Every business should have a company website, but making sure you have what you need can be challenging to establish an online presence for small businesses. Large brand websites and ecommerce businesses alike are equipped to handle massive amounts of traffic, however, you may not need as many resources if you are just starting and want to focus your money on other important expenses. In this article, we’ll cover what should focus on for your growing business website so that you get the most out of what you are paying for!
Considerations for your brand websites
There are many things that go into establishing an online presence for business. Whether you are creating a landing page for your company website or growing an ecommerce business from the ground up, it’s important to keep these three things in mind:
Price
How much money you spend on the website will definitely contribute to which direction you should go. Generally speaking, more complex websites that have ecommerce, video streaming, AI or other unique features will require more coding and maintenance.
If you are looking to cut the cost of your website development, consider reducing the amount of features you will have on your website. Brick-and-mortar establishments that primarily conduct sales in person will not need as many complex web features as a strictly online business.
With that being said, it is also important to budget for more advanced features if you are looking to expand your audience reach online. Opening an ecommerce solution will allow brick-and-mortar shops to expand their revenue stream by offering clients a new check out option.
Investing in security, page speeds and customized designs will help your business grow a strong reputation with your clients. As more people are spending more time online, your online presence should be a core component to your public image.
Security
While it was mentioned a few sentences ago, it is worth repeating. Security for your website is paramount. Your clients’ information must be protected at all costs. Cybersecurity incidents have increased significantly in recent years, and it is your responsibility to provide your customers the necessary protection. Even if you are in compliance with standards and have an incident, you may be held responsible for the damages your customers experienced.
While it is impossible to protect against every threat, following and implementing industry-standard techniques will alleviate most attacks. Utilizing tools like firewalls, content-delivery networks and multifactor authentication will also increase you security profile.
If you are handling user data, having cyber insurance can also provide a safety net in the event something goes wrong. Finally, you should also disclose your data handling policies (in the form of a privacy policy page) to ensure your users know how you manage their information.
These techniques and protocols will show your commitment to your customers’ safety. It is important to emphasize this, especially on web-based outlets.
Technology
You should also consider the technology behind your website. There are many directions you can lean towards, such as a website builder, content-management system (CMS) or modern web stack. In any case, you or your web master should be comfortable making quick changes to the website.
Generally speaking, website builders are the easiest to develop with but tend to lack in more advanced features. You can use a website builder to solve most problems, but can be limited to the editor itself when designing custom solutions.
Content-management systems like WordPress are a great middle grown. They are generally more versatile than builders but still offer a drag-and-drop interface. While WordPress is free, there are many plugins, themes and miscellaneous items you may need to make your website complete -and these added features will usually cost money.
Web stacks like the MERN stack offer complete flexibility in custom website (or mobile app) development. This allows for your developer(s) to build custom features that fit your company’s image. The drawback to this is of course the cost of development as well as testing these features for security vulnerabilities.
Website Platforms for DIY
Building a website from scratch can be done by just about everyone. If you are building one using a technology stack, like LAMP or MERN, you will need to learn the programming languages that make up your front end, API and database.
For most of us, we’re going to go with a framework that is already built and requires no coding at all. Even with programming experience, these builders are much faster to work with than coding it entirely from the ground up.
With that being said, there is a learning curve to whatever software you use as well as fine tuning best practices for security and performance. Website builders take much of this burden, but are often associated with higher hosting costs.
Popular All-in-One Website Builders
Many applications of ecommerce for small businesses use website builders because they do not require much coding to make them work. The paid tools tend to be more expensive if you integrate more features into the website then compared to using a content management system and hosting your own website. Regardless, building it yourself will require some patience…
Google Website Builder
Google Sites is a great platform that just about anyone can use to create a simple, static website. This is great if you need a webpage to host information about you or your company. However, Google Sites is not optimized for popular web services like blogging and e-commerce.
In terms of security, Google Sites has had a good track record. One instance in 2020 deemed millions of passwords as unfit, however, this affected Google more than it did the Google Sites service that it offers.
Google Sites is free, which is good. All you need is a domain name with Google in order to qualify for this service.
Wix
Wix is a very popular paid hosting service that also utilizes their proprietary website builder. Wix is well known for delivering fast websites and offering a wide variety of templates to choose from.
Security with Wix has improved significantly with emerging cyber threats, but it should be noted that a cross-site scripting attack was discovered in 2016 affecting administrative accounts at the time. If this is a point of contention for you, focus on how they responded to the event and how they will safeguard your information moving forward. Security breaches are bound to happen, but I won’t tell you one way or another if you should trust them.
Basic hosting on Wix starts at $16/month, whereas any e-commerce application will start at $27/month. If you intend to host private videos on Wix (membership website), you will need to increase your allotted video hours for storage on their server.
Squarespace
Squarespace is another popular option to web hosting, again, having it’s own proprietary web builder bundled with the hosting plan. By comparison, Squarespace’s editor has more structure in comparison to Wix, but both get the job done. Steve Benjamins describes this comparison like Mac vs PC.
In terms of security, no readily available search could bring up any previous security breach on Squarespace. While it doesn’t mean one has or will happen in the future, it is a good sign nonetheless when selecting a service that will handle the personal information of your clients.
Basic hosting starts at $16/month but offers some e-commerce capabilities at $23/month with a %3 transaction fee. Additionally, private videos for a membership website are limited to 30-minutes on all plans.
Website Development Services
When you think of making a website, you often think of doing it yourself. While making websites can be quite fun, they can often take a while to get right. This is not ideal for company websites that will drive more sales, conversions and impressions on your clients. Not to mention, it’s time spent away from conducting the business that you do on a day-to-day basis.
Another consideration is the annual cost of keeping your website up. With your average e-commerce website costing $25/month through the website builders, you are looking to pay $300 a year. You may also experience limitations in customizing your website and adding unique features not offered in the web editor framework.
One of the most important considerations is ranking well with search engines. While these web editors are optimized to help your site do well in search rankings, the pages you create must also be worthy of being ranked by Google. This learning curve may take a while to master as you create your website from scratch, meaning less people will be exposed to your business or brand until you start ranking well.
Contracting a web service like ours can take a lot of the guesswork out of the equation. Like the variety of DIY builders, there are several services that can do this for you. When selecting a web development service, you should prioritize security, speed and style. The 3 S’s! It is important to reduce your threat profile as much as possible. You should also have a fast and stylish website that connects with your audience as well. When consulting with a firm, be sure to check out their previous works and ask for a prototype website to see what they can do for you.
One downside is the upfront cost associated with developing a custom website. If your business or brand is prepared to make the investment into a new revenue stream, this investment will quickly pay for itself and then some.
So… Which Option Will Work For You?
Well, that’s a great question! If you are not ready to invest in a core aspect for your company, it may be more suiting to use a free or cheaper service and spend time configuring your own website. If you have a large following or a strong inclination you will see a fast return on investment through an e-commerce application, extending your brand website through a paid service would be in your best interest.
If you have more time to do this, another service you can look into is WordPress hosting. It is important to note that WordPress makes up 33% of all websites online and is one of the most targeted software by hackers. It also means that it has the most third-party extensions to make it customizable for your specific needs. The reason why you need more time with this option is to learn the framework and spend time hardening your website yourself before publishing it. WordPress is a great option that has some learning curves involved but is generally a good middle ground between paying for a web builder or website building service.
If you are looking for a long term investment for your business, contracting a web development team is in your best interest. The upfront cost will be more than the other options, but you will save many hours of your time from creating your company website. Additionally, the revenue generated from a properly optimized website will quickly offset the development and hosting costs.
To Summarize…
There are many options out there to get your company in front of 16 billion eyes. Anyone can have a web presence, but having a robust web presence is not a small feat. Consider getting on the web and gaining your reputation as a long term investment. Have patience and be sure to keep your site secure!
Founder and CEO of R U Coding Me LLC. Jacob obtained his Bachelor’s of Computer Science at the University of Central Florida. He likes to go to the gym and teach people about technology.
