Business owners usually have a lot on their plate. From balancing bookkeeping duties to managing digital marketing efforts like ads, social media, and the king of the crop, making sure your website is up-to-date. After performing each and every business-related task, though, it can difficult to muster up the courage to do anything to your website, especially build a new one.
Not to mention the expense and time it takes to find a developer and designer to do the work. You also have elements such as ongoing upkeep and eventually a redesign to think about.
For business owners who aren’t satisfied with the look, functionality or overall aesthetic of their website, there are ways to optimize or build a new site. The one I’d be obliged to discuss with you today is a website builder. They are designed to provide a streamlined approach to website building, so even the most novice business owner can build, manage and update their own website in a matter of a few hours
I want to offer four practical tips for business owners to get the most value from website builders.
Take Advantage of Testing features
If the website builder you choose has the ability to test various elements of your site and or newly-built landing pages, take advantage of it. In doing so, you will gain a deeper understanding of what does and does not work.
When performing tests, you can create numerous versions of a page or pages in order to test features such as forms, social proof elements, special offers or sales, CTAs and a plethora of other elements. This will, of course, vary based on the kind of website builder you select.
Integrate, Integrate, Integrate
When comparing website builders, it is best to look for a platform with the most relevant apps and integrations.
Website builders oftentimes come with a number of third-party integrations. These integrations allow users to track site metrics including page visits, referral traffic and more.
Google Analytics is great for this.
Some website builders offer third-party integrations like Amazon, Shopify, eBay, PayPal and other popular services.
There are countless apps and integrations available (again, depending on which website builder you choose). Here’s what you should be on the lookout for when it comes to apps and integrations.
- Email Capabilities: Manage emails from your website builder. If this is offered, and you have purchased a domain name, you can connect it to this email account in many cases.
- CRM Tools: With access to CRM tools, it is much simpler to communicate with customers and site visitors in real-time.
- Form Builders: Build forms that help capture contact information when new people visit your site.
These are just three of the countless apps and integrations available by way of website builders. Again, features will vary in terms of cost and capabilities. Website builders like Wix, do have some of the highest numbers of apps and integrations currently on the market.
Utilize Responsive Templates
Not only is using responsive templates a great idea because they are highly-optimized and tend to need little-to-no optimization for mobile sites, but they are usually well-designed. In addition to design, responsive templates can help reduce time spent on building a new site.
When deciding on a website builder, look for a builder with an extensive library of templates. Just being extensive isn’t enough, however. The templates you select should be mobile responsive, which will help cut down on time spent designing both a desktop and mobile site.
At best, you’ll have to make a few minor tweaks to your mobile site, but time spent on this does not quite compare to the time you would spend fully-optimizing a mobile version of your site.
Consider Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is an essential part of building a website and should be considered when writing copy such as blogs, product descriptions and other marketing-centric literature.
A good website builder will have tools like apps, integrations or native search engine optimization tools. If you aren’t quite sure what to look for regarding SEO, let’s start simple. If you can edit your sitemap, if the company gives users access to SSL Certificates and editing image tags and descriptions — you’re off to a great start.
If you have an online store, having some or all of the following SEO optimizations available at your disposal will also be useful:
- Meta Tag Titles
- Meta Tag Keywords
- Meta Tag Overrides
- Enable Search Engine Friendly URLs
Oftentimes, you can find SEO tools such as the ones listed above, right from the platform itself. There are also third-party apps and integrations designed to integrate with website builders and that enable additional SEO optimizations to be made.
- Google KeyWord Planner: Google’s keyword planner gives users a front-row seat into the number of searches being performed each month using your keywords. After an analysis is conducted, users can view a list of related terms to target certain keywords based on results.
- KeyWord List Cleaner: Remove duplicate words, clean up keywords, URLs and email lists.
There are a number of other apps and integrations available for SEO purposes, and it is well-worth doing some digging to find out the best ones.
Key Takeaways
Building a website doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, it can be as simple as baking a cake or going for a run in many cases. Website builders are designed to eliminate all of the complicated and time-consuming aspects of hiring a developer and a designer to build your website.
For business owners, it only makes sense to have quick access to the back end of their website in order to keep it current. This includes updating content, adding blog posts, new products and more.