8 Reasons NOT to have a website
The reason for talking to you today is to give you helpful advice on reasons NOT to have a free website. Hopefully this little guide will be a valuable insight to finding the right website for your business.
Getting free websites is tempting if you’re starting out. The internet is full of companies offering free websites and free website hosting. This all sounds great doesn’t it? But remember the old saying: “You get what you pay for”? We’re not saying you need to spend thousands on a CMS website (for instance our custom built 'pay as you go' websites start at just £40 per month) but what we are saying is be careful what you choose and who you get it from.
There is invariably a catch if a website or website hosting is free. You’re probably wondering ‘why isn’t everyone else using a free website’ or dare I say it…. a ‘free WordPress website’? In this article, I’ll share reasons why having a free website is a bad idea and something that you should AVOID at all costs.
Reasons why having a “Free Website” is a bad idea
Slow loading websites
Having a slow loading website is annoying for your users and they’ll probably abandon your website – raising your ‘bounce rate’ (which is not good). Slow loading websites are detrimental to your natural listing in SERPS (search engine results pages), e.g. Google results. Most free websites are also hosted for free too. Free hosting providers put thousands of websites on the same hosting server – making all websites on those servers really slow to load.
Unprofessional web addresses
Free website builder packages may offer 1000’s of website templates from which to choose, but you can’t choose your domain name and having a domain name like freewebsites.com/mysmallbusiness looks unprofessional and any new customers that find you (usually by accident) will not take your business seriously.
You will lose your domain name
If you’ve paid extra for a proper domain name like mybusiness.co.uk, invariably they are the registered owners of the domain name so you don’t actually ‘own’ that either. So if you wanted to move away from them you couldn’t take your domain name with you. This means you’d have to start your website from scratch all over again with a new domain name. Google will then class you as a new website with no previous history so any Google listings you’ve managed to accumulate over the years will be lost. It’s a complete waste of your time.
You will never be number one in Google = Bad SEO (search engine optimisation)
Free websites are invariably there for the free website creators to advertise on. Therefore it is unlikely you’ll get any good natural listings in SERPS (search engine results pages). You will never be number one in Google and highly unlikely to be anywhere near the first few pages of Google. So you need to decide that if you want to be found in Google for what you ‘do’ rather than ‘who you are’ you need to get a professional website. Put some budget in to it and you’ll need to put a bit more effort in to it too. There are no shortcuts if you want a professional website but there are professional website builders who can help and advise you. Contact aprompt website designers in Wiltshire if you have a question about starting a website. We’d be happy to help you.
Unwanted adverts
The ‘free website creators’ will usually force you to accept unwanted adverts on your business websites. Usually advertising their website builder software. They don’t care whether your business is a success or not – they just want to show more online adverts about their free website builder packages. This will hurt your online reputation. There is no doubt about that.
Your data can be sold
As you know, the word ‘free’ can cost you a lot. These free website creator template companies need to make money somehow and if you’re not paying for it then you are the product. These companies find ways to make money out of your contact details – such as name, address, telephone number, email address, personal information.
Don’t be fooled – they will make money out of you whether you notice it or not.
Free doesn’t necessarily stay free
It’s common practice for businesses to lure in customers under the “freemium” model. This involves providing a service for free initially and then they start charging a few months down the road. And it probably won’t be cheap for the service you’re getting.
Your business website is in their control – not yours
Your site could go down at any time. As you don’t own your website, you have no control over when it’s live. Your host can decide to pull your site at any time without warning. Free websites and free hosts are notorious for pulling websites for a host of dubious reasons and no matter how much you protest; they don’t have to put it back up.
This could also mean you lose your email accounts depending if you’ve got free email services with them too. After all – you don’t pay them anything do you? Once it does go down, your content is probably gone for good – or they’ll charge you to bring it back but by the time they do (if they are still in business), you’ve probably already lost the few Google rankings you had anyway.
This all sounds doom and gloom doesn't it? Well you're right. Free website creators are doom and gloom!
So if you are serious about your business website design, please do contact our website designers and we can help your business with a professional website. Click how to get a cheap website for more website help.
Written by Kirsty Paget
