(5) Considerations You Should Have Before Going to a Drag'n Drop Visual Page Builder

Are you in need of a website? Short on funds, time, and technical know-how? Chances are you have come across one of the many options to use a create-your-own website provider. Some of the more popular options such as Wix, GoDaddy, Squarespace, and WordPress have drag and drop options. Each platform is slightly different but the premise is still the same; you literally use a templated version of a website and drag components around as well as drop text and photos into pre-determined areas. These visual page builders are an attractive option because there are many templates to choose from, they are relatively easy to use, and many of them are ultra-low cost when compared with traditional design and development methods.

While these types of sites often make sense there are a few considerations to be aware of before signing up:

1) You may be hitching your wagon to that platform.

While an option such as a visual page builder may be tempting because you can get something live onto the internet within hours (or even minutes), it may not be your best long-term solution. As your business evolves and takes shape you may need to seek integrations or features that the platform simply cannot provide. Migrating away from these platforms when the time comes for a more robust, custom website may prove to be difficult as there is not a lot of code reuse. Everything will have to be re-done, and the platform provider will not be of much assistance helping you move away from their solution. This point is not to say you should never use these platforms, but, know the investment may not last longer than your commitment to that platform.

2) Your SEO can take a beating if page speed isn't optimized.

Page rendering and speed are important and can affect your ability to be found in search results.  Having a site that is optimized and loads quickly is crucial to your site visitors' user experience (no one wants to wait around for a site to load) and just as critical to how search engines rank your site.   Often, drag and drop builders introduce loading lag due to excessive overhead. This happens when there are a lot of behind- the-scenes code shortcuts which cause bloating. When rendering tools create the page, they end up competing for resources and slowing things down. Make sure you work with a site template that has taken these things into consideration with their designs.

3) You may have trouble getting the support you need.

Many developers do not like working with visual builders as there is a lot of clicking around that has to happen to manipulate anything.  If you are working on the site yourself and need to seek documentation you may find it is sometimes out of date. So, as you iterate over time you may not have the type of expertise to make the type of big changes necessary to support the features you seek. Security should also be considered. With the vulnerability of having potential exposure where hackers can take advantage of things that are not buttoned up properly in templates and plug-ins, seek a platform where patches and updates can be pushed to your site.

4) A template may not be the best fit.

When you decide to work with a drag and drop platform you will need to choose a template. Templates can look incredibly tempting because they are usually filled in by a professional or the person who developed the template. The content and photography all work well and look very crisp. One issue is that your business is unique yet your template is not. You will need to shoehorn your business into the site as best you can and you may find it is hard filling out the design the same way a professional did.

5) There is a learning curve.

Even though drag-and-drop is meant to be easy to work with the template you chose may not be incredibly intuitive to work with.  If you decided to take on the site build yourself, you may need to spend a lot of time coming up to speed with the platform which can often be precious time that takes you away from the business.  Not all drag and drop platforms work the same, either. As some have changed over time, they do not always evolve well and platforms will simply add new menus next to old menus instead of thinking about how to integrate them for a better experience. Additionally, if you mess up your site it's on you and you must have the patience and perserverence to resolve it yourself.

The good news?

It may sound like this post is full of bias and only meant to talk you out of using these types of approaches. But, the reality is that these platforms and templates are getting better every day.  Known limitations are being addressed by developers and content management systems are seeking more ways to attract new customers. As part of that strategy they know they must make their drag and drop features easier to use without sacrificing flexibility in design and feature sets.  These sites generally cost a fraction of what a custom site costs, are quick to launch, and have lots of available options, which make them a really viable solution for many businesses’ needs. This post should not be considered a campaign against visual page builders, but should just serve as some helpful food for thought when considering all your options.