An Evaluation of Imaginary Easy to Use Content Management Systems:
WIX, Weebly, and Squarespace, for Business Websites.
By Stephen Gannon
Several people have asked me about the technical competency of supposed Easy-to-Use Content Management Systems (CMS) for building business websites. There are a variety of these what I call “quick-and-dirty” website applications on the market promising extremely “easy” intuitive interfaces, cheap prices, and professional results. WIX, WEEBLY, and Squarespace—are some of the CMS systems touting these attractive features –to name a few. Their respective developers all cite their product and services as “the answer” to website building as the best solution for businesses “that don’t want to invest the time and money into a Word Press site.”
This begs the question—Why would so-called easy to use CMS corporate developers compare their sites with Word Press unless they knew that Word Press was the defacto and premiere Content Management System available on the internet. Word Press today hosts more than 50% of the websites on the internet. Word Press functions, features, and options grant almost unlimited versatility to the mind and hands of a company’s website developer. If you can use a sophisticated word processor—you can learn and use Word Press. The bottom-line is that Word Press is the current BEST, and dare I say, “only” CMS choice for the average American business.
At Solution Effect, we primarily use Word Press to develop state-of-the-art business websites–though occasionally, we will contract to maintain a Drupal or Joomla site. AND the GOOD NEWS IS–Solution Effect has designed a new Bronze Services Package for those businesses with little or no money but plenty of time to develop their own Word Press Business Website (Call 619-455-7019 for more information).
https://solutioneffect.com/product/solution-effect-hosting-plus/
Here is a link and a blog article that fairly compares many of the low-cost Content Management Systems with Word Press. https://www.rankfirstlocal.com/definitive-guide-to-small-business-seo/cms-comparison-wordpress-wix-weebly-squarespace/
While some of these CMS’s might have an easy intuitive interface, in my opinion, for reasons unique to each CMS, they yield neither cost effectiveness nor professional results. While it may be a good platform for people desiring a personal web presence for social interaction, in my opinion, these low-cost CMs’s are not the best solution for a professional business site. Here are a few of my (and other’s) criticisms:
1) Some of the quick-and-dirty CMS’s require you to expose your business site as a platform for third party advertisers. Its part of the deal.
2) Low-cost CMS’s do NOT “handshake” with a variety of search engines very well, and a good deal of SEO parameters (Keywords and Metadata) are NOT intuitively addressed in the user interface. One simply has to systematically measure each website on its handshaking parameters to give it a grade on a 1- to 100- scale. Solution Effect does this day in and day out for a variety of website customers. Ask about our Solution Effect Woo Ranking analysis for your website.
3) Should your site require more versatility in terms of functions, features, and options, your business is locked in to the limited CMS servers, the functional limitations, and the pricing plans (including advertising), and it is not easy to remove your site’s features from these CMS’s should you want to upgrade to Word Press at a later date.–often requiring a complete redesign of your site.
4) A website is just the beginning of the online marketing solution. Quick-and-dirty CMS’s do not allow for easy split testing of pages to determine intuitive results of targeted customer choices.
When a business person tells me they are moving in the direction of a simple low-cost site, the old commercial with the competent mechanic reciting “You can pay me now or you can pay me later.” comes to mind. Friends, I wish I could share how many “quick and dirty” web sites we have had to completely do over. The so-called easy-to-use websites just are not versatile and powerful options for many (dare I say most) of today’s businesses. Still not convinced? Here is another third party evaluation of Word Press verses WIX for your evaluation. http://awesomelytechie.com/5-reasons-dont-use-wix/
So if all you want in a website is a glorified business card with a picture of your business, a logo, and your contact information, then a so-called easy-to-use CMS system may be great for you. However, if you want a website that will work together with your Social Media to go into the highways and byways of a targeted community and tap potential clients on the shoulder and ask them “Hey, let me give you some good and powerful reasons you want to buy MY company’s products or services?”, then build your website with Word Press! And if you want to do it on a prudent manageable budget with guaranteed results—then Solution Effect is the Website developer for you. Call us today, 619-455-7019.