DIY VS. WordPress
1)You don’t own your content
When you use WIX, Squarespace, or any other DIY platform you do not own your content. These platforms are allowing you to rent their space and whatever content you put on your website you do not have ownership of so as your business expands down the road when you need to add services or change platforms you will not be able to keep your content or website. The benefit of using WordPress is that it is an open source platform and you still have full control over your site, you have access and control over all the content, all the files, the database, the code, you have access to everything with no limitations.
2)You don’t control hosting
You are unable to control where your site is hosted and if you are on a bad server unfortunately you do not have the ability to change. Typically signs that you are on a bad server are slow loading times or constant down time. WordPress allows you to control where your website is hosted and move to different hosting companies if one is not working out. When you have a bad host that causes your website to be slow often it will mess up any SEO value in Google because it knows that you’re on bad hosting platform, and you can’t do anything about that. The benefit of an open source platform like WordPress, if you try a host out, and you are having issues, maybe you’re on a shared server, and you just feel like it’s slow. You’ve run some tests. Also it’s obviously slow, you can always move your site.
3)Expensive upgrades
DIY platforms are very cheap to get started and host as well as using their templates. When you need to start adding services or functionality they will nickel and dime you on the upgrades which can become very expensive. Even with large projects that have a lot of custom web design, on WordPress, the project initially will have an upfront cost but once its built you are good to go. Your web designer or their agency should be having hosting and maintenance for you, then it just needs additional upgrades and retainer of hours for content updates.
4)You have limited functionality
When you need to add more to your site, such as plugins, add ons, e commerce, or anything of that resources to your site the self hosted DIY platforms have very limited tools and add ons for you to use. You’re pretty much stuck with the options that they provide for you. When using WordPress there are so many developers and authors that you have access to all those tools to use on your website. By using an open source platform like WordPress your website is easily customizable and can be tailored to your industry.
5)Customization is very limited
Wix does have the ability to customize your page but you are gated from the actual full customization from your website and don’t give you a lot of options to change your CSS, Javascript, or jQuery which can help with functionality and your mobile site. Also it is very difficult to find a professional designer or developer that will work on a DIY platform. It is not the same and does not offer nearly what someone needs to make a full website with full functionality, SEO, and the tools.
6)Limited Designer and Developer Network
Designers and Developers find it hard to work on these platforms because they are geared towards the DIY marker. These WIX and Squarespace platforms are geared for the person that wants to build their own website fairly quickly and move on with their business. You are not going to find too many professionals that will work on the DIY platforms. Whereas WordPress you have plenty of options of well trained web designers and agencies with a huge network. Imagine needing help making a customization on your website or adding a new function that you can not figure out, you’re more than likely going to be stuck trying to figure it out yourself.
7)Bad for SEO
This might be the most important reason. The DIY websites are terrible for SEO. SEO is the way that google and other search engines find your websites and help people find your page. Part of the reason the DIY are not great for SEO is because of the poor hosting, which search engines like google do know if a site is on a bad server with bad hosting because they are focusing on the user experience. The DIY platform lacks the tools for tracking and optimization. Typically a DIY is not aware of the best practices for SEO optimization, whereas a web designer or agency will know the best practices on how to structure an HTML page with a H1, paragraph, text, etc. A platform for WordPress is built for SEO and is easier to get rankings.
8)Terrible for moving your website
If you have had a site for months or years on WIX or Squarespace and want to move to another platform, you will have to recreate the entire site from scratch. The beautiful thing about WordPress is you can migrate an entire site to a different host, change themes, or anything else with exporting your site. You have control over your files and content, but on WIX and Squarespace you do not own the content.
9)Small Community
A DIY who wants to build their website unfortunately will have to go through the growing pains of figuring out how to put it together and fix any issues on their own. It is very unlikely that there are any facebook groups or community that will help them. Rather with WordPress it is a very vast community with developers, support groups, and is very supportive and robust. Often time you can get help from fellow developers or in groups to help out. I myself have a couple colleagues that I can go to when I’m running into an issue.
10) Overtime the cost will add up
When you look at the total project it can be very, very costly in the long run for clients. After all that we have talked about combined, can really make for a very costly experience to DIY. Typically a DIY is not building a site with a successful online presence for the long run. Again you are probably losing a lot of SEO value on Google. The other problem that can be created from these platforms is that it probably will not look great and more importantly the traffic that is coming to your site is not going to convert.
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