Whenever one thinks of creating a digital platform for their business the first thing that naturally comes into our mind is, let's build a low-budget website (because there is no point to invest hugely in a website that initially does not have much chance of creating a great outcome; this is what most people think like). Let's face the fact; that making a website is not at all complicated nowadays in the technologically driven globe. One can easily pick any builder website template without any coding experience and create a website easily, conveniently and without paying much to the agencies or developers. But the hard truth remains unseen under the sugarcoating of the 'easiness' the website builders have laid down for us. 

First of all, what is a website builder and custom-built websites?

A website builder is a tool that easily creates a business or any kind of website without any need for coding experience. This is an easy explanation of the term but there's a lot more about it without many people realising some inevitable events which may occur if you build a website with a builder website. 

At the same time, many people prefer using custom-made websites which are building a website from scratch using coders or developers or agencies. A custom-built website is highly efficient, can be SEO-specific and may help you generate an organic audience without paying unimaginably on the marketing segments. 

The ultimate goal behind both types of website builders is one but the process, ease and finance differ highly. But as a business owner looking to move online, you must be in a huge dilemma which of these should you use for your digital brand journey? Well, it all depends upon your requirement, investment and important of all, perspective behind moving online. Studying all these factors you must choose if you should go for a custom-built website or a builder website. 

However, in order to interpret the difference and benefits of both of these in-depth, this article is going to explore how builder websites are easy to make but difficult to scale and how custom websites hold great benefits for businesses looking to explore the online business world. The world website builder market has been earning limitlessly all these years but we have several strong reasons why you should give a second thought to building your website using a website builder.

Before exploring the pros and cons of these website builder types, you first need to understand what things a website actually requires? Most people, especially, small-scale businesses are unaware of why exactly they need a website. Therefore, under a lack of knowledge, they build a website without being aware of what they must work on after creating one.

This leads to multiple downfalling scenarios such as:

• Disturbing the offline sales
• The collapse of marketing campaigns
• Huge investment wastage
• No organic traffic
• Irrational profit/loss sheet
• Disturbed business operations
• No audience (active/potential)

Whenever you plan to create a website, it is not only the website that you require but a proper package of it. The success of an online business depends 80% on its representation and marketing. So both hold equal important first thing while creating a new site.

Here are some important aspects that need to be explored other than wholly building a website:

• Search Engine Optimisation Friendliness
• Frequent Customisations
• Content Management Software, in some cases
• Quirky and attractive templates
• A responsive and uncomplicated website
• Security & timely updations
• High-quality digital marketing campaigns

All these factors together create the best out of a digitally connected website in terms of popularity, sales, organic audience and much more. We will explore each required factor in our upcoming blog but today, let’s discuss how beneficial custom-built websites are.

A Note: As a digital marketing agency ourselves, we have created more than a thousand custom-built websites while explaining the importance to our clients. Being involved in both kinds of website builders, we try to pick the best for the brands aiming to explore the best of their fields as well as the online game of businesses.

Better scalable SEO

Search Engine Optimisation is the foundation of a website. If you are willing to invest in building a website but don’t scale your SEO activities, better not to create a website at all. Almost 90 per cent of businesses moving online plan to expand their businesses, brands or ventures and if you are 1 among these, then building an SEO-friendly site should be your top-most priority.

The more you will spread the word about your business through SEO, the more will people be able to know what your business is about. Via a custom-built site, you will be able to bring many practices in function such as link building, content optimisation, off-page SEO, on-page SEO, and many other things in a hand full of time and money. However, on the builder websites, you will have to buy an add-on separately on a per-month basis.

Highly Customisable in all possible ways

Did you know? As much as 75% of the credibility is witnessed from the design of the site. Most of the builder website templates are free, hence limiting your design template and website showcase. If we look at it as a business ourselves, if we choose to build a website via some builder websites, then it is mostly because they are less paid which is almost free. In the free templates, you will only get minimum and limited designs which are more like not to attract your audience. 

However, a custom-built website is customisable and offers limitless options to add, remove, or test the designs that would make your visitor's visit experience top-notch, undisturbed and uncomplicated according to your products or services. The best way to create interest among your visitors is to first create trust and credibility in their minds for your business. Always remember, no one wants to visit, interact or shop from a website that gives the vibe of untrustworthiness or scamming.

Builds easy Sales Funnel

From awareness to action, your website depicts a lot of things about your brand, especially if you have a great platform, it gets easier for you to build your sales funnel providing ease to your customers' buying journey. A successful company relies not only on sales but on marketing as well. Everything is managed in order to create a successful brand for the people. 

All the factors together assist in creating an uninterrupted sale tunnel and customer interaction to not only your content but with the services and products offered by you. Sales are the basic need of any online business. No matter if you are a product or a service-based company, you require sales in order to multiply your profits and attract people from your USPs. When a website interacts with the correct product and service, it enhances visitors’ behavioural traits further capturing their minds for the long run. Basically, it gives them a direction. 

A custom-made website helps you generate leads, capture attention, maintain relationships, analyse audiences' behaviour and calculate metrics nurturing your sales funnel and filtering out the irresponsive prospects. Building a smooth sales funnel become easier in the custom website because it analyses various companies or competitors using some metrics such as lead to revenue management metrics. These metrics help the brand to score leads and circulate and evaluate the success of the sales and the team.

Easy Website add-ons

Any progressive website requires time and again changes and making uniquely beneficial changes is not possible in the builder website. Website add-ons help in generating a good customer engagement on your site. Website add-ons are basically pages, services or content that you offer in addition to your regular products or services. For instance, if you are selling kitchen utility products and you offer content, in written or video form, related to cooking tips, recipes, hacks, etc. These add-ons require a separate page on your site which is not viable in the builder website but is easily available when you create a site via a customisable option.

If you are thinking of why are these add-ons required then here’s a perspective. Whenever anyone builds a site, in most cases no one is fully satisfied with the final product. Sometimes add-on pages assist in further multiplying your site’s overall growth and profits. 

Builds unique and responsive website

Having a unique website is still a dream of several businesses but in reality, there is no particular definition of a unique website. So here, you would have to think like a customer yourself. Let's see this through an example, based on your service, product and competitors, what is the first thing your customers would want to know when they visit your website, or in another perspective, what would you want your customers or visitors to see when they visit your website? 

A unique website requires more than just time, effort, and money, so basically you require something more than free templates, which is why a custom-built website is your always-and-forever buddy. You can build a website however you suit. Other than this, heavy templates and content may cause heaviness in your site and may cause your page to take more time to load which may affect people's interest in your site, therefore, custom-built websites may help you improve your site's loading time and response rate, improving your visitors' experience and stay rate.