Which website builder should I use?

[jon.M]

Hey guys I'm looking for advice on what platform to use in order to build my website.

My business is a service based business. Specifically, it's a painting /carpet cleaning business

Initially I thought I would use squarespace or just learn Javascript and html and build website from scratch.

However, I have also been thinking about clickfunnels . But at the same time, I think clickfunnels is geared towards a product based business where customers can buy online rather than a service based business where customers would want you to go to their homes and give them an estimate.

What would you guys advise?

ClickFunnels costs at least $99 per month. Although the price might not be an issue for you, you get just as much value with a WordPress setup that would cost something like... $200 per YEAR?

However, it also depends on your marketing approach. Just want a good looking website, nice copy and a contact form? ClickFunnels is a waste of money. If you're looking for an easy way to incorporate tripwires, one-click upsells, downsells, quizzes or whatever, ClickFunnels could save you some time and headaches, but I suspect that's not what you're looking for.

What exactly do you want in your website?

I'd personally go with WordPress. It's the most popular content management system on the planet, which means there is a LOT of help, experts and documentation to be found in case you run into any trouble.

If you get Elementor, which is an easy-to-use page builder for WordPress, it can be quite a seamless experience when you want to design the site and add content. For what you're probably looking for in terms of functionality, the free version of that plugin would be more than enough.

Feel free to ask in case you've got any questions about that.

From my experience, WordPress is mainly for blogs. But it can be customized with plugins. Years ago when I ran a blog I read and lot about content management systems . Several of them are open source. One such program that comes to mind is Drupal that you install on yourself server. Another one that's gotten good reviews is Expression Engine. But I think you need to pay for the full version.

Although it might be tempting to shop around for the "ultimate" solution, IMO the average user would better spend their time on WordPress instead of the more obscure alternatives. If your website runs on WP and you experience an issue, chances are you'll find a simple-to-understand solution for just that specific problem on Google, Youtube or in Facebook groups.

Other systems? I bet you'll need to look around longer for the answer.

 

[Longinus]

From my experience, WordPress is mainly for blogs. But it can be customized with plugins.

In 2012 perhaps, now you have visited many websites you never even noticed it was made with WP. Most WP websites don't even have a blog.

The biggest reason I work with WP is the ease of adding features with (still up to date) plug-ins indeed. The possibilities are endless.

@OP: Like said many times before: WP + Elementor as themebuilder + GeneratePress as theme = wonderful combination.

 

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[jon.M]

Personally, I need my website to be responsive. It needs to be compatible with mobile and it needs to be fast.

The responsiveness is important to me because clients should be able to click on my phone number from their smartphone to call, or click on my email address to email me, etc.

Also, I'm looking to add before and after pictures of my work. Preferably high resolution pictures.

So in a nutshell my website has to be fast, responsive, and compatible with the mobile.

Ok, so you don't have any special requirements when it comes to the site. I see you mentioned SquareSpace above. Do they have a free trial or something? If I were you, I'd try a platform like that out and see how it fits into your vision.

It will most likely be the least hassle for you, and if you feel it's not enough you can always switch over to WordPress later.

Now with my love for Weebly, I am starting something in the near future that I am going to try with Wordpress. I do have a question about Wordpress.... I know 0 about Wordpress or what exactly a 'plug-in' is so, if I use an SEO plug-in on Wordpress, can I still have control over what goes in to my SEO, can I edit it?

If Wordpress seems to be too much of a pain in the a$$, I will quickly go back to Weebly where I know I can get the new site on the 1st page. I just want to try Wordpress to see if I'm missing something.

The most popular SEO plugin for WordPress is called Yoast SEO. The free and paid versions differ a little bit, but you do have a lot of control over what goes on at your site.

It mostly provides guidelines. For example, you can enter a keyword you want to rank for, and the plugin analyzes your content to determine if you need a higher keyword density and stuff like that.

It's like an SEO grader. If you follow what's good SEO practice according to the plugin creators, you get good grades. If you don't, your grades get worse and you get suggestions for what to do about that. But you can still say "F*ck You" and keep going with a page with a low score.

 

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[PizzaOnTheRoof]

No response to this. Curious why...

Because it's not sexy

 

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[minivanman]

Only one did for certain keywords. Well, another one did show up too but because I hijacked some keywords so I don't count that.

But the point I was trying to make is that you can get traffic without being searchable and without paying.

I'm sure any of the SEO pros here can give you a better answer than me.

Oh I agree, I have done $0 worth of advertising for my sites. 0 back links, just good content. The thing about 0 back links and only relying on great content is that my sites will never have to worry about anything that Google does because I only worry about content and the right key words in my SEO. I will always beat the competition that tries to play the games of beating me. If those 'great' SEO people would stop trying so hard, they would be much better off. You can find 1000 of them on Craigslist and all over the place that think they know what they are doing but really know nothing. That is why I had to teach myself because I wanted top notch results, not some slick salesman guy promising me the world and delivering an outhouse.

Good luck in the future but just remember, you don't need any back links. I mean, it doesn't suck to have them but it can be done without them just as easy or easier.

 

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[Pesh]

If you plan SEO to really be a part of your business and you have no coding experience go with WordPress.

Its terribly setup when you just make a fresh install but you can customize it a lot and achieve a lot with it. As for a page builder that you can use with it - Elementor. The free version is more than enough for what you are planning to make.

Good luck

 

[minivanman]

If you want to be booked for the rest of the year, why aren't you using Craigslist, Thumbtack, 5Miles, OfferUp, Facebook?

 

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[Gepi]

While I agree with jon.M's advice of not overcomplicating the website, I'd like to throw two very lightweight and nice to set up systems in here:
Hugo and jekyll.
Both are open source and come with helpful plugins and tutorials.
But this is maybe not the best for your particular case, I agree. Your website is basically a means to an end. Just beware of WP's hackability, it is getting targeted quite often. But for that there are also workarounds.
Edit: responsive designs are available. My website is build with jekyll.

 

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[gClaw]

Go with Weebly. The upgrade designers.weebly platform. Very easy. Click, drag & drop. You can add whatever photos, a survey, etc w/pre- qualifying questions if you want, have email inquiries sent right to your mobile phone if you want. Mobile friendly. Never had any problem with poor response. Around $15/mo per site. Learn some SEO & you'll be at the top of Goog looking down at everyone else in time.
Don't rely solely on word of mouth for business. Get more 'fishing lines' in the water & you'll have more chances of catching more 'fish'. Craigslist is free & like in the top 50 of most visited websites on the web so you'd be foolish not to post your business ad on there 1x a week. So what if you only get 1-2 calls a month from there @ $400/ea sale. Ya never know what'll bite til you throw a line in the water.

Personally, I need my website to be responsive. It needs to be compatible with mobile and it needs to be fast.

The responsiveness is important to me because clients should be able to click on my phone number from their smartphone to call, or click on my email address to email me, etc.

Also, I'm looking to add before and after pictures of my work. Preferably high resolution pictures.

So in a nutshell my website has to be fast, responsive, and compatible with the mobile.

 

[minivanman]

I asked a question earlier in my own thread in order to write this post. I asked if those sites that you can test your own website on are any good.

The reason I asked that is because I was amazed when I tested several different sites from several different types of businesses, including Weebly.com and Wordpress.com. There was only 2 sites, just 2 that had as high of a score as my Weebly site that I built and totally maintain myself. I have no training, nothing as far as building or doing the SEO on a website except what I taught myself. Weebly scored the same as me on most every test site but Wordpress was way below. I used like 5 of those test sites. I'm about to build another site that will go nation wide within 2 years and with these results, I'm really scared to not use Weebly. I was going to try Wordpress but I think I will wait until I have a smaller scale site to test it out with. Weebly might not have all the bells and whistles but it sure does bring me customers and customers = profit for me.

 

[FastNAwesome]

Since your goal is to run paid advertising to you website, the following things should probably matter to you.

Speed: You want a fast website on a fast server. You don't want visitors who's click you paid for clicking the "back" button in their browser because the page was too slow to load.

With platforms that host the website for you, you don't need to worry about the server, as that's taken care of.

With self-hosted, it's not that simple. For example, we're running ads to our own self-hosted pages, but have a very fast (and accordingly priced) server. Makes sense for us because we use it for multiple clients.

But we had some clients whose both website and server are so slow that it made me wonder if anyone even waits to see the page.

Flexibility: You want the ability to add tracking codes from various services. Potentially other codes too, such as live chat.

You want some form of tracking on your website, to gain insight how visitors interact with it, where they come from, which devices they use etc.

Then you can adjust accordingly, test assumptions, see what works, what doesn't, and continuously refine your website to make it perform better and better.

Design: You want your website to look great on a variety of devices, from smartphones to desktops.

Enough said. You don't want to lose a potential customer just because your website didn't look right on their device. Especially in something like carpet cleaning, where they can be a customer for years to come, refer you etc.

There are many great solutions.

Personally, if a friend asked me, I'd recommend self-hosted Wordpress website, as it aligns nicely with above considerations.

If you use a good hosting and don't drown it with too many plugins or some clunky theme, speed should be fine. There are also plugins and other ways to speed it up.

Flexibility is also great, you can add any tracking codes you need.

Design - there's an abundance of themes to choose from.

Downside of a self-hosted solution is that it needs maintenance. Even if only just regular updates and backups. Not a big deal, but I've seen many business owners who just neglect to do it.

So if that's a hassle for you, then hosted solutions might be better.

 

[minivanman]

Now with my love for Weebly, I am starting something in the near future that I am going to try with Wordpress. I do have a question about Wordpress.... I know 0 about Wordpress or what exactly a 'plug-in' is so, if I use an SEO plug-in on Wordpress, can I still have control over what goes in to my SEO, can I edit it?

If Wordpress seems to be too much of a pain in the a$$, I will quickly go back to Weebly where I know I can get the new site on the 1st page. I just want to try Wordpress to see if I'm missing something.

 

[FastNAwesome]

I know 0 about Wordpress or what exactly a 'plug-in' is so, if I use an SEO plug-in on Wordpress, can I still have control over what goes in to my SEO, can I edit it?

A plugin is basically a way to enhance or alter functionality of what WP can do.

Maybe a decent analogy is how a roof rack adds a new feature to your car.

As for SEO, of the plugins I've seen, there seems to be plenty of options to configure.

Would you say it's better than squarespace ?

Can't really tell as I haven't tried that platform. As a web developer (but actually as an entrepreneur too), I prefer something I have full control of.

But ultimately it depends on your specific situation and preferences. E.g.if someone wants to be build a website as simply and easily as possible

 

[minivanman]

Being live doesn't really mean anything.........

??

I can be live within 5 minutes from now if I wanted a new site. That includes getting a www and building the site..... but that will never get me found on the internet.

 

[Andy Black]

Because it's not sexy

Ha. Probably.

What about: “Create a sexy Facebook page. Run Google Ads to that.”

 

[yyes]

You say:

“I’m writing”

“I’m looking to build”


Who are you going to help today?

What would happen if you went looking for people to help, this very moment (and helped them)?


Check out this chat:

• (Audio) First sale in 30 days by helping people

You also seem to be looking for a demographic (over 40 with six figure income). With paid search, it’s more about the search intent than the demographic.

Consider looking for a demonstrated cashflow instead of a demographic too. What have people spent money on already that indicates they have the problem you have the paid solution for?


And finally, I’d say it’s easier to find price shoppers online? Their search terms indicate they’re shopping. Maybe check out the free lessons in my course (linked to in my signature).

Andy you're always so helpful. Thank you so much

 

[PhilKowalski]

If you're still looking for a website builder that's decently easy to use I would recommend WordPress plus ThriveThemes.

It gives you a lot of conversion focused tools for your website (a/b testing for what works and what doesn't, comment systems, lead generation systems and much more...) for $90 / quarter PLUS a lot of themes

One other advantage - no matter what traffic source you use - is having a fast loading page. Nobody will wait more than a few seconds for a page to load and Thrive is great at page speed.

Sorry, but I really love ThriveThemes, hence my passion for it.

If you need help to discuss this further (or anyone else in this thread) let me know and I'm happy to help (not trying to sell you something).

 

[Wolfman]

Hi, You are all techie-geeks compared to me. I will soon develop a website and you've helped me a lot (I like the back and forth.) Do you have to pay individually for all of these mini-features (click to email/phone, cell phone compatible, scheduling, SEO, payment options...)? Are you toast if you're not on the 1st page of a google search?
I could spend a ton of $/time on SEO but w/ my start(ing)-up, I don't even know if that time/$ is worth it. Being at the top of the page may make me $1,000 but if it cost $1,100 and 10 hours of work to get there, is it worth it?
Greg

 

[FastNAwesome]

Hi Greg,

Do you have to pay individually for all of these mini-features (click to email/phone, cell phone compatible, scheduling, SEO, payment options...)?

It all depends which platform you use. But to bring some clarity:

click to email/phone - This is super easy, when you need it, feel free to PM me, I'll show you how to do it on whatever platform you'll use. And you'll be able to always do it on your own.

Here's how these two features can be achieved with HTML, simple:

<a href="tel:YOURNUMBERHERE">Tap this and let's talk!</a>
<a href="mailto:YOUREMAILHERE">Would rather write? Email me!</a>

payment options - Same as scheduling. Check if the platform of your choice supports it out of the box, or if you need to additionally implement it.

cell phone compatible - It's pretty much standard today that themes for whatever platform come mobile friendly. Simplest thing you could do is access the demo from your mobile phone and see how it looks like.

And to avoid getting overwhelmed, it could be a good idea to start with that. Just make sure it's advertised as mobile friendly, see if it works on your phone, and jump into it.

That's part of the story though. On projects of my team, our clients and my own, I require much more from a website to call it smartphone friendly. Especially:

1. Speed. Who wants their phone to choke trying to load some clunky page? This can result in lost sales. I insist on speed and we do a lot of things to make our websites load as promptly as possible.

2. Layout. I see many websites where layout does indeed change to adjust to mobile screen, but is completely awful, sometimes broken too. Basically looking like an afterthought.

Personally, I create mobile and computer layouts with equal dedication, and often separately. Each has to be perfectly adjusted to the users.

E.g.if you have a slideshow on mobiles, you don't want to click some tiny arrows to browse to it, you want the ability to swipe through. While on computer you want the opposite.

This goes other way around too, I've seen people focus so much on mobile that they neglect the computer layout, and then I'm trying to swipe through things with a mouse - sucks

3. Cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility. I like to make sure my layouts work and look how they should on all the most popular and relevant phones and mobile browsers. And then some. Literally going through every click and scenario manually.

Different browsers, phones and operating systems have different capabilities and features. I always assure than nothing will be broken or dysfunctional for the users.

Since I can't test for ALL phones that exist, I select this way:

a) Currently most popular and most used phones.
b) Most relevant phones of my users, based on analytics.
c) Making sure that things work down to a certain version of browser/operating system, so that I can reasonably expect it will work on all phones in those versions and above.

scheduling - Some platforms have this built in, on others you can get it as a plugin. WP has a bunch of both free and paid plugins, so likely this too.

SEO - This is something you do, or have someone do it for you. So that would be extra. Although it can happen spontaneously too, to an extent. I know some people who had just put their content out there, without any technical knowledge and consideration, and it ranks well.

And it's not the only way to get visitors to your website. You could also use paid advertising.

 

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[minivanman]

Correct me if im wrong, but the only problem that I see with all these website builders is that they have their name in your url. So lets say my website is called carpetcleaning.com.

If I use any of these website builders, my url would look like:

• carpetcleaning.wordpress.com
• carpetcleaning.squarespace.com
• carpetcleaning.weebly.com

I dont know if theres a negative behind this.

If you CHOOSE, your url will look like that. I don't know about the others but at Weebly you can have a FREE website with a FREE .weebly name for a lifetime. If you choose to pay, you can have your own www but you don't HAVE to. I'll say that in today's world, I really don't think it matters. Google wants good, long content. I think I might make a site .weebly sometime and try it.

Also, at the bottom of a FREE Weebly site you will find the link to Weebly, but if you pay for a plan to upgrade, you can take that off.

 

[Wolfman]

Only one did for certain keywords. Well, another one did show up too but because I hijacked some keywords so I don't count that.

But the point I was trying to make is that you can get traffic without being searchable and without paying.

I'm sure any of the SEO pros here can give you a better answer than me.

Hi Master, That little disclaimer in the last sentence set me free. I can pay a SEO pro to follow the strategy you outlined. By the way, thanks for taking the time to do that. It was above and beyond the call of duty and I bet you helped others in the process.
Greg

 

[yyes]

Hey guys I'm looking for advice on what platform to use in order to build my website.

My business is a service based business. Specifically, it's a painting /carpet cleaning business

Initially I thought I would use squarespace or just learn Javascript and html and build website from scratch.

However, I have also been thinking about clickfunnels . But at the same time, I think clickfunnels is geared towards a product based business where customers can buy online rather than a service based business where customers would want you to go to their homes and give them an estimate.

What would you guys advise?

 

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[minivanman]

The good news is, as far as competition for the 1st page of Google, with a little work it shouldn't be a problem no matter what you use. Your competition doesn't have great websites. lol Personally I use Weebly but most people say Weebly sucks. I have 19 sites on 1st page in different cities but I'm fairly good at SEO. With a little work and 1 year and you should be on top. It won't happen over night. How are you getting work now?

 

[yyes]

The good news is, as far as competition for the 1st page of Google, with a little work it shouldn't be a problem no matter what you use. Your competition doesn't have great websites. lol Personally I use Weebly but most people say Weebly sucks. I have 19 sites on 1st page in different cities but I'm fairly good at SEO. With a little work and 1 year and you should be on top. It won't happen over night. How are you getting work now?

If you plan SEO to really be a part of your business and you have no coding experience go with WordPress.

Its terribly setup when you just make a fresh install but you can customize it a lot and achieve a lot with it. As for a page builder that you can use with it - Elementor. The free version is more than enough for what you are planning to make.

Good luck

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Im actually not relying on SEO initially.

Im relying on adwords and direct mail marketing. I'm following the advice of Perry Marshall and his book on Google Adwords

 

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[minivanman]

Where do you get your leads at know? Is your phone ringing at all for jobs?

 

[yyes]

Where do you get your leads at know? Is your phone ringing at all for jobs?

Word of mouth for now

 

[Aunt Clyde]

From my experience, WordPress is mainly for blogs. But it can be customized with plugins. Years ago when I ran a blog I read and lot about content management systems . Several of them are open source. One such program that comes to mind is Drupal that you install on yourself server. Another one that's gotten good reviews is Expression Engine. But I think you need to pay for the full version.

 

[yyes]

ClickFunnels costs at least $99 per month. Although the price might not be an issue for you, you get just as much value with a WordPress setup that would cost something like... $200 per YEAR?

However, it also depends on your marketing approach. Just want a good looking website, nice copy and a contact form? ClickFunnels is a waste of money. If you're looking for an easy way to incorporate tripwires, one-click upsells, downsells, quizzes or whatever, ClickFunnels could save you some time and headaches, but I suspect that's not what you're looking for.

What exactly do you want in your website?

I'd personally go with WordPress. It's the most popular content management system on the planet, which means there is a LOT of help, experts and documentation to be found in case you run into any trouble.

If you get Elementor, which is an easy-to-use page builder for WordPress, it can be quite a seamless experience when you want to design the site and add content. For what you're probably looking for in terms of functionality, the free version of that plugin would be more than enough.

Feel free to ask in case you've got any questions about that.



Although it might be tempting to shop around for the "ultimate" solution, IMO the average user would better spend their time on WordPress instead of the more obscure alternatives. If your website runs on WP and you experience an issue, chances are you'll find a simple-to-understand solution for just that specific problem on Google, Youtube or in Facebook groups.

Other systems? I bet you'll need to look around longer for the answer.

Personally, I need my website to be responsive. It needs to be compatible with mobile and it needs to be fast.

The responsiveness is important to me because clients should be able to click on my phone number from their smartphone to call, or click on my email address to email me, etc.

Also, I'm looking to add before and after pictures of my work. Preferably high resolution pictures.

So in a nutshell my website has to be fast, responsive, and compatible with the mobile.

 

[Jaden Jones]

I have played around with WIX and seemed to like it, is wordpress superior to WIX?

 

[yyes]

In 2012 perhaps, now you have visited many websites you never even noticed it was made with WP. Most WP websites don't even have a blog.

The biggest reason I work with WP is the ease of adding features with (still up to date) plug-ins indeed. The possibilities are endless.

@OP: Like said many times before: WP + Elementor as themebuilder + GeneratePress as theme = wonderful combination.

Better than squarespace?

 

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