Hello, Nick Ponte here. I’m passionate about helping the businesses around me survive and thrive in an increasingly digital economy. So far this year, we’ve talked about many things pertinent to helping your business succeed, including Hawaiian trends and using social media to boost sales.
We’ve also gone through quite a bit surrounding SEO and web design. I realized, however, that I’ve yet to talk about one of the core pieces to building a successful website: the web platform.
When somebody decides to make a website for any reason, they either have to use a platform of some kind, or build it from scratch. Most people go with a platform. I would also recommend this unless you’re a coding genius or would like to pay through the nose for one.
Web platforms are kind of like done-for-you templates for you to fill in the content. The most popular ones today are WordPress (WP), Squarespace, and Wix, although new competitors are always trying to disrupt the market. Almost every business ends up using one of these three, but not everyone is clear about which to choose. They all seem to have their more straightforward pros and cons, which explains why, perhaps, none of them have a monopoly in the web design sphere.
I’d like to make the case of why WP should be your go-to platform, and also explain why I work with it exclusively in my digital marketing business. I never create or update websites for Hawaiian businesses without using WP.
Also Read: How Businesses in Hawaii Create Effective Websites
Why Your Web Platform Matters
First of all, if you’re a business in Hawaii without a website of your own, then I highly recommend creating one. Our economy has come to rely on the internet, with the majority of consumer experiences involving the World Wide Web at some step of the journey. I argue that unless your business has a quality website, then it will not thrive in 2021 and beyond. It might not even survive.
Because the internet has become such a prevalent and powerful tool for connecting customers to businesses, the kind of presence a business has on the internet deeply matters. Most members of the Millenial and Gen Z generations will examine a business’ website and social media before deciding to purchase anything from them. In order to reach the most connected and influential groups of consumers of all time, you have to pay attention to your web presence.
Businesses that don’t simply get left behind.
Because your website matters so much, the platform you use to build it (or have it built for you) also matters. Different platforms have different strengths and weaknesses. They make your website look and feel different to the user. They also have plenty going on under the surface, in their source code, which helps customers find your website in the first place.
Generally speaking, you want a site that looks good, performs well in searches, and offers a quality user experience. I contend that WordPress provides the greatest balance of all three.
Also Read: Designing a Website that Produces Results
How WordPress Beats Wix and Squarespace
Here’s how WP offers something comparable or superior in all three categories:
- WP Offers Comparable Aesthetics
Looks aren’t everything in business, but they certainly matter. You often hear phrases like “style over substance” or “presentation is everything,” especially in service and food-related sectors.
All three platforms have their unique visual style, but I’d say that WP’s is the most accessible to the most people. People my age (I’m a Millenial) tend to prefer simpler and more straightforward designs so that there is less between us and the information we need. Squarespace has a very simple design model, but it’s almost too simple, and definitely not appealing to older demographics.
Plus, with enough practice, or the right template, you can get a WP page to look however you want.
- WP Offers Top-Notch User Experience
Because WordPress has been around longer than its competitors, it has been adopted by more web designers. This has led to a robust selection of additional plug-ins and a large community of developers who know their way around it. Because of this, it’s very easy to build a website that is simple for your potential customers to use.
The other part of user experience comes in the form of page load times, which are affected mostly by large images and video. Squarespace and Wix websites often use larger images and videos unless you deliberately compress them, making it slightly easier to develop a lightweight website with WP. With WP, you will also run into fewer technical issues because of its longstanding reliability.
- WP is the King of SEO
Since we’ve established that WP offers viable looks and perhaps even superior user experience, all that’s left is SEO. This is the most important piece. What does it matter what your website looks like or how it handles if nobody can even find you?
Much of SEO is powered by the source code lying underneath your website’s content. WP’s content is more optimized, offering better links, the ability to add custom code, and less bloat “underneath the hood.” All this helps Google’s engine preview your website’s content and offer it a higher rank on the searches you want.
It also offers advanced SEO options that others cannot compete with. It comes as no surprise then, that sites built using WordPress tend to get exponentially more organic traffic than ones built with Wix or Squarespace.
As a professional web developer and SEO, WP is my top choice for building websites, including the one you’re reading. Whenever a client has me build a site, I use WP. If they want me to update their site, I always see if migrating to WP is a possibility. It’s just that good. And no, they aren’t paying me to say that.
If you want to learn more about web design or inquire about our services, reach out to us today!
Further Reading: Common SEO Mistakes Every Business in Hawaii Should Avoid
Photos Courtesy of Striving Blogger, Fikret tozak, and Joseph Gonzalez