Whats the best website building site?

[JONNYROTTEN]

I need to get a website for my company. I know zero about website building and computers in general.
I have a domain name from GoDaddy.
I'm reading many web builders own your website and you cant move them if I choose. I dont know if thats normal or if its bad that I'm locked into one place for life.

I want it to work on mobile phones which I'm not sure if they go hand in hand or if its something separate.

I'm sure I'll need a paid site to build it because I dont have a clue how to do it myself and actually make it look professional

Any help would be great.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I need to get a website for my company. I know zero about website building and computers in general.

Hire someone, seriously.

 

[deadwolfbones]

Wix and Squarespace both make it pretty easy, but yeah, you should hire a (good) website designer. They get paid to do it for a reason.

 

[Sadu]

I work in the industry. You can totally make yourself a good website using the website builder platforms if you are prepared to put in the work. It's 90% about the content. You'll need good photos and text that is informative and non-cheesy. For most (not all) businesses flash design and whizz bang features is very much a secondary concern. If you pay a pro it will be less hassle and you get a better result but the costs vary a lot. We have customers who have great sites that they built themselves with zero prior experience.

 

[MaxStout]

Hire someone, seriously.

And make sure your company retains ALL of the intellectual property rights to the design and content. It's called work made for hire. Put it in the contract. Some unscupulous web designers try to use their own contracts, with language assigning themselves the IP rights. If things go sour between the company and the web designer, the designer may try to claim ownership. It happens more than you think.

 

[LittleRiver]

The best website builder/host is the one that will provide your website with the most visibility. If searches don't connect searchers to you then you will have a poorly performing web site. Search engine optimization (SEO) needs to be at the top of your priorities when comparing the different providers.

You would think that all of the providers take all of the steps they can to have good SEO, but amazingly many of them do a poor job at it. Take a look at this article for some good (and current) info.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

If you're hiring someone, make sure they're well-vetted. I was involved in a website build once where the website builder was excellent at graphic design but not technical, so she subcontracted the actual code to developers in India. Problem was that she wasn't technical enough to adequately manage them, so I ended up doing a lot of that through her. But I've got experience with coding in general and a little with HTML/PHP, so I had enough knowledge to explain to them in the right terms what we needed.

If you don't have that level of technical knowledge, you need to find someone who can do everything right start to finish.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I need to get a website for my company. I know zero about website building and computers in general.

What @RPh_Guy said:

Hire someone, seriously.

There are online services that make publishing web sites easy.

Do they include best practices (2019) for secure web site implementation?

Does their business model include plans (and pricing) to remain secure over the lifetime of your web site?

OWASP top 10?

Content security policy?

Subresource Integrity?

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

I've been doing some research on web building using the advise given here. It's more involved than I thought it would be. I'll be hiring a web developer to build it for me. It seems 28% of all websites use WordPress. It seems to have good (SEO) and is recommended for small businesses.

What I dont see is if I own my website using them?

 

[Dory Rules]

There are two ways to use Wordpress. If you go through Wordpress.com you own the site, but Wordpress owns the domain, so your site address is www.mysite.wordpress.com. They make it easy to get a simple site up and going.
The other way is to go through a hosting company like Siteground or BlueHost. This way you have and own your own domain. Most of these sites make it easy to install Wordpress, and you have a lot more control over functionality and content.
Plus your site’s address is now www.myname.com
This takes more effort and research, so if you are not a nerd like me you can hire it out. Many of the hosting sites offer this service also.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

There are two ways to use Wordpress. If you go through Wordpress.com you own the site, but Wordpress owns the domain, so your site address is www.mysite.wordpress.com. They make it easy to get a simple site up and going.
The other way is to go through a hosting company like Siteground or BlueHost. This way you have and own your own domain. Most of these sites make it easy to install Wordpress, and you have a lot more control over functionality and content.
Plus your site’s address is now www.myname.com
This takes more effort and research, so if you are not a nerd like me you can hire it out. Many of the hosting sites offer this service also.

I have my domain name through GoDaddy already. How does that work if you say Wordpress owns my domain name?

 

[Dory Rules]

Check on the GoDaddy website. When you log into your admin area, check out the tools area. I’m not familiar with it, so not sure if it is there or not. Look to see if you can install Wordpress. Installing it this way on the hosting sites mentioned you do own the domain, as Wordpress is getting installed on your domain. Wordpress is an application that runs on the web server. If it is available from GoDaddy you then have access to all the plugins and themes available from Wordpress.ORG. Wordpress.org is a great resource for information as well.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Look to see if you can install Wordpress. Installing it this way on the hosting sites mentioned you do own the domain, as Wordpress is getting installed on your domain. Wordpress is an application that runs on the web server. If it is available from GoDaddy you then have access to all the plugins and themes available from Wordpress.ORG. Wordpress.org is a great resource for information as well.

Be aware that installing web based software (and add-ins) adds the role of web site administrator to ones daily responsibilities. Tracking software for security vulnerabilities, updating insecure software, and cleaning up after malware injections is all part of web site administration.

 

[Dory Rules]

That is true. If you have an active site, plan on averaging 2-4 hrs per week on administration, over and above content creation.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

That is true. If you have an active site, plan on averaging 2-4 hrs per week on administration, over and above content creation.

Now I'm really confused. I figured I'd pay someone to setup my website and pay wordpress or whoever $25 a month to maintain it and get me see with header banners on certain sites and whatnot. I've googled stuff and my competition has shown up where I wouldnt expect it......How do I need to spend a few hours every week on administration if I dont change/update things on the site?

 

[Dory Rules]

You can pay to have someone administer it as well. Even if you don’t change content, there are updates that come out regularly for anti-malware, updates to plugins, even Wordpress itself that need to be applied. Depends on how paranoid you are, what level of risk you are willing to assume, if it is a display only site or if you are selling on the site.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

You can pay to have someone administer it as well. Even if you don’t change content, there are updates that come out regularly for anti-malware, updates to plugins, even Wordpress itself that need to be applied. Depends on how paranoid you are, what level of risk you are willing to assume, if it is a display only site or if you are selling on the site.

Home Improvement site. Not selling anything or taking credit cards ETC. Theres nothing there to be hacked besides my pictures and company info, years in business ETC...nothing anyone would ever want to hack.

 

[Dory Rules]

Then it won’t take too much to administer. Apply updates a couple times each month and you are good.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Home Improvement site. Not selling anything or taking credit cards ETC. Theres nothing there to be hacked besides my pictures and company info, years in business ETC...nothing anyone would ever want to hack.

The "bad guys" don't always hack a site just for what's at the site. If they can use it as a 'stepping stone' to get somewhere (something, or someone) else, they will.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

The best website builder/host is the one that will provide your website with the most visibility. If searches don't connect searchers to you then you will have a poorly performing web site. Search engine optimization (SEO) needs to be at the top of your priorities when comparing the different providers.

You would think that all of the providers take all of the steps they can to have good SEO, but amazingly many of them do a poor job at it. Take a look at this article for some good (and current) info.

So I'm making progress. I got a recommendation from a someone I know that has a company and was happy with the guy.
So heres what he said. For $800 he can design my website and has a 4k drone and will drive around to jobs I've done and take pictures of roofs I've done and make everything look real professional. He'll also set me up with Google ad works and get me setup on social media marketing. That seemed fair to me and hell do all the work I know nothing about how to do.

He said he'll build the site and likes to use WIX to host it. I mentioned SEO and he sounded a little taken back. Alomst sounded like I was on speaker phone and took me off and was talking under his breath a bit when talking to me about it.

Which makes me a little nervous.

As a builder does that have anything to do with him or is SEO through hosts the website like WIX?

I also mentioned going on DIY websites and a banner came up from a local contractor. He said all that cost money and I can get as crazy as I want but recommended ad words on Google pay per click, He said it would probably run around $150 a month for google on average and $17 a month for WIX

Does this sound about right? you got me thinking about SEO and his response made me a tad nervous.

I'm ready to pull the trigger with this guy this weekend but looking for some feedback here first

 

[NeverDie]

Unless I'm mistaken, SEO is mostly about embedding the right keywords and content into your website such that it shows up near the top of page 1 on google when someone in your target market runs a related search. There's also a social media component, wherein enough people link to your site that it also helps its ranking.

Google doesn't publish its formulas, but an expert at SEO will know enough about what works and what doesn't. It tends to be a moving target.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Unless I'm mistaken, SEO is mostly about embedding the right keywords and content into your website such that it shows up near the top of page 1 on google when someone in your target market runs a related search. There's also a social media component, wherein enough people link to your site that it also helps its ranking.

Google doesn't publish its formulas, but an expert at SEO will know enough about what works and what doesn't. It tends to be a moving target.

Thats the problem. How do I know hes an expert at SEO?

So it IS the builder, the guy in question that needs to know about SEO and not the host like WIX?

And by keyword does that mean I tell him like "roof" Rook leak" "Gutter" "Contractor near me"

or is it coded stuff the he punches in like "edbzr5606783d" will get me seen that I know nothing about?

I "think" he said that the guys that are on the top pages of google have been on there forever and it takes time or alot of money to get bumped up....but I could be remembering wrong

 

[LittleRiver]

...He said he'll build the site and likes to use WIX to host it. I mentioned SEO and he sounded a little taken back.... is SEO through hosts the website like WIX?

I'm sure you noticed that the author of that article on SEO placed Wix in the "do not recommend" category, but also said it could be useful in some circumstances.

Hopefully some web professionals will chime in. If not, you may be able to find a forum that discusses just this type of thing, where you can find the right folks to give you an in depth answer.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

I'm sure you noticed that the author of that article on SEO placed Wix in the "do not recommend" category, but also said it could be useful in some circumstances.

Hopefully some web professionals will chime in. If not, you may be able to find a forum that discusses just this type of thing, where you can find the right folks to give you an in depth answer.

I feel like I'm putting a bit more effort into it than it's worth but I might as well my best bang for the buck. I thought I read that WIX was one of the best hosting sites for SEO but I'll have to revisit it.

I was also told by someone else not even to put that much into the website they're almost dead for home improvements .Most people go on social media "looking for recommendations" and social media is the wave of the future and put my money and effort there.

 

[NeverDie]

Thats the problem. How do I know hes an expert at SEO?

Well, SEO's are obviously trying to promote themselves too, so do a search for an SEO and then see what page your guy first shows up on. If he's no good, you'll lose patience before finding him that way. If he's really, really good, he'd be on page 1.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

THe guy says I own the site and hes working for me and uses no 3rd party people. I'm going to go with it. He seems knowledgeable. He did my buddies Landscape website and it has a bunch on links and looks professional....I asked the questions mentioned here....Thank you all for your help!! It helped put my mind at ease