TRI-CITY   Web Design

Why to use / not use Free Web Site Design

Talking with customers who created their web sites using Free Web Design Services available on the Internet, we did some analysis. Why it is not a good idea to use these services? If you are currently thinking about creating a web presence for your business using such services, please take into consideration following points.

• You should be computer savvy.
  If you do not want to hire a web designer who specializes in this area you should learn how to upload files, change content for your pages and generally how to use this service.
• Buy your own Domain.
  If you chose to buy a domain name for your business and somebody else is going to do this for you, remember that your domain name should be your equity and should be registered under your name. Do not register under the name of some free web design company or under your friend’s name that is helping you. What if this company offers to sell your domain to you later at double the price? Or your friend or relative who registered the domain moves to another city or forgets the password for the account? We’ve heard such stories, when people have lost their name due to such mistakes. If you want to stay in business for more than one year then always register the domain name under your personal name and keep a copy of all logins and passwords.
• Code Errors.
  Some free web systems offer visual editors for editing pages which makes their life easier. You do not bother them by asking for text updates for your website. There appears to be some advantages for you to use such systems. To change website content you do not need to know HTML tags or CSS style sheets and the work in such visual editors is easy, like typing in Microsoft Word. Enter text, highlight it and do some formatting. Sounds good to you! But what are the consequences?
  Such visual editors often create “unclear codes” inside the page. Here is an example of a messy code created by a  Free Web Design Portal:

Below is an example of clear code:

Please notice that both examples are displayed in the web browsers as a simple sentence:

Welcome to our Company

What does this dirty code, generally with errors and not W3C compliant, mean for your web page? More about Google and W3C compliance...

Your page may be twice (if not five) times larger in size and it takes longer to load such heavy pages by the web browser. Large page size is not the main problem in our time of fast Internet though. The bigger problem is that messy HTML may confuse GoogleBot and cause it to miss important content. Your easily created pages may get a very low rating in the google search results. But you want people to find your company through Google, right?

To have a good Google rating your web site needs special work with HTML codes & content. Web pages should be well optimized for required key words. Free web design systems do not care about this, their software only acts according to an algorithm. Search Engine Optimization should be done individually for every site.

• Hidden Links.
  It is often situation when Free Web Design Portal adds hidden (not visible on the web page) links to another web site. Having added link to numerous amount of sites, Free Web Design portal promotes itself or other companies (who probably paid for building web links service). Portal is doing this by using your web site and you do not aware of this, as you need to have some knowledge to find this invisible links!  
• Hidden Costs.
  Another type of “free” web design is when a company does web design for free but you pay them for hosting. This is just a hidden price of web design. If you are getting design for free you are expected not to be too fussy and you will have very limited support.

These are some thoughts to consider if you are looking for very cheap or free web design. Everything has its price and its pros and cons. It is up to you to start your business with a professional web design company or to choose free web design and hire a professional later anyway.