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The Benefits of the “DIY” Website Builder

Channel Islands Hosting

You know you need a website.

You've probably heard lots of strong opinions about everyones "perfect" solution to creating a website. But the problem with the "perfect" solution is that there are no one size fits all solutions that everyone's needs perfectly. In the case of a website, the range of options from "full stack developers" to "content management systems" to "website builders" is downright dizzying. How are you, a busy small business owner, supposed to find the most cost-effective solution?

Firstly, a "cost-effective" solution has to be the one that won't break the bank. It simply must fit in the budget, or it won't work.
Secondly, the solution must meet the business objectives and be useful to you and your customers alike.
Finally, the solution must be sustainable.

Before you spend a dime on your site, you need to think about what the website will actually do. If you run a restaurant, for example, much of your website traffic will be customers accessing the site from their phones, and they'll be wanting to see the menu, get directions, and make reservations. Once you know what the site will do, you want to think about who will maintain your website. Whether simple content updates (like changing the menu) or keeping up with security updates to the code that makes the site happen, someone needs to maintain the site. Just like your delivery truck will break down without oil changes, your website will break down without maintenance.

Naturally, paying someone to "hard code" an entire website, debug it for multiple browsers / devices, and make updates is the most labor-intensive and expensive way to go about it. The up side is that you get the most truly custom solution possible.

A content management system is less expensive, and may allow you to do your own maintenance, but is still not the "most affordable" solution. The benefit is a balance between cost, customization, and ease of use.

The most affordable and easiest to use solution is a 'website builder". If you're working with a limited budget and/or are determined to create and maintain your own website, then the website builder may be for you because the benefits include

Custom Templates for Ease of Use

Channel Islands Hosting™ website builder included dozens of professionally designed website templates for you to choose from. These templates are tailored to a wide array of needs, and you can easily add and arrange your own content to really personalize your unique website. No coding required.

Reduced Time & Cost

When you create your own site with the website builder, you can make changes with a couple of clicks. You don't have to take the time going back and forth with a designer / developer.

Since the website builder includes an array of templates to choose from and is easy to use, you can avoid the expense of paying someone else to get you on line. While we would never try to say that there's no value in investing in the services of a professional designer, the fact is that not all businesses can afford the expense.

Many businesses that launch their site with a website builder will later upgrade to a CMS or a fully custom coded site as the business grows.

Stock Images

The website builder includes access to a library of stock photos. These stock images can further save you hundreds or thousands of dollars because you may not need to hire a professional photographer or buy stock photos.

Drag-and-Drop Design

With the website builder, if you want to move an element on your site, you simply drag it to its new location and drop it into place. You don't have to code anything, and you don't pay anyone else to, either.

Of course, the other side of these benefits when compared to custom code or content management systems is that the options can seem limited. This is because website builders are geared towards non-technical people and the system designers "lock down" the parts where system users would be most likely to break their website and become extremely frustrated and dissatisfied.

So in conclusion, the more technologically robust the solution you go to purchase, the more expensive and flexible they become. You want the website builder if you want the lowest cost, easiest to use solution to publishing your website.

Tags

Business CMS Content Management Systems cPanel Drupal Joomla Microsoft Plesk Web Hosting Websites Windows WordPress

Filed Under: Uncategorized

What do I need for my website?

Channel Islands Hosting

Regardless of who builds your site, where your site is hosted or what technology is utilized in developing it, all business websites require a few basic elements to be sure your site is contributing to the success of your business and not just wasting your money.

2

Domain

Your domain is the "web address" and how your customers will find you on the internet.

Hosting

A website is developed on a server, which is really just a specialized computer thet delivers your pages to your customers' web browser.

Functions

Functions are what your site does. Is this an e-commerce site? Are people signing up for subscriptions?

Content

Content refers to specific text, images, audio and video files that are on the website. It does not refer to fonts background colors, or layout. Those are parts of the theme, template, or style applied to the site. "Page level SEO" refers to making sure that your text contains appropriate key words and your page titles, meta tags and descriptions are set up properly so that search engines (and your customers) can find you. It also means making sure your images are properly sized to serve quickly so that those customers don't leave when your site takes too long to load in their browser.

Security Certificate

Without an SSL Certificate, you are putting both yourself and your customers at risk.

Maintenance

Without upkeep, your website will wither and die. Just having a website isn't enough. You have to make sure your site not only evolves with changes in technology, but does not become inactive and therefore ignored by search engines.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Business, Websites

What’s a cPanel?

Channel Islands Hosting

Servers Stock 1600x780

cPanel is a web based hosting control panel used to manage websites from a web based graphical user interface (GUI) from which you can control you portion of the Unix server.

The tools provided are designed to simplify running your website. It uses a tiered structure that allows different levels of access so that administrators and end users can control the different aspects of the website directly through a web browser (Firefox, Chrome, IE, etc.).

For detailed information, check out the official cPanel website.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: cPanel, Web Hosting, Websites

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