What Are The Limitations Of DIY Website Builders

Are you considering creating a website for your business using a website builder like Wix, GoDaddy Website Builder, or Squarespace? Before you begin, have you familiarised yourself with the drawbacks and restrictions of many website builders?

Although website builders are a budget-friendly choice for building a website, they usually require some prior knowledge to ensure the best results. This includes being familiar with design options, mobile responsiveness, and SEO limitations. It is essential to keep these limitations in mind before choosing a website builder platform.

Limited Mobile Experience Tweaks

The structure and design options for your website are crucial for its performance on mobile devices. Unfortunately, many website builders have limited options for optimising mobile viewing.

This is significant because mobile browsing has surpassed desktop browsing, with over 50% of global web traffic coming from mobile devices, and this number continues to increase each year. In cases where there are problems with how content or design appears on mobile, the website builder may not allow for specific customization for different devices (such as phones or tablets). This can result in the built-in mobile rendering not accurately representing your content and design, leading to potential issues with the user experience.

The website appears to be slightly off.

Website builders typically provide a preview of your website before it goes live, but the result often differs from the preview. This can be frustrating, as you may have put a lot of effort into designing a high-quality website, only to have it limited by the capabilities of the website builder.

Ease-of-Use and Reduced Functionality

At first glance, website builders may seem easy to use, which is a major advantage. However, as you delve into more complex features, like customising pages and resising images, they can become a tedious task.

Learning how to modify certain parts of the website without disrupting the website builder can be a lengthy process. This can consume a significant amount of time.

In the end, you are limited to the built-in capabilities of the website builder, which can affect your ability to create a simple, informational website or a comprehensive, interactive one.

Cookie-Cutter Template Selection

Many website builders address the issue of not having coding skills by offering a limited selection of templates for customers to use in creating their site. This means users can only add text and images in predetermined sections, and if they require additional flexibility for their content, they may face challenges.

The limited range of layouts and designs may make it difficult for your business to differentiate itself from others.

Missing Key Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Elements

Most website builders do NOT truly and fully integrate SEO or lead generation into their process of creating your own website. They often don’t guide you to incorporate a clear call-to-action on your website or create a soft offer for your customers in order to capture email addresses for example. Your website needs these elements and more to make your website a way to convert leads into actual customers. 

Website builders often overlook or fail to integrate important back-end coding elements for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

For example, while performing SEO on two websites created with different website builder platforms, we discovered that one platform only offered a “Local Business schema” option and did not include a “phone number” field in their schema, which is crucial for online business listings.

The other platform did not even allow for website schema insertion. This highlights the fact that SEO is often an afterthought for website builders.

Though we informed both platforms of their errors, it took them years to add the necessary schema features, which is significantly behind traditional web design systems like Joomla or WordPress.

Furthermore, their schema support is limited and lacks advanced options for customization. This is just one instance of the numerous SEO deficiencies of website builders. Therefore, even if your website looks similar to one you admire, it is pointless if it cannot be easily found on Google.

6. Limited E-Commerce Functionality

Website builders like Wix and Squarespace now offer e-commerce features. This means you can sell products on your website. However, the features are often limited. If you want things like real-time shipping estimates, local pickup options, wholesale pricing, and connections to other apps, Wix and Squarespace might not be the best choice.

If you’re serious about starting an e-commerce business, we recommend Shopify. It’s very affordable and has different plans to fit your needs.

You can try Shopify for free with no strings attached. In our experience, it’s the best e-commerce platform out there. We’ve tried many others. All Shopify plans include support from their team. And if you need more help, there’s a great community of Shopify experts and e-commerce web designers who can assist you.

When Should I Use a Website Builder to Create My Website?

One of the main benefits of using website builders is their ability to quickly and affordably create a website. This is a great option for those on a tight budget. However, it’s important to keep in mind that website builders have limitations and you may eventually need to switch to a more advanced platform.

Many small businesses start with a website builder and then transition to a more modern and robust CMS in the future, like WordPress.

If you do choose to use a website builder, we highly recommend Wix over other options like Squarespace, Weebly, and GoDaddy. Wix has made significant improvements over the years, particularly in terms of SEO and functionality.

If you require e-commerce capabilities, we suggest using Shopify. Depending on your technical abilities, you may be able to set up your own website on Shopify or may need the assistance of a professional developer.

What’s the Alternative to Website Builders?

You can also use Content Management Systems (CMS) to manage and update your website. They have fewer limitations than website builder platforms. But you’ll need to hire a professional website designer to set up and design your CMS.

Content Management Systems give you more flexibility in the long run than website builders. To learn more, read our blog about the differences between CMSs and website builder platforms. If you want to hire a web development company, choose one that specialises in website design and has SEO experts.

Web designers and SEO experts are different roles. If you need help creating your website, we can design a user-friendly and lead-generating website for your customers. Contact me to discuss your website design needs. Please note that we may receive a commission if you buy something by clicking on some links on this website. This won’t cost you anything extra.