Creating a website is easier than ever. It is true that there are many aspects to take into consideration, from web design to programming , but nowadays there are many useful tools to facilitate this task. These tools are website builders , really handy programs SEO problems that are able to take care of most of the work on your behalf.
However, you must also know how to use these tools. In fact it is true that most of the “heavy work” is done automatically, there is a very important factor that the user must take care of personally. This is SEO, or Search Engine Optimization , which is responsible for positioning your page in the Google ranking . With this article we will explain how website builders work and how to avoid the main SEO problems that can arise using them.
What are website builders
A website builder is a tool that allows anyone to create a web page, even without any programming and design knowledge. There are different types: each of them provides a large number of pre-built tools and templates that allow you to easily build the ideal page. If you are interested you can find useful information on this site . No knowledge of any programming language is required : Most builders use drag-and-drop technology to work, simply using the mouse to “grab” one of the widgets and then drag it wherever you want. As you can guess from this description, this type of service is very suitable for those who have clear ideas about their website but are afraid of not having the necessary technical skills to implement it.
As we said at the beginning, however, we need to pay a lot of attention to the SEO aspect. Here’s how to handle the five main issues that can arise.
Slowness of the page
A disadvantage of website builders is that, as an automated tool, source code management usually has some shortcomings. The task of writing the site code, in fact, is not left to the user but to the software that automatically compiles the files . Unfortunately, this type of program usually cannot write HTML efficiently, but it is usually heavy to load and inefficient. If the page is simple, this may not be a problem, but the richer the website features, the slower it will be. A site with a loading time greater than three seconds is considered a slow siteand may be subject to various penalties. Not only will this result in fewer visits, but even if Google considers them slow when loading the page, the engine will not deliver them in the first position and will prefer sites with higher page load speeds.
Mobile interface not adequate
A large number of users mainly use mobile devices (cell phones or tablets) to browse the Internet. Therefore, not optimizing the page for the latter is a good way to lose visitors, and also positioning in the Google ranking .
Often once a website has been created, its conversion to a format usable by mobile device screens is almost secondary and is not considered particularly important. Instead it should be, because desktop optimized pages often “break” during the conversion process. On the contrary, it is necessary to consider the fact from the beginning that our web pages will be displayed on many screens of different sizes and functionalities, and to use the appropriate tools to make them compatible for all users.
No SSL certificate
To ensure the security of your site and the trust of your users, you need to use a builder that includes an SSL certificate : it is a protocol for the secure transmission of digital data via encryption . The existence of the aforementioned agreement is indicated by the padlock to the left of the site address. Here is an article to learn more about how this protocol works.
Bad user experience
Nowadays, the experience that users have on a website is very important to ensure proper SEO positioning . But what exactly is the user experience?
It consists of a series of tricks to make the user experience as simple as possible . We talk about things like organizing the site in a clear way to facilitate navigation, designing the pages in a pleasant and smooth way, and above all making it functional for the purpose for which it was designed. If you need further advice on the user experience you can consult an article previously written by us .
Choose a website builder with the wrong functions
There are many different types of website builders and their basic functions are similar to each other. However, there are pages that have special needs that others don’t. For example, e-commerce pages have special requirements that “normal” pages don’t have at all. An ecommerce service must allow users to purchase products online, so it must also manage the payment process, shipping, must have customer service, review pages, and so on. This is just one example.
Therefore, it is very important to choose a builder designed specifically for online commerce, which provides all the plugins you might need and more. We must also pay attention to the price: it is precisely because of these particular needs that the average cost of a manufacturer designed for e-commerce is higher than other manufacturers. Many of these may also include useful additional services, such as web hosting options.
Final thoughts: the price
Speaking of price, the purchase price of website builders, so it’s hard to know which one best suits your needs. For example, there are some packages that are free, but they provide very limited functions. The standard option designed for non-commercial use is around 10 euros per month , but if you are interested in developing e-commerce activities, higher prices are usually offered based on the service requested, starting from 15 euros per month and above.
