How To Choose a Website Platform Provider

Ultimately, there are three groups of people you need to keep in mind: customers, potential customers, and yourself. Supporting these groups doesn’t have to be hard. A good platform provider will take care of all of that for you.

What do You Want From Your Website?

The first thing you need to do is make a list of things you want to do with your website. What features do you want it to have? What will benefit your customers? You can then take this list to consultations or compare it to features offered to ensure that your provider can take care of everything you’re looking for. 

Some of the most popular properties include:

• Online stores: a way for your customers to purchase your products and services digitally
• Blogs: these can help generate traffic to your website and establish yourself as an authority in your field
• Podcasts: a podcast is a great way to get your voice heard and establish a closer relationship with your customer base
• Contact forms: these allow your customers to get in touch with you and start a conversation about how you can meet their need
• Reservation Systems: allow your customers to pick a date that works best for them, whether they’re booking a service, consultation, or meeting time
• Biographies: tell your customers a little about yourself and why you do what you do -- it establishes trust and a more personal relationship
• FAQ Sections: answer the most common questions and provide clear answers

Here is a list of 10 essential features every good business website has

Where do You Want to go?

Once you know where you are, the next thing to consider is where you want to go. What kind of growth do you expect your website and business to see? What features might you want to add in the future? 

Can your website provider accommodate you? Making a smart, well-informed decision, in the beginning, can save you time, money, and a headache later on. 

What Else is Important?

Once you know what you need now and what you’ll need in the future, the next thing to look at is the potential host. 

A Fast Website is Essential

Google has taken website loading time (speed) into account for its page ranking on desktops since 2010 and adopted the same policy for mobile devices in 2018 (source).  Slower speeds lead to lower search algorithm rankings, meaning that fewer people will see your website, and over time you will see less and less traffic. 

Speed also plays a role in the user experience. The average user gives a website 15 seconds before clicking away. Loading time can and will eat into this. How many times have you clicked away from a website because it takes too long to load and is frustrating to use? Odds are, it’s almost every time you find yourself in that position. 

Uptime Matters

Uptime plays a similar role in search algorithm ranking and user experience. When a search engine detects that your website is offline for large periods of time or experiences frequent outages, it takes a hit in the rankings. 

This is why reputable platform providers offer an “uptime guarantee”. You cannot generate traffic if your website is not online for customers to find. 

Your first impression often comes from your customer’s interactions with your website: if it is slow and not often available, they may think the same of you. 

Ease of Use

You want a provider that’s built for those who aren’t experienced with web design. You shouldn’t have to struggle to create a professional, polished, and easy to use website. The best platform providers offer a drag and drop feature to make designing the site hassle-free. There should also be options for color, photo, text, and layout customization to ensure that your website is as unique as your business. 

Data Ownership

Something that many people forget about is data ownership. You own your business, you should also own your website. Be sure to look at the terms of service -- you should remain the owner of any text, photos (assuming you took them), and visual design on your website.

Customer Support

You’re a customer as well, and your platform provider should treat you like one -- you are trusting part of your business with them. Ask lots of questions, critique their website (be sure it’s up to your standards), and ensure that they’re a good fit for you.

Before selecting a provider be sure that you like the company and they have fast response times. You wouldn’t pay for a service like plumbing from someone that takes days to reply -- keep your standards high for website providers too.

Mobile Readiness

Mobile internet usage overtook desktop in 2016. A large portion of people searching for your website or shopping around will be doing so on their phones and tablets. If your current and potential customers cannot access your site, you’ll lose traffic and business. This is why it’s essential to find a provider that will create a website that is friendly for all devices.

Extra Services

It’s one thing to have a website, it’s another to have a well-designed and optimized website. There are 1.8 billion websites live (as of right now) and the number will continue to climb. You want a provider that’s able to offer extra services to help you stand out. Some of these services might include:

• Blogging: a team of writers well-versed in grammar, language, and SEO to produce original content for your website’s blog.
• Website Statistics: you deserve to know how well your website is doing, statistics on click-through rates, browsing time, and ranking are important.
• Guest Posting: this puts your blog posts onto other high-traffic websites to help drive organic traffic back to yours.
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization): tracking keywords, clicks, and building back-links to boost your website’s ranking in various search engines.
• Ad Campaign Optimization: using keywords, “landing pages”, optimized traffic, and ad design to create high-quality ads with a high click-through rate.
• Link Building: creating links to other pages on your website by incorporating them into the natural flow of your text.

Whether or not you choose to partake in any extra services is at your discretion -- but it’s crucial to select a provider that has the capability to expand.

Ultimately…

Whether you’re providing a service or selling a good, your business is an extension of you. It’s important to find a platform provider who will take that into consideration.

Remember to reflect on not only your customer and potential customer’s needs but also your own. Start with “what do I need?”  and continue with “what will I need?”.

At YBO, your customers are also ours. It’s our business to make sure that you AND your clients are happy with the website.