For many businesses, the company’s website, including the domain and all the content published under it, are often incredibly valuable property and a cornerstone of the company itself. The bad news is, though, that you may not actually own the website you build.
The Trouble with Website Hosting Platforms
In recent years, web hosting platforms such as Wix and Squarespace have become increasingly popular. The draw is that they make it easy for anyone to build a functional website in a matter of hours if not minutes. Unfortunately, this convenience comes with some drawbacks – most notably being the fact that you don’t actually own the website you build on these platforms.
For instance, a website built on Wix cannot be transferred to Squarespace, and vice versa. So long as you keep your website on the platform you built it in, you may not notice any problems. If you try to transfer your website or make certain changes, though, you’ll quickly realize that your ownership of your site is limited, to say the least.
Perhaps an even bigger problem with these web hosting platforms than the limited ownership they provide is the limited number of design options that they offer. Though Wix, Squarespace, and others do indeed have some great looking templates, there’s really not much room to set your site apart from the thousands of other sites that have used the same template. Combine this with functionality that is just as limited as the design options these platforms offer, and you’ll quickly see why, for many businesses, these platforms are not the best choice.
A Better Alternative
If cookie-cutter platforms such as Squarespace and Wix are not the right fit for your business, what is the best way to build your website? The answer is the tried-and-true platform people have been using to build websites for years: WordPress.
Unlike other web hosting platforms, WordPress offers you a large degree of freedom and countless options as to how your website will look and function. Best of all, any WordPress site you build is truly yours, free for you to move to any hosting platform you see fit.
Of course, more options and more functionality inevitably means that using WordPress comes with a bit of a learning curve, and it’s this learning curve that has given rise to more convenient, less functional platforms. However, if you’re not really a do-it-yourselfer, a web designer can work with you to build the perfect WordPress website. Best of all, once they are done and you’ve launched your site, you or your admin staff can maintain the website easily due to the robust dashboard included with WordPress. Just be sure the web designer doesn’t have you sign a contract that ultimately holds your site content ransom should you decide to leave. You’ll also want to do a little research on the hosting platform. WordPress does require a bit of upkeep in the form of updates. You’ll also want to ensure you are getting good backups. If you’re not techie, you might want to consider WordPress Managed hosting. Managed WordPress Hosting is a service we offer that not only includes the hosting of your website, but also includes all WordPress updates, plugin and theme updates, backups, security scans, and performance monitoring – taking all of the hassles out of maintaining a WordPress site.
Firefly Tech Solutions offers WordPress design along with Managed WordPress Hosting. If you would like to create a unique website using WordPress that is truly your own in more ways than one, we invite you to contact us today to learn more about the many benefits of Managed WordPress Hosting.