple drag-and-drop editor. Uploading pictures, adding content blocks, and posting videos on the website has never been easier.
4. All-In-One Solutions
Website builders offer multiple solutions like template features, domain, and hosting. This eliminates the need for performing all these functionalities manually.
5. Flexibility
Modern website builders are made to be integrated with third-party services, custom app markets and add-ons. This offers better flexibility for designing.
What Should You Consider?
1. Determining Your Budget
Start by carving a spending budget because you can’t let website designing burn a hole in your pocket. Consider additional and recurring costs that you’ll have to bear while designing a website. Account for domain registration and hosting that make up most of the cost of a website builder.
2. Your Needs and Priorities
The following questions can help you figure out what you need your website to be and do:
- What level of experience do you have in website designing?
- Do you need an online store along with the website?
- Do you need the website for long-term or a short-term project?
- How particular are you about getting things just right?
- What type of media would you upload?
3. The Number of Themes You Need
You choose a theme and a template, then you customize them to give your website a unique feel. If your customization options are too limited, it makes no sense to invest money in that website builder. Keep an eye on the number of themes and templates that the builder offers as it offers a good starting point for your website.
4. Ease of Use
Even though most website builders don’t require any coding or programming language, they can be an equally tough nut to crack. Look for an intuitive drag-and-drop editor that makes changes in real-time as it makes each change easy to complete. Don’t fret from going online to read the reviews and research about a website builder’s ease of use.
5. SEO Features
Creating a website is just the beginning, but for people to find your website you need to implement SEO wizardry. The SEO features in website builders make your website discoverable and simplify the on-site optimization. SEO and site-optimization make your website appear among the top results on the search page. It’s pivotal for your website.
6. Customer Support & Service
If a company has a good reputation among its customers, you have the confidence that you will have help in case you get stuck. A good company offers you 24/7 global support to make sure that you have help when you get a comatose while designing.
How To Choose A Killer Website Builder For Your Business?
1. Create A Website Plan
A website plan will clearly show the primary function, goals and objectives of your website. This helps you compare various website builders and then choose the one that’s most suitable for your business. Ask yourself:
- How much traffic should your website support if it grows, and can your website builder support it?
- How advanced are the templates, fonts, design offerings and third-party integrations?
- How many pages are apt for your website?
- Who are your core and targeted audience?
When selecting a website builder, do keep in mind these recommended set of criteria that you should examine:
- Customization
- Pricing
- Customer Service
- Third-Party Integrations
2. Check On Pricing and Plans Offered
An affordable website builder isn’t necessarily everything, but it’s very crucial to choose a pocket-friendly option. Some website builders charge the money in one-go and some offer monthly and annual payment options. You should consider the option for flexible payments.
Also, look for companies that provide free trials where you can test the services before paying any money. It’s highly recommended to go through the company’s refund policy and make sure that there is a refund period. Most companies offer a minimum of 30 days money-back guarantee, which can be extended in some cases up to 90 days.
3. High Level Of Customization
The biggest USP of a website-builder is its high level of customization which gives you the full control of website designing. The better the drag-and-drop functionality, the easier it is to edit and manage the common elements for your website.
Does the website builder allow you to add additional images, text, fonts or colours? Can you change the template without losing any of your content? Can you export the content from an existing website to a new one? If yes, you’ve got yourself the perfect website builder.
4. Third-Party Integrations
Third-party integrations enhance your website’s design and engross the site visitors. Integrations like Spotify, YouTube, Amazon, and other dozens of free and paid third-party integrations add fresh life to your website. Here are a few examples:
- Music and video apps like SoundCloud, YouTube, and Spotify.
- Social media share buttons for Google+, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
- Website performance analytics through Google Analytics.
5. Customer Support Offerings
Ideally, you should prefer a company that gives you access to 24/7 online, email, or phone support. There are possibly more channels that the company uses to provide support, watch out for them.
If there is a text or video section dedicated to FAQs, Q&As, there is a wealth of knowledge that can help you fix your next big problem. While most website builders allow you to generate tickets for raising technical issues, some go above and beyond by providing chatbots to provide you 24/7 support.
What next?
If you follow the guide above, you will surely find a reliable website builder. We recommend that you buy a builder that offers both domains and hosting plan as they are more budget-friendly. A powerful website builder should at least have the following basic features:
- Affordability
- Ease of use
- eCommerce option
- Support for various content formats
- Responsive themes
- SEO features
- A wealth of helpful resources and tutorials
With the above features in mind, you will get a professional and functional website up and running in no time.