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  • Here’s why Google AdWords will work for your business

    Here’s why Google AdWords will work for your business

    When you do a search on Google for a product, brand, or service, you will see ads on the search results page. Why are they there? Companies run those ads because Google’s advertising platform, AdWords, works. It works for their business, and it can work for yours too.

    To understand this further, here are the main reasons why Google AdWords will work for your business.

    Generates New Leads and Customers

    AdWords is an active advertising tool that is about getting conversions. In other words, it will get you leads and customers. Of course, you need to set up your campaigns properly, but you’ll get tangible results when you do.

    You Control the Amount You Spend

    AdWords gives you a lot of settings to use when creating a campaign. One of the most important is the amount you wish to spend over a set period of time. This gives you complete control.

    Cost-Effective

    Regardless of how much you spend, AdWords is a cost-effective advertising tool. That doesn’t mean it is the cheapest, as you will probably already know of methods of advertising that are cheaper. When you combine the results and the amount you spend, however, AdWords is a very cost-effective platform.

    You Can Start Small

    The minimum spend on AdWords is very low which means you can get started with AdWords ads at minimal cost. This makes it possible to test what works and what doesn’t, learn more about the market, and more.

    Fast Results

    One of the main benefits of AdWords is the immediacy of the results it delivers. In fact, your ads can start running within hours of you launching a campaign, with results coming in right away.

    Highly Targeted

    Unlike other forms of advertising, AdWords gives you extremely powerful targeting tools. These tools go much further than targeting people based on geographical area or interest. Instead, you also target people based on the keywords they search for on Google. In other words, you can target people who are ready to make a purchase simply by selecting the right keywords.

    You Only Pay When People Click Through to Your Website

    Another advantage of AdWords is you don’t pay to display your ads on a Google search results page. Instead, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Of course, a click doesn’t mean the person will go on to become a customer. That said, there is a much closer correlation between the money you pay and the results you get with AdWords than most other forms of advertising.

    Easy to Measure Return on Investment

    You can quickly setup tracking on your AdWords campaigns enabling you to directly link sales and leads in your business to clicks and spend on AdWords. This makes it possible to measure the ROI of your AdWords’ campaigns.

    You Can Test, Refine, and Improve

    It is also possible to test all elements of your campaign, so you can make improvements. This includes split testing where you can test different keywords, negative keywords, ad headlines, ad text, landing pages, and more.

    Gets Your Brand and Products in Front of People at the Right Time

    Understanding user intent is important to making AdWords campaigns work. When you do, you can select keywords that have buying intent to include in your campaigns. This ensures you target people at the right time, i.e. when they are ready or almost ready to buy.

    Learn More About Your Customers

    The knowledge you get from running AdWords campaigns, including the results you achieve, will give you new information about your customers. You can then use that information to improve your other marketing initiatives and your business overall.

    AdWords is a platform that can get you sales. If you don’t use it yet, you should consider doing so now.

  • Are you getting the best bang for your advertising buck?

    Are you getting the best bang for your advertising buck?

    To grow your business and find new customers, you must advertise. Many businesses must also advertise to keep their existing customers, particularly when in highly competitive markets. Not all advertising is the same, however, so how can you be sure you are getting the best bang for your advertising buck?

    To answer this question, you need to make sure the following applies to your advertising spend:

    • You target your ads at the right audience
    • Your ads reach the customer at the right time
    • You have a way of accurately measuring the return on investment of each campaign
    • There are steps you can take to optimise that return on investment

    The above is not rocket science. After all, you don’t want to spend money advertising to people who have no interest in what you sell or who have already made a purchase. Also, you need to make sure the money you spend on advertising is delivering a return that is high enough to justify that investment.

    The problem is there are not many advertising options available to you that deliver on the above list. If you advertise on TV or radio, for example, none of the four points above apply.

    There are solutions, though, with the best being AdWords. With AdWords you can:

    • Target a specific audience
    • Target that audience when they are in a purchasing frame of mind
    • Precisely measure return on investment
    • Optimise future campaigns to get better returns

    Are You Getting the Best Bang for Your AdWords Buck?

    If you do run campaigns on AdWords, the next question to consider is are you getting the best possible results for the amount you spend? Could you spend less and get the same results? Could you spend the same amount while getting better results?

    These things are important to think about as, on the surface, AdWords is an advertising tool that anyone can use. You simply need to set up an account and then work your way through the guided process to launch an ad.

    If you have any experience with AdWords, you will know the reality of running AdWords campaigns is not as simple as described above. In fact, it is easy to completely waste money on AdWords, and many businesses have.

    Optimising AdWords Campaigns

    The only way to ensure you are getting the best possible results from your AdWords campaigns is to optimise them. This is an ongoing process of testing, refining, and tweaking every element of an AdWords campaign including:

    • Keywords
    • Negative keywords
    • Bid amounts
    • Bid strategies
    • Geographic targeting
    • Ad headline
    • Ad text
    • Ad display URL
    • Landing page targeting
    • Landing page design
    • Landing page headlines
    • Landing page content
    • Landing page call-to-action

    All these things and more can impact the performance of your AdWords campaign. The objectives you should have include:

    • Reducing the cost-per-click to as low a rate as possible
    • Ensuring clicks come from the right audience so you waste as little as possible on clicks that won’t convert
    • Maximising conversions

    Conclusion

    To ensure you get the best bang for your advertising buck, you should start by considering AdWords as an advertising strategy. If you already use AdWords, you should take steps to ensure your campaigns are as optimised as possible. This will keep more money in your pocket while still generating new customers and sales for your business.

  • 5 reasons, why a website build on WordPress is good for your Business.

    5 reasons, why a website build on WordPress is good for your Business.

    WordPress has become more synonyms to web development environment than ever before, many business owners like to have a professional website for their brand and companies build in WordPress. The reason for this is not one but many, the most important being that it’s the most popular content management system that exists to date.

    Adapted by millions of users around the world for developing search engine friendly blogs, websites and complex applications, WordPress has become the most famous web development framework that allows easy modification, updates, and customization on the fly.

    WordPress is a most common framework amount many a Web Designing Service providers in Auckland. For the sack of writing this article, we will be discussing 5 most essential feature of wordpress that makes it the No.1 CMS today.

    5 Good Reasons to Choose WordPress -Whether you are a web design company or a business owner.

    Unlimited Themes

    The beauty of wordpress development is that you have thousands of themes to choose from, whether you in a hospitality industry, automobile, education or perhaps a web designing service you will never run out of designs and themes.

    Thanks to tens of thousands of designers and developers who are publishing wordpress themes every day. These themes are built on standard coding standards and are tested for any bugs or design issues. So when you are using a theme you can be sure of its quality and speed. There are many marketplaces on the web which sells wordpress themes of all types for very minimal cost and also provides support.

    Unlimited Plugins

    Another hot selling feature of wordpress websites is it’s extendible functionality addons called plugins. These plugins are build by professional coders to provide an extra functionality to the website that can otherwise cost hugely if build by a dedicated coder. The plugins are extremely helpful especially when you need customized functionality such as room booking, service booking etc.

    You May Also like:  Modifications for eCommerce Website to Boost Conversions 

    A good Web Design Company will however, use plugins just when its most needed, otherwise they will have to add functionality using php code, this is done to save load time. As using many plugins on a single website can adversely affect its load time. The last thing you will want is your website loading time being more than usual.

    Easy to updated content

    Since WordPress is popular for being the best content management system what it really means is that you don’t need a web design company to update content for you when you need it. Once its up and running, wordpress website allows different user roles to write, publish and approve content when it’s needed. All you have to do is to edit the content and publish it just like you would have an article published on LinkedIn.

    Search Engine Loves It

    WordPress was first introduced for bloggers so they can have there blogs published in no time and in the easiest way. Since blogs are the most favorite hangout spots for search engines, for the obvious reason that most useful information resides here. Using wordpress has a huge advantage for the reason that search engines especially Google, holds a soft spot for it due to its SEO friendly structure and good user experience.

    A Budding Community

    A good web designing service always recommends WordPress websites to its customers. Not only it has a huge end-user base but the wordpress development community itself is huge. The wordpress community exists to create, collaborate and help resolve issues in a collaborative environment. So when a web design company tells you “Don’t take my word for it” they mean to say there are thousands of wordpress gurus who are actively adding new things to wordpress, to make it more robust and secure content management system.

  • 5 Modifications you can do on your eCommerce Website to Boost Conversion

    5 Modifications you can do on your eCommerce Website to Boost Conversion

    There are many ways to leverage your website conversion rate to the point that it will generate more leads, but when it comes to an eCommerce site the science is a bit different. There are many factors that affect sales of an eCommerce site hence affecting the conversion rate directly. There are many Kiwi online stores who have had a good conversion rate achieved for them by Website Design Auckland.

    People often ask for the magical ingredient to win on the eCommerce conversion game. While the strategy may vary from one eCommerce website to another, but highlighted below are some handpicked ux components that can very well boost conversion of any given eCommerce site.

    eCommerce Website Design Auckland;
    5 Essential UX Components to take care of

    Light-Weight & Good Quality Product Images

    Product images play a key role in any eCommerce website. A good quality product image is of paramount importance to an eCommerce website. A survey carried out by Web Design Company Auckland tells the same story, a pet store selling pet accessories is a good selling online store only if the pictures of the accessories are of good quality, lightweight and in different perspectives.

    A good product image, according to some of the https://demo.numeroagency.co.nz/best Auckland web designers, is the one that is high on quality and low on memory. Due to the advancement in mobile technologies, websites are now built with keeping the mobile and tablet users first in mind. The lower the memory space images take on mobile the better conversion rate for the website. On the other hand good better quality product images lead to better traffic and user experience.

    Content is King

    Most visitors are concerned with the product feature and detail descriptions. People want to make sure they buy the right product for the right money. One of the beauties of online shopping is that you get a whole lot information before you buy a certain product. If your product information is inadequate you are most probably losing on a great deal of conversion. A good product information has all the details that can answer all the possible queries that can come in the mind of an average customer. Giving proper headings for features, qualities, comparison points and other selling points in proper placement and usage can make a good content for boosting your sales.

    FAQ section is another way to answer the customer’s common queries. A good FAQ can be very useful in turning visitors into customers. Check out some good examples for a good quality content in Web Design Company Auckland website.

    Promotional Videos

    Gone are the days when only images would be the only media found on an eCommerce website. In today’s world where facebook and youtube videos are making a great deal of impact on users and creating a whole new experience for both consumers and marketers alike. We are seeing more and more product promotional and explanatory videos to complement the product images.

    Product videos have become a very useful addition to the user experience of a website. As many buyers would like to see things in action and see how it works before they buy them. Web Design Company Auckland showcases few good examples in the portfolio that exhibits videos as for product promotion.

    Customization sells like hot cakes

    If there is anything that consumers like the most while buying products online; it’s personalization. From cars and houses to purse and phone cases people want to see if a product has enough customization options available. According to a survey by some of the best Auckland web designers, women shoppers tend to look for customizable products more than men do.

    Design to fit all device types

    The digital revolution has brought online experience to handheld and wrist wears. More and more people are browsing websites on mobile devices than ever before. Website load times, images resolution and template models are redefined to create a seamless user experience for mobile and tablet devices.

  • A quick guide to the creative trends for 2018

    A quick guide to the creative trends for 2018

    The year 2018 is here and many marketers and business owners are already embarking on new journeys to target their audience. For some, it will be adapting to new market trends to dominate social media. For others it will be using data to gain insight into the customers buying pattern.

    No matter the size of your company, you will always need to stay up to date with marketing and design trends. Knowing the latest marketing and design trends can make a huge difference, exposing new leads and converting clicks into customers.

    Keeping on top of design and marketing trends involves a lot of research. But thanks to Shutterstock , you can be saved from this time consuming job. With a portfolio of more than 160 million stock images, Shutterstock is a leading online resource for designers and marketers. It analyses user search data and patterns , in order to report upon meaningful trends. Based on these reports, the stock images giant confirmed some concepts that are most likely to influence marketers this year.

    Here is a sneak peek at some of the most influential creative trends for 2018.

    Fantasy

    The world of imagination has been influential for the last few years, including Hollywood blockbusters like “Game of Thrones” and “Harry Potter”, or the recently announced “Lord of the Rings Sequel”. Mythical beasts and places have become part of our unconscious memories. We seem to relate to them, finding ourselves fascinated by their fantasy characters. Mythical characters such as unicorns and mermaids are getting the most search hits, increased by up to 297% and 145% respectively.

    Owing to the growing popularity of the fantasy genre, marketers and creatives have taken to new ways of adding supernatural ambience to our day-to-day life.

    New Minimalism

    The creative trend that was founded in 1960’s-70’s is evolving and taking a new form; thus making ways for artists and visualizers to explore a whole new world of New Minimalism. New minimalism goes beyond crisp and clean lines to make way for bolder, vibrant colours and fluid forms to redefine this extremely popular art genre.

    Concentrated colours, mixed texture, neon lights and lines have been on top of the search results. Continuous lines have been the most popular technique in New Minimalism with a staggering 432% increase in search. Creatives and marketers are exploring new ways to engage their audience, by using continuous lines, neon lights, added textures and concentrated colour in their artwork – to
    make bold statements.

    Space

    The search for interstellar objects has dramatically increased in the creative and marketing community. We have had many box office successes with Star Wars, Star Trek, Interstellar and Passengers, to name a few. These movies and NASA’s space exploration program have added a renewed interest in space, also affecting creative and marketing trends. A staggering 991% increase in search queries for the word “solar” emphasis it’s growing popularity.

    Lux Nature

    Natural elements are getting more focus from creative directors. Marble texture and natural patterns are increasingly popular in our design trends. Marble stones are at the centre of the search for nature with a 416% increase in searches. With a 275% increase in search results, the agate stone is a close runner-up. One may be wondering why the sudden obsession for these geological themes? One reason that critics explain, is that the mythical textures on the marble stones are storytellers of the past ages. They hold secrets of many thousand years past. (I think they just look great!)

    Punchy Pastels

    Marshmallow and candy are becoming more of an inspirational object then just sweets for the taste buds. These colours have invented a new genre in creative arts, also referred to as Punchy Pastels. User Interface Designers, relying heavily on Google design trends, have been playful lately by making interfaces that invoke fun and are sweet on the eyes. Blue candy has gained 609% growth in popularity, according to Shutterstock analytics. Here at Numero, we take the hard work out of staying up to date with marketing trends. Feel free to get in touch to have a chat or find out more.

    Richard Gilbert

    Founder

  • If Your Website Is Missing These 5 Things, You Could Be Losing Customers

    If Your Website Is Missing These 5 Things, You Could Be Losing Customers

    Your website should be about more than creating an attractive introduction to your business. It is also more than being a simple tool to explain what you do and who you are. Instead, your website should actively help generate sales for your business.

    This applies whatever industry you are in. It also applies whatever type of website you have, including if your website is a straightforward brochure-type site.

    There are essential elements you need to have on your website, however, to ensure you get as many customers from it as possible. Here are five of the most important.

    1. Contact Number on Every Page

    Visitors to your website should be able to find your contact telephone number within a few seconds, whatever page they are on. Therefore, it’s important you don’t just put your contact details on your contact page. You should still have a contact page, of course, with full contact details. Your contact number, however, should appear on every page.

    Good places to add this are in the footer or, ideally, the header. If it’s in the header, visitors will see it without having to scroll.

    2. Calls to Action

    It is also essential you tell visitors to your website what you want them to do. If you don’t, they will probably leave to continue their search elsewhere. Do you know what happens then? In many cases, visitors will arrive at another website that does have a call to action and they will become a customer of that business.

    Calls to action explain to the customer what they should do next, plus they encourage the user to take immediate action.

    3. Responsive Design

    If your website does not have a responsive design, it will not be shown on Google searches where the searcher uses a mobile device. So, to ensure your website appears in as many Google search results as possible, you need a responsive design.

    Responsive design ensures your website displays properly on any size screen and on any device. In other words, making your website responsive also improves the user experience. This will help you get more customers to take a positive action when they visit, i.e. phone your business or send you an enquiry.

    4. Testimonials

    One of the main jobs your website should perform is to build trust with the visitor. You can do this by demonstrating you understand what they are looking for and that you have a viable solution. This is normally achieved through the content on your website. It is also important you show you are credible.

    Social proof is essential too, as nobody wants to be the first to buy or try something. Instead, they want to learn about the experience of others to give them confidence in your brand. You can do this by including testimonials on your website.

    5. Contact Form

    The main purpose of adding a contact form to your website is to make it as easy as possible for visitors to contact you. You should include other contact options as well, but make sure you also have a contact form.

    Your objective should be to maximise the potential of each person who visits your website, i.e. taking steps to encourage them to become a customer or make an enquiry. The five tips above will help substantially in achieving this objective.

  • 8 Places You Should be Promoting Your Website

    8 Places You Should be Promoting Your Website

    You have a nice, shiny new website – now what? In many respects, building a new website is only the start of your digital marketing journey. It is an essential part of the journey as it presents your brand and explains to potential customers what you do and why they should choose you. Now you must get your website in front of those potential customers, and that means promoting it.

    This won’t happen on its own, so you will need to take action. Here are nine places you should be promoting your website.

    1. Marketing and Business MaterialStart with things like your business letterheads, business cards, brochures, print advertising, and other marketing and business materials. You should include your website in all these locations.
    2. Business CommunicationsYour email signature is also incredibly important. You should edit or set up a signature so everyone who receives an email from you sees your website address.
    3. Google SearchGetting traffic from Google search is known as SEO and it’s a huge topic – too big for this article. The starting point is to ensure your website has a good SEO structure. You then need to set it up on Google Webmaster Tools. You might need help with this, but Webmaster Tools is essentially a tool from Google that lets you see how the search giant views your website in relation to its search pages.It lets you upload a sitemap to give Google a better understanding of what is on your website and how it links together. You can also monitor Webmaster Tools to see if Google finds any errors when it crawls your website. Doing these things will get you started with SEO.
    4. Social MediaYou can promote your website both on your personal social media accounts and your business accounts. If you don’t have business accounts yet, you should consider setting them up on the social media platforms that are most relevant to your business. This could be Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or any other social media platform your customers use. Once you have the accounts, you need to build your audience before you can effectively promote your website.
    5. Google My BusinessGoogle My Business is another tool from Google that gives you some control over how Google displays details about your business. It is particularly beneficial for local businesses, but all businesses can benefit. With Google My Business, you can add photos, opening hours, telephone numbers, and more. Google can then display this information on search results pages, Google Maps, and more.
    6. Google AdWordsThis is Google’s PPC (pay per click) advertising platform. It gives you the opportunity to pay for inclusion in Google’s search results pages for your selected keywords. Anyone can set up a Google AdWords campaign, although you will probably need help from an expert to ensure it is optimised.
    7. Facebook AdsFacebook is the largest social media platform in New Zealand and in most other countries around the world. It is, therefore, another platform you can use to promote your website. The targeting options that Facebook offers are very effective, plus it can be cost-effective compared to other forms of advertising.
    8. Email Marketing If you have a list of email addresses that you use to send marketing messages too, you can also use this to promote your website. If you don’t have a list yet, you should start the process of creating one as email marketing is an effective digital marketing strategy. You can collect email addresses of subscribers through Facebook and your website.All the above options are effective, although you may need professional assistance with many of them. They will all get visitors to your website, though.
  • Making the Best Use of Images on Your Website

    Making the Best Use of Images on Your Website

    Your website needs images – there is no getting away from that fact. Images make your website look better and they enhance the user experience. The latter point is incredibly important to the success of your website. Finding the right images is not always easy, though.

    You basically have two options:

    1. Use images you have taken
    2. Use stock images

    What are the advantages and disadvantages of each, and which should you use?

    Images You Have Taken

    In an ideal world, this is the best option as it adds personality and authenticity to your website. The main disadvantage is quality. Unless the images are high-quality, you may lose the benefits that come from using images you have taken.

    It is important, therefore, to spend some time researching tips on how to take good photos. You don’t need to become a photography expert, and you don’t need any special equipment. The camera on your phone will be sufficient and you will probably have filters on your phone you can use to sharpen and enhance the images. Best of all, you can do this without any technical expertise.

    The things you need to think about include lighting and how to frame the image. Make sure any people in your images are smiling, and think about things like backgrounds. For example, do the desks in the background of your photo look untidy?

    Using your own images will enhance your website if you can get these quality issues right. You can add branding, for example, by including a sign with your company name and logo in the background or by getting staff to wear branded clothing. Using your own staff in images also makes the website more personal and engaging.

    Stock Images

    Stock images offer three benefits:

    1. They are easy to find – whatever your industry, your developer will be able to find suitable stock images for your website.
    2. They are quick to find – taking photos yourself can be time-consuming, particularly if you do it right. You can find stock images, on the other hand, in minutes.
    3. They are high-quality – almost all stock images are taken by professional and/or experienced photographers. As a result, you can expect them to be high-quality.

    What You Should Do

    So, should you spend the time and effort getting your own images or should you use stock images? For most businesses and websites, the solution is a hybrid one, i.e. you use some of your own images with the rest being stock images. This gives you the best of both worlds and minimises their disadvantages.

    Importantly, you should try to include at least some of your own images on the website, even if you are primarily using stock images. Without your own images, your website risks looking just like all the other websites out there, even if you have a fantastic designer.

    In summary, images do not have to be something that holds up the production or launch of your new website as stock images are so readily available. It is important to include your own images on the site too, though, to make it unique and more authentic.

  • Why Every Business Needs a Website

    Why Every Business Needs a Website

    There used to be a time when marketing and business experts would have considered a website as being optional for some businesses. Not anymore. In today’s always connected world, every business needs a website, including small businesses and local businesses.

    Here are 9 reasons why your business needs a website.

    1. Customers Expect You to Have a Website
      Your customers expect to be able to quickly find information they need about your business, products, or services by turning to the internet. This is best delivered on a website, even if you have a good social media presence. Your website doesn’t have to be big or complex, but you should have one.
    2. Potential Customers Use the Internet to Search for Your Products or Services
      People use the internet today like they used to use the phone book, i.e. when searching for a product or service they, they use Google. This includes local services such as locksmith or plumbing services. If you don’t have a website, the likelihood of these potential customers finding you is greatly reduced. Instead, they will go to one of your competitors that does have a website.
    3. A Website Brings Leads and Customers to Your Business
      Not only will a website let potential customers find information about you, it will also give you an opportunity to turn those visitors into a lead or customer for your business. Remember again that this applies even if you are already strong on social media. This is because your social media profile is unlikely to appear in a search result. If you want leads and customers from search (and who doesn’t) you need a website.
    4. Makes You Available 24/7
      A website never closes and it never sleeps so customers can find information about you and can even contact you via forms any day of the week and at any time of the day or night.
    5. Presents a More Professional Image
      A website also gives your business legitimacy. This goes back to the first point that customers expect you to have a website. If you don’t, they will have questions about your professionalism so might choose one of your competitors instead.
    6. Demonstrates Your Experience and Authority
      A website also gives you an opportunity to showcase what you are capable of. Examples of this include writing blog articles, offering case studies, or publishing testimonials. All these things enhance the image of your brand and build trust with potential customers.
    7. Allows You to Target a Wider Audience
      If you choose, you can reach a global audience with your website or simply a wider audience closer to home. In other words, a website lets you expand into new markets.
    8. Gives You an Opportunity to Personalise Your Brand
      You are in control of the content on your website so you can present the right image about your brand to visitors. For example, you can provide reassurance if you provide professional services or show off your fun side on a blog if you offer more light-hearted products.
    9. Delivers Good Return on Investment
      A website is an inexpensive marketing tool that will deliver long-term results for your business. You will get value in terms of brand recognition and customer services, but it also helps you increase revenue.

    Finally, a website is not difficult to get and can be up-and-running quickly with minimal effort from you. If you don’t have one yet, it’s time to get one.

  • Getting a Website Built in WordPress Vs a Website Builder

    Getting a Website Built in WordPress Vs a Website Builder

    You’ve probably seen ads on the TV or online encouraging you to build your website using a free website builder. Those ads tell you how cheap and easy it is to launch a website and that you don’t need any technical expertise. Why, then, do website designers advise you to use WordPress?

    It is technically possible to create and launch a website using a proprietary website builder like Wix or Weebly. Doing so, however, limits your options plus there is little flexibility and the result won’t look professional.

    Here are some of the main differences between using WordPress or using a proprietary website builder.

    Features

    Proprietary website builders have apps, add-ons, and plugins, but nowhere close to as many as WordPress has.

    In addition, as WordPress is open source, your designer can code your website to do almost anything you want, even if no suitable plugin exists. In other words, they can create a new plugin, customise an existing plugin, or use other techniques to give you the functionality you require. This is not possible on platforms like Wix or Weebly.

    Design

    There are 100s of templates to choose from on proprietary website builders including, on some platforms, high-quality premium templates. It is also possible to do some limited customisations on these templates.

    However, there are 1,000s of templates available on WordPress, both free and premium. In addition, your website designer will be able to customise your template any way you want.

    Ease of Use

    It is harder to create a website with WordPress. This is because you must customise templates, add and customise plugins, organise hosting, and more. Of course, the result is a much more powerful website, but some technical expertise is required to get there.

    That said, adding content to a WordPress website is just as easy as adding content to a website builder like Wix or Weebly.

    What does this mean in practice? When you use a professional website designer, you won’t have to worry about the complexity of setting up a website in WordPress as your designer will already have the necessary skills. Plus, as has been already said, you will get a much better result and you will benefit from how easy it is to add content to WordPress.

    Flexibility

    One of the reasons proprietary website builders are so easy to use is they severely restrict flexibility. Some are more flexible today than they used to be, but they are nowhere near as flexible as WordPress. Here are some examples of the differences in flexibility:

    • It’s easier to change the design of a WordPress website – you just change the theme.
    • You have greater flexibility in the features you can add to a WordPress website as well as how those features look and work.
    • There is greater control over how to set up and run an eCommerce store built in WordPress. For example, Wix offers limited payment processor options whereas you can choose whatever payment platform you want with WordPress.
    • You are locked-in when you use a website builder. This means you usually have to start again if you want to move to a new platform. This is not the case with WordPress.

    eCommerce

    Most propriety website builders will offer some eCommerce functionality, although sometimes there are additional charges. That functionality is usually only suitable for small operations and, as has already been mentioned, there is not much flexibility.

    With WordPress, however, you can create any type of eCommerce website you need adding whatever functionality you want.

    Which Should You Choose?

    Your website is more than a shop window for your brand. Instead, it is a powerful tool that, when used right, will generate leads, win new customers, and increase the profitability of your business. It is, therefore, important you invest properly in getting a professional website. That means using a website designer and building the website in WordPress. When you do this, your website will deliver long-term results for your business.