For just about every industry there are a slew of companies offering customized website solutions, tailored specifically to the needs of that particular industry. These website solutions exist for financial advisors, attorneys, doctors, churches, rep companies and the list goes on. In some cases they are a great fit, but before you jump on-board with any website company, take some time to educate yourself on their processes and compare your options.
Is It Captive?
My number one concern when a client asks about an industry-specific website solution is “is it captive?” I use the word captive to describe a website service that:
- Can only be hosted by the company who builds and maintains the site.
- Gives no outside access to the site code.
- Considers the website infrastructure to be the intellectual property of the site builder not the site owner.
So, are all captive solutions bad? No, of course not, there are cases where they are the best fit for a clients’ needs. We’ve worked with several of these companies to have our clients’ sites developed. The key is to understand the offering and evaluate the pros and cons.
The Pros
- They really may understand your audience better than anyone else. If you don’t plan to create your own content or be heavily involved in the design and development of your site, this may be a plus for you.
- An assigned account manager. Larger organizations will typically assign you one point of contact for your project. Rather than interfacing with the designer, developer, content writer and so on – you have one person to deal with.
- Integration with Other Systems. These industry-specific website systems are likely to integrate with your other back office systems like your CRM, accounting tools, and document managers.
The Cons
- You’re married for life. Most captive website systems do not allow you to move your site to another host meaning you are married to them for the life of your website.
- They control cost. Because you cannot move your site, the recurring hosting fees are typically high. You have no choice but to pay their fees or rebuild your site elsewhere.
- Outdated, feature-poor infrastructure. We often see captive systems that use outdated code and standards. The infrastucture of these sites is typically very rigid with little room for custom feature requests. You may not care much about poor code right now, but when your site is slow to load, looks terrible on mobile devices, and you cannot control the way it looks when shared on social networks, you’ll feel the pain of an outdated content management system.
- Cookie-Cutter Design. Typically design options are very limited with these systems, leaving you with little room to create a unique website experience for your clients. Stock templates can sometimes appear unprofessional and don’t help ensure your clients and prospects of the health and longevity of your business.
What Other Option Is There?
Build it Yourself with GoDaddy Website Builder
I’m just kidding. Please, please don’t do this.
Hire a WordPress Developer
Sure there are plenty of other content management systems, but here at Blue Steele Solutions we love WordPress so we’ll just focus on it for now.
What the WordPress?
WordPress is an open source content management system that powers around 20% of the websites in the world.
Think of WordPress like the engine of your car. Thousands of people know this engine inside and out, can help you improve it, and over 60 million people drive a car with the same engine. Compare that to a captive system where the hood is locked and only one company in the world has the key to pop it and work on the engine.
Plus with WordPress you have access to thousands of themes and plugins (which are like the body, paint job, and accessories of the car) and you have the potential to create any website fathomable. Annnnd you have the choice of hundreds of reputable hosting companies, so if things go sour you can pack it up and move to more friendly ground.
Choose a WordPress developer carefully. Thoroughly review their portfolio, client reviews, and service offerings. Do not make a decision based on lowest bidder or fastest turn time – this is a major marketing investment and you’ll want to put the time, resources, and cash in that the project requires.
But What About the Features?
Ok, do you really need those features? Do your clients love them? Do they help convert visitors into leads or sales? I’ve seen many clients lured into an expensive, captive website solution for all the bells and whistles available, but never see an increase in business as a result of those pricey features.
A great developer will give you the tools you need, not a set of industry standards. Don’t start your website project by looking at what everyone else does and copying it. Work with a developer who will research and understand your end client and build the tools and features that are right for them.
Making the Choice
Before you pull the trigger on your website, consider these important factors:
- Recurring Costs
- Portability
- Fluctuating needs like SEO
- Customizing
- Longevity
We’re working on a tool to help you select the right developer and website platform for your business. Help us out by telling us what is most important to you in the comments below.
Just For Fun – Some Ideas!
If your palms are sweating at the thought of venturing outside your industry-based options maybe this will help ease your fears. Just a couple of quick examples of how WordPress and a great developer can easily tackle your specific requirements.
Compliance or Legal Department Review
There are plenty of editorial review plugins available for WordPress. We’re very excited about the possibilities of PostFlow by our friends at FooPlugins. PostFlow makes it easy to setup custom rules and resulting workflows like triggering alerts to other departments when content is edited or added to the site. Simple user configuration makes it easy to prevent certain users from publishing their content until it has been reviewed and approved.
Appointment Booking
Again, plenty of options out there for WordPress, but one of our favorites is Appointments+ by WPMU Dev. It is easy to configure, has several options for multiple providers, customizable time slots, and picks up the task of confirming and reminding clients about appointments.
Marketing Basics
Several companies advertise SEO, email marketing, social media management, etc that are tailored to your industry. Do your research and find out if these are truly custom solutions or a cookie-cutter approach that makes your customers wonder if you were suddenly replaced by a really boring robot.
Our friend Pam at Pam Ann Marketing adds some insight to the cost of SEO (search engine optimization) with captive website systems:
WordPress is more SEO-friendly by default. The foundation already contains nearly everything needed to optimize a site. Many custom systems I see don’t have all the functions necessary for search optimization. Because WordPress is SEO-friendly by default, it typically comes out to be the less expensive option over a custom system. Even if the initial development cost is similar, in the long run, each request for a new feature on a proprietary system will need to be custom-coded and contribute to a much higher lifetime cost. (and you can guarantee Google and the other primary search engines will make changes to their algorithms over time that affect your site and require additional functionality).
Most developers can refer you to the best of the best for all of these services and integrate the necessary functional parts into your WordPress website.
What Now?
If you’re thinking about creating a new website, we’d obviously love to chat. Even if we can just give you a little guidance on the process of selecting a web developer drop us a note below or get in touch directly. We’d also love to know the top 5 things you look for in a website developer – leave those in the comments below and we’ll email you when our developer comparison tool is available!