Taking Control of Your Digital Storefront
As a small business owner, you wear many hats: CEO, head of sales, customer service manager, and often, the chief marketing officer. In today's digital world, that last role almost always includes being the reluctant webmaster. The task of creating or managing a website can feel daunting, but it’s one of the most critical elements for controlling your brand and driving sales. Let’s break down how to approach this task with a clear, strategic mindset.
The First Decision: Rebuild or Take Control?
Before you dive into platforms and designs, you face a fundamental choice. Do you need to build a new website, or can you take charge of your existing one?
If you don't have a website, the answer is simple: you need to build one. But for many businesses, the problem is an outdated site that is difficult to manage. This is where the decision gets interesting.
Your website is your digital storefront. It’s your chance to control your brand's appearance, sharpen your marketing message, and accurately convey the value of the products or services you sell.
When faced with an outdated website, especially one that is difficult to manage, it's often a faster and better solution to build a new one from scratch. This doesn't mean you have to throw everything away. Think of it as a strategic renovation. This is your chance to keep the parts that work, the content, images, or branding that still resonate, and discard the parts that are outdated or no longer accurately convey what you do.
Choosing the Right Platform is the Most Important Step
Once you've decided to build, choosing the right website platform is the first and most important step. This decision will impact how easily you can make updates, how professional your site looks, and how much time you'll spend fighting with technology instead of running your business.
You may have heard that web design agencies often build websites using WordPress (https://wordpress.org). This is true. It has become ubiquitous within the industry and features a wide array of plugins that make adding functionalities quick and easy for experienced developers.
However, we do not usually recommend WordPress to small business owners who plan to manage their own website unless they have previous experience. That experience needs to include the particular WordPress "framework" that was used to create the site. Because WordPress has many available frameworks, and they all work differently, being proficient with managing one WordPress website does not necessarily mean you will be proficient with another. For example, a popular framework like Elementor (https://elementor.com) can be daunting to newcomers with limited time and requires a sometimes unwelcome learning curve.
Website Applications: A Better Choice for Business Owners
We recommend investigating these three website platforms, which are actually self-contained website applications. They are generally friendlier to most small business owner's needs.
- Wix (https://www.wix.com): Wix is incredibly popular for a reason. It offers a highly intuitive drag-and-drop editor that makes it one of the easiest platforms to learn. It’s a fantastic choice for business owners who want a lot of creative freedom without needing to know any code. Its extensive template library and app market provide a great starting point for nearly any type of business. Wix is the platform I most often recommend to less-experienced small business owners.
- Squarespace (https://www.squarespace.com): Squarespace is known for its beautiful, professionally designed templates. If your business relies heavily on visuals—like a photographer, designer, or high-end contractor—Squarespace is an excellent choice. Its interface is clean and user-friendly, though slightly less flexible than Wix's drag-and-drop editor. It excels at blogging and e-commerce functionalities that are built right in.
- Duda (https://www.duda.co): Duda is our preferred platform because it strikes the perfect balance between user-friendliness and professional power. It offers a Wix-like friendly user interface but contains all of the functionality that a professional website developer would want. This means you get an easy-to-use editor for your day-to-day changes, but you also have a robust, high-performance platform with advanced features for SEO and site speed that will support your business as it grows.
The Goal is Progress, Not Perfection
Trying to build the "perfect" website from day one is the wrong approach and a recipe for frustration. Instead, aim to build a website that levels you up from where you are now. The most important factor is choosing a platform that is easy enough for you to manage, so you can dedicate small amounts of time each week to making improvements.
Your website should be a living asset, evolving as your business does. By choosing the right tool, you empower yourself to take control of your digital presence and turn your website into a true engine for growth.
