Before you start building a new website in 2024, you need to decide what platform it will be built on. The platform will determine what tools and connections will be available to you and how easy it will be to update your site.
When evaluating website platforms, consider the following:
- Characteristics
- Ease of use
- Available templates (though it’s best to work with a developer to create a custom template to ensure page speed, usability, and SEO results)
- Customer support
- Pricing
Review these factors that may influence your decision on choosing the best website platform for your business.
Key Considerations for Choosing a Website Platform
When it comes to website platforms, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Every business has unique needs and serves a specific audience. By following these steps, you can ensure that your website platform decision is future-proofed so that it grows with your business and serves your customers effectively.
1. WEBSITE USAGE ANALYSIS
Describe everything you need your website for. It is needed to demonstrate your products or services. But evaluate whether you also need it to achieve other goals.
- Lead Capture
- Client education
- Customer service
- Selling products/services
- Blogging
- Online chat
- Marketing automation
Existing digital tools you want to integrate
Depending on how you’ll be using your site, different types of sites will best suit your needs. Understanding your unique needs is the first step to choosing the right platform.
2. TECHNICAL RESOURCES
Assess your team’s technical skills. How tech savvy are they and how capable are they of managing a more complex, technologically advanced website? If you don’t have much technical knowledge on your team, your best bet is to look for a simple plug-and-play option or hire a team of technical experts to help you with the site.
Launching a website is just one small aspect of maintaining your online presence. While you’ll need some technical knowledge to get started, you’ll also want to have resources in case security issues arise or new technologies need to be added to the site.
Using a website to its full potential will help you get the most out of your investment, which means having the right technology to achieve your goals based on the resources you have.
3. BUDGET
Depending on what stage your business is at, your budget may vary. For example, small businesses that are not yet generating revenue may not invest much in their initial website. This could be as simple as making something usable to start taking orders or raising awareness of what you have to offer.
If your budget is severely limited, you’re likely not yet ready to work with a developer to create a custom site and experience for your clients. Look for affordable hosting and management from a reliable partner.
Just know that as your business grows, you will need to adapt and expand your online presence. This means you’ll need a professional website design that matches your branding, integration with marketing automation tools to ensure better lead capture and engagement, and updated security to protect your business and your customers.
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4. ABILITY TO CUSTOMIZE THE SITE TO SUIT YOUR BRAND
Some website building platforms are severely limited in customization options. This means your site will always look a little formulaic, and you won’t have control over important factors like how your cart is filled. You need to be confident that you can create the perfect online experience based on what you know about your customers and their needs.
Some web platforms offer hundreds of free website templates to choose from that you can customize to suit your needs. While this is not a custom website design, it is enough to help a company build its presence on the site and earn enough money to justify a fully customized experience.
While free templates can be tempting, you may want to consider paying a few hundred dollars for one of the best paid templates if you’re just starting out. This way, you guarantee that your site will be updated regularly by the original template’s designer and that the template will integrate well with modern plugins and extensions to create a good experience.
5. EASY ROUTINE MANAGEMENT
Once your site is live, you need to be sure that you can easily update it as needed. A small change to a photo or text shouldn’t take much time. Adding blogs and videos to your site should be as easy as posting updates on social media.
The ease of updating your site should match the technical resources you have in-house or have hired an outside company to manage the site. This way, you will be sure that your site will not have outdated content and experience.
Why Eye Advertising recommends using WordPress sites
WordPress powers 43 percent of all websites on the internet, and for good reason. This platform is incredibly easy to use and integrates with many additional tools through simple plugins that you can install and manage.
This platform is also incredibly scalable. This means that as your business grows, your WordPress site will grow with you to meet your current needs. From a budget perspective, this platform is also beneficial as it is free and open source.
When kept up to date, WordPress sites also provide incredible security and privacy for you and your clients.
Many popular organizations choose to manage their websites using WordPress, including:
- whitehouse.gov
- CNN
- The New York Times
- Microsoft
BENEFITS OF WORDPRESS
- Full control over your online presence
- E-commerce functionality
- Community forums for troubleshooting and answering questions
- Membership parts of your site when needed
- Ability to create landing pages
- Lots of themes to choose from
- Drag-and-drop page builders in some themes, eliminating the need for coding to get your site looking the way you want
- Library of over 60,000 free plugins, plus many paid plugins
- Ability to translate into over 75 languages for multilingual sites
- SEO tools to help you achieve organic visibility.
CONS OF WORDPRESS
- Requires you to manage the site yourself or hire specialists to do it
- It is a little difficult to learn for those who have never managed a site
- You must keep the site up to date and make regular backups to ensure security and continuity of service.
Custom website design from Eye Advertising Egypt
Eye Advertising helps bring brands to life through their websites, providing a strong foundation for SEO results with fast, user-focused websites.
Their team of experts will help you provide ongoing maintenance and management to ensure security and constant updates to meet user requirements. When you hire Eye Advertising, you’ll have access to content marketing specialists, SEO analysts, website experts, and more who can help you create an online presence that generates new business results. Schedule a free consultation today to get your online presence on the right path to dynamic customer engagement.
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