What are the most frustrating things about DIY website builders?
1. They’re not actually free!
Perhaps the one that catches most people out is that they aren’t actually free! They market themselves as free, they even let you create your account and start putting your website together for free. But if you actually want the website to go live – having put in all the work to put everything where you want it, get all the content right and be sure you’re happy – then you’re presented with their package options. The bolt from the blue! Ok sure you can have the site go live for nothing, IF you want to have their adverts plastered all over it and IF you want your domain name to be a complete mess: www.freebuild.mysalon.co.uk/mysalon?ref=Default for example! If you’re happy with that then yes, your website can indeed be free… Otherwise the word “free” is used very loosely.
2. Annoying pop-ups that never go away!
So many of these “free” website builders that allow you to go and start putting together your own site produce a regular and continual pop-up which is prompting you to publish your site, something that they have decided is the way to go to encourage their users to complete their website. However this a common complaint, the pop-up is persistent, no option for “don’t show me this again” is provided and they continue to interrupt you with the irritating little box bugging you throughout your entire time.
3. Getting them onto your own domain needs an expert!
So if you’ve already gone to the trouble of buying a domain name that you want your website to actually sit on, then you’re going to have to have expert web knowledge to get a site that you’ve taken the time and trouble to build, to go onto your own domain. And we don’t exaggerate there, a number of our developers had to do it for many a frustrated business owner before and even they struggled with it. The DIY builders make it intentionally difficult for you to do so AND you have to pay if you want that privilege – another frustration!
4. You have to have lots of time on your hands
So, you’ve just started a business, we’re going to take a wild guess and assume that you’re not exactly awash with bags of spare time… We’ll take that as a given. So assuming that, do you really have the time to log onto a website builder, learn how to use it, move all the bits about that you need, type out all the wording, find the images you want, work out how to make it do what you want it to and then work out how to get it to go live? Only to then discover that you need to pay in order to make it look like your own site! Another wild guess, we think you’d rather find a simpler solution!
5. You need to be really quite tech-savvy
Believe it or not, yes. These DIY builders are not as easy as they would like you to believe. They’re often very confusing and difficult to find your way around, even for someone who is quite computer-literate!
There’s still the need to understand some amount of jargon and if you want to do something like add in a simple table for your opening times, believe it or not, that isn’t really that easy at all, you also need to know quite a bit about what certain things are. You could be missing a trick without even realising it.
So even though the offer might look attractive, the reality is often not!
Ok, so when you’re starting out the limitations might not necessarily be a problem, you’re just after a website to post up for your business and give yourself an online presence. But at some point you’re going to want, nay NEED, more from your website. The DIY builders just aren’t up to the task, they don’t have future-proofing, no platform on which to build and no system in place to let you know when and how you could improve your site. As soon as you want a blog or a properly functioning e-commerce platform or a booking system that isn’t terrible, your site is redundant. Galleries are poor at best and you need to pay for each new feature or function you want on the site. Even something simple like an enquiry form with a few extra fields in it requires paying for an extra add-on.
This isn’t strictly true, there is some customer support – but the difference is, the customer support is generally email only and you’re dealing with a customer service assistant – not a professional who works with website’s every day! This person works from a specific set of instructions, like the people you contact when your wifi hub stops working and you get the same answers read from a sheet each time. The DIY website builders are designed for bargain-bucket websites and provide support along the same line.
8. Terrible for search engines
DIY websites are notoriously bad for Google search optimistion. If you want your site to be found above your competitors on Google – and lets face it, you do – then one of the DIY builders are really not going to be the ones for you at all.
So how are we at Salon Sites different? How do we overcome these frustrations?1. We never pretend we’re free
All our literature, email marketing, online ads and other digital and printed media all state very clearly that there is a cost involved in our service. However that cost is low and – we believe – exceptional value for money!
We connect your website to your domain for you!
We don’t force you into packages dependent upon you having your own domain name or not
We don’t force you to have our ads all over your site, no matter what!
2. There are no pop-ups here!
Ok, well there is one during the order process that asks for your email address, but if you tell it to go away, it does – immediately and it doesn’t come back again to pressure you further. But other than that your website is entirely pop-up and advert free! Why would you want it any other way?
3. You can even buy your own domain name with us!
We don’t want to make you have a sub-domain of our website, you get your own domain pointing to your website, displaying exactly as it should be in the browser URL bar! No one will see an ugly domain with your name wedge in alongside ours! We even:
Link your site to your domain
Make sure its working and linked properly
4. It’s really quick to order with Salon Sites
Because, if you were ordering a car, you wouldn’t build it yourself would you? Equally why wouldn’t you leave the building of a website to a professional if you could? All you do with us is window-shop! Click on the things you like, the styles you like and then the add-ons you want and then one of our professionals build it for you!
5. You don’t need to be a techno guru!
We explain everything! All the information you need about every part of the order process is available on our website and if you really are struggling you can even ring one of our team and they’ll walk you through it! Everything is explained in the simplest terms we can because we appreciate you’re not going to know everything about websites and every extension available to you. Or even what all the options you COULD do with your website might be! That is what we’re here for, to help you!
Because of the way we build your website it is future-proofed. If you ever need an update or a change or some new functionality added to it, we can do that! It can be done! You’re never going to be told by us – you can’t do that – if you want the site to do something for you, we can adapt it, add extensions and create custom code in order to give you the very best service possible. Your website will never get too old to work on. We also send updates and information out regarding new extensions, possible changes and better ways to do things. Our job is to keep you in the know!
At Salon Sites we are all about support and help, we help as much as we can to allow you to understand how your website can work for you. We help you understand the jargon and get the very best out of your online presence. Our support staff are all UK based and are all trained in using our systems and our order process and are highly knowledgeable in online marketing, social media and website development. They’ll help you understand your editing area, how to change things yourself and how quick and simple everything can be!
What you’re getting with Salon Sites is a professionally built, professionally managed website with all the perks of using an agency at a fraction of the price!
