Website builder—the easy way to create your own business website

For a business, having an online presence is no longer a nice-to-have function—it's a necessity. Sure, social media may be able to quickly boost your brand's online presence, but it can never be a replacement for a professional website. Regardless of your organisation's size or industry, a good business website can be the deciding factor for many to believe that you’re a legitimate business.

If your business has successfully made it so far without a website, you may still be on the fence, wondering if a website is truly necessary. In that case, here are some compelling reasons why you need one.

A good website can: 

• Make a great first impression on your audience to establish trust.


• Be an excellent platform for telling your brand's narrative: who you are, what you do, and your expertise in the industry.


• Bring you more organic traffic and leads in comparison to social media, where many follow your social profiles only to be followed back.


• Help you stay abreast of your competitors.


• Highlight positive customer reviews and testimonials to encourage more people to do business with you.


What is a website builder? 

30 years ago, building a functional website from scratch wasn't easy.  It was an expensive and time-consuming process that demanded hours of work from a professional designer and developer to get it up and running. But thanks to technology, building a website has never been simpler.

An online website builder is a tool that lets you build and launch your website without needing to know how to code. The platform allows users to customise their website's layouts and add built-in widgets and elements on pre-coded templates to meet their specific needs. Most online website builders now provide complete hosting services, so you don’t have to worry about managing the backend.

Why a website builder can be a great investment for your small business  

As a small business with limited resources, it can be tough to afford a professional programmer or a web designer. A good website builder can save you the cost of additional hires by being an all-in-one solution for creating and managing your website on your own. And website builders are known for their ease of use. Most website builders use a drag-and-drop builder, making it user-friendly for anyone to customise and design their website by simply dragging and dropping elements. If your software is cloud-based, you can edit, update, and have full control of your website from anywhere, as long as you have an internet-capable device with you. With various great functionalities, a website builder can be an ideal choice for small businesses wanting to create and maintain a website efficiently.

Website builder features 

Here are some key features you should look for in a website builder.

Customisable templates 

A website builder must offer you a range of professionally pre-designed templates to help you get started easily. That said, it should never limit your freedom to experiment. Make sure your website builder is flexible enough to let you personalise not just how your website operates, but also how it looks. You should be able to tweak your colour scheme, content layout, banner images and other visual elements to suit your preference.

Responsive design 

According to Sistrix, more web searches are carried out on mobile phones (64%) than on a desktop (35%). That's why your website needs to be mobile-friendly. A good website builder will automatically optimise your website for mobile, tablets, and desktops. This feature ensures that your content adjusts smoothly to different screen sizes and delivers the best navigation experience across all devices.

Search Engine Optimisation 

What's the point of having a website if it's nowhere to be found? A website builder with built-in SEO tools, analytics, and sitemaps can give you a leg up by helping you optimise your site to rank higher in search results. It's important to pick a tool that allows you to easily add meta titles, tags, keywords, and robots.txt files to make a website more search engine friendly.

Built-in social sharing 

Your website draws more traffic and attention when people share and talk about it. That said, if a visitor on your site has to spend time copying and pasting your URL to share a post, they're more likely to ignore it. With social media icons, follow, and share buttons integrated into your website builder, it's easier for visitors to share your content onto their social profiles directly. The easier you make it for people to spread the word, the more likely they are to do so.

Seamless integrations 

Choosing a website builder that tightly integrates with other applications is crucial to enhance your site's functionality. Whether you want to capture visitor information effectively with a CRM or measure visitors' engagement with a third-party tool like Google Analytics, make sure your website builder is compatible with other key services you use.

Final thoughts 

Although the purpose of every website builder is to get your website quickly started, they can greatly differ in terms of features and functionalities. Each website builder has its own strengths, and not all features they offer may be of use to everyone. So choose your website builder after thorough research and comparison and make sure that the vendor can give you the value for money you're looking for.  

If you’re unsure of where to start, we encourage you to sign up for a trial of Zoho Sites. Our online website builder is perfect for small and mid-sized businesses and has a range of valuable features that can help your business grow its online presence without burdening your budget.