With the economy as tumultuous as it is, the past several months have seen an increase in people using online web hosting companies opposed to specialist website development agencies. Here Colin Harris, discusses the reality of using these sites.
Recently there has been an increase in people using sites which allow them to choose a web hosting service and create their own website. Understandably many people have turned to using services such as these as initially they look like a cost effective way to run a website. You can design and host your own websites from around £9.99 a month or £36 for E-commerce; however over 2-3 years this can be more expensive than having a bespoke website designed – without the benefits and customisation.
Sites such as these can afford to have small monthly costs as there is little or no man hours put into developing the sites, this is up to the user who must upload and manage their own content and images.
As with most things you get what you pay for, for example, take the following analogy of cars. If you are looking to buy a new car and your choices are between a brand new Mercedes and a worn out Micra, which would you choose: a shiny new car which will turn heads on the street or a less attractive car whose reliability is questionable? Or on the other hand if the dealer offered you the Mercedes for £100 you would be sceptical – why would the offer a high-end product for such a small price?
Sites like these can be ideal for small businesses and personal websites who would like a pre-designed template. However, these do not tailor to individual design specifications restricting what you can do and ultimately how much your website represents and imitates your brand.
One of the main issues users of these sites face is that they have no ownership of the website or the domain name but are in essence ‘renting’ a website. This makes transferring domain names and switching web hosts extremely difficult.
Another problem many users face with sites like these is that there is no real point of contact or more particularly, no face-to-face contact is available. There is no expertise guiding clients into what works best on the web – having access to the tools isn’t the same as knowing what works on the web.
A website is often a consumer’s first point of contact with a company so it is vital to ensure it portrays the correct image. For some this may be possible through pre-designed sites, they are ultimately perceived as cost-efficient and easy to use however for many others this is often a high-end tailored website which can be equally as cost efficient.
By Colin Harris