WordPress vs SquareSpace, Wix, Weebly and other builders

Why wordpress is still miles ahead of competitors

Wondering if you should use wordpress or a subscription website builder such as SquareSpace or Wix? Here's why I think a well built wordpress site is still miles ahead of its competitors.

Technology solutions

Today I heard a great descriptive phrase: 'technology agnostic'. It describes the value of the outcome rather than the technology that supports it. It's a potent phrase on many levels - the solution over the framework - and it's a lens we should use to interrogate any software we choose.

I've heard this used as a reason for using proprietary software SquareSpace, Wix, Weebly et al - it's a means to an end, an easier user/builder experience and looks good without much effort. These are truths I won't dispute, and they're a great tool for a simple portfolio site that acts as a 'business card'.

Customisable for YOUR business needs

What WordPress delivers, though, is a solution beyond look and feel: a professional site that looks great, is search engine ready, is infinitely customisable for YOUR business needs.

SEO ready

It is the best tool, at the moment, to finesse your on page SEO (your keyworded content, your appropriately sized and titled images and their screen reader friendly Alt tags, whether the code that supports the site is lightweight and crawlable by google through your site map and intuitive linking and if your blogs are engaging your audience and making them want to share), to ensure your site is fast and looks good across all devices, engages with your email delivery software, enhancing your lead generation and outreach.

Modifications

WordPress is infinitely modifiable. If you imagine a function that will support your business and deliver a better outcome for your customers, it's a fair bet that someone else has built a plugin for it.Ecommerce is an easy integration on WordPress, with woocommerce and the even simpler bigcommerce. A shopping cart site solution like shopify or bigcartel are nipping at wordpress' heels for ease of use, but for SEO - an essential part of selling online, wordpress still outperforms. WordPress is built on 'open source' code which means anyone can access it to build an extension for a need. It's true that open source can also mean it's open to security issues, but maintaining up to date software mitigates this risk. It's part of being a good web user.

Drag and Drop builders

With modern builders: beaver builder* (and its useful satellites ultimate addons and beaver themer) and Elementor*, site creation is even faster and more accessible. With Gutenberg and its block/grid formatting coming on board for posts and soon pages, the drag and drop builder will be integral rather than an addon.

Hosting

Hosting can be a minefield to navigate and this is where proprietary tools can seem more attractive. The compromise is, though, with a proprietary sunscriptionchoose to place yourself in the hands of a 3rd party company rather than managing yourself.

Making your site work

Framework software aside, though, its the content, messaging and lead generation that makes a site successful. Neither SquareSpace, WordPress or Shopify can  develop your content strategy for you and speak to your clients at the moment they are looking for you. This comes from being clear what you need in a site, being clear on what your customers most pressing pain points are and continually and persistently talking to them and being the solution for them online.

** i have no affiliation with these tools, i just like them 🙂