You might have seen such ads before, “Create your awesome website in minutes.” Website builders like Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly have DIY websites for a very affordable price, you can find a detailed overview of such services here. These website building tools kill owners who don’t even know the difference between single pages and a real website with a semantic markup language and search engine optimized code.

The problem is that creating a great website means more than just putting a few things on a page, entering your phone number, and letting go.

To create a great website, you have to make a user experience. A website must be created with the user to achieve a perfect user flow and smooth user experience. It requires a good website structure and the latest SEO (search engine optimization) techniques, and a professional design.

Here are the common issues with popular website builders

Bad SEO

One of the terrible things about using a website builder to build a commercial website is that the builder is spitting out a mess of code that is not well structured. It doesn’t contain the necessary elements to rank websites higher in Google.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it is the technique by which your website will appear higher in Google and other search engines. There are many search engine optimization elements, but one of the essential aspects is On-page Search Engine Optimization. This is all about the website’s code and structure, so it has a significant impact on the SEO usability of the website.

When you build your site with these web builders, you have no control over the code, just the layout. You can’t use structured data to improve your local SEO or even add content. Increasing your online presence is an essential part of attracting more visitors and customers online. These web builders don’t allow you to create new content, so it rarely ranks on Google.

The good news is Bad SEO can be solved by using some acceptable SEO practices such as: 

1. Use HTTPS

HTTPS makes your website pages more secure by encrypting the information sent between the visitor and the server.

You can see if your site is already using HTTPS by checking your browser’s loading bar.

If there is a lock symbol in front of the URL, everything is fine. Otherwise, you need to install an SSL certificate.

2. Make sure that your pages and site load fast

Nobody wishes to visit a page that takes forever to load. For this reason, page speed is a ranking factor in search engines like Google and Bing..

Many factors affect page speed, including your site code, server location, and images.

Google’s Pagespeed Insights tool can give you a rough idea of how your pages are performing. Just enter a URL, and you will get a score between 0 and 100, followed by tips for improvement.

3. Use your target keyword in three places

Each topic has a “heading” keyword. This is the most common type of search, regardless of the topic of your page.

You must include this keyword in three places:

a) Title tag

Google suggests writing title tags that accurately describe the content on the page. If you are targeting a specific keyword or phrase, this is precisely what you should do.

b) Header (H1)

Each page should have an H1 header on the page and include the target keyword where it makes sense.

c) URL

Google recommends using words in URLs that match the content of your page.

4. Use a short and descriptive URL.

Google recommends avoiding a long URL, as it can intimidate search engines.

For this reason, it is not always recommended to use the exact target query as the URL.

Single Page Only

Most website builders only offer one page to create, which is terrible for SEO and terrible for building an online presence. Websites must be multi-page and should be updated consistently. This will make sure that Google bots are coming back and keeping your website relevant.

You should avoid displaying all your business details on a single page. Nobody wants to scroll through a too-long page that lasts indefinitely. Websites should be divided into different pages and levels to explain who you are, what you do, where you are, and how to get in touch with you.

You should always create multiple pages, and not a single user will be tired of viewing a single long page. Nobody wishes to see a single long page. But if you have multiple pages and posts on your website, the user engagement will be higher, and your website will appear more structured.

Slow website loading speed

As mentioned earlier, a slow website is terrible for visitors, sales, and even for search engines. Google knows everything about your website, including how long it takes to load. If it takes too long to load, your search ranking will drop and you will lose future customers.

Reasons and solutions to fix your slow website speed.

1. Network problem

The first thing to consider is that your website may be slow due to your local area network. The way to see if this is the case is simple: load another website and see if it is slow to load. If so, you know that the local network is to blame. If not, there is probably a problem with your website.

2. Slow Web Hosting

Sometimes websites load slowly due to the server. You see, a server is like an engine. It sits idle until someone clicks on your website, and then it starts loading like a car with a key in the ignition. 

This is how it works when your browser notifies your server and asks it to send your website data so it can load. If there is a problem with the server, it will take longer than usual. Change your web host or website builder, and your site will work properly.

3. Database problem

A new website will run wonderfully fast, but it will slow down, taking longer to load as it ages. The reason is related to the database. The more information stored in your database and the more complex your site is, the more likely the database will not function as efficiently as possible.

Run a speed test on your website to see if your database is the culprit. There are numerous tutorials available on sites like YouTube for testing database problems. Don’t worry; this problem is more comfortable diagnosing (and fix) than you might think.

Website ownership

Due to its dependency on your technology, it may cost your business more in the long run as the web technology used is agency-specific. This means that they will have difficulty moving to a new website builder as they do not understand this technology. A website is your business asset, and you must own it completely.

If your website is on a proprietary platform like Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, or with a company that builds websites on their proprietary platform, you don’t own the entire website and can’t migrate it to another platform without losing some part of the website.

So if you want to outsource the website and content to a different website builder, the migration process can be expensive, if not impossible. The only way to guarantee full ownership of the website is to register the hosting and domain on your behalf and build your website on a standalone (non-proprietary) platform like WordPress or Drupal.

Conclusion

In short, building your professional website using a cheap website builder like Wix, Weebly, or Squarespace, is a terrible idea. Many clients avoid companies that use these types of services to build their websites.

Instead, turn to a professional web design company that can create a responsive website at an affordable price. Stop trying to do it yourself and redesign your website to meet the latest SEO standards and practices so that you can increase your online presence, which translates to more traffic, leads, and customers.