The ability to design and build your own website has been made a much easier process with the use of the above-mentioned do-it-yourself platforms and software. Doing it yourself can lead to issues that hinder the quality of the final product. This is because many people are unaware of what actually makes a good website and what makes a bad website.

Many people believe that a website is to showcase them and/or their business, and in part this is true. The primary audience of your website, however, are your customers. You don’t have a website for you to visit and get information about your business, that’s what your customers do. You need a website so that your customers have a place for them to visit and gather information about your business without having to leave their homes or phones. Websites are there to help you market your business, build trust and for visitors to make a more informed choice about how you can solve their particular problem.

When building a free website, you might, as a result of the platform you use, have to host adverts on it. This can cloud your website with unnecessary information. First impressions, which are so important, might be impacted by potentially irrelevant advertising “noise”. To add insult to injury these intrusive adverts could slow down the loading of your website. Why would you allow advertising on your website? Well you may be under the impression that you will earn revenue from them but this is usually not the case. Any revenue from the adverts goes to the platform provider and you don’t get any financial benefit from the clicks on the advert.

Your domain name could also be affected as you will most likely have to include the name of the platform you are using i.e. cheapcars.wordpress.com. This can make your website and business seem very unprofessional. Free websites also have bandwidth restrictions and this could impact the potential growth of your website.