Custom Websites vs. Standard Platforms

"Custom Website" sounds like something a business owner would want from a web designer, at first glance.

But that depends on what a custom website means. If it means something with a unique look and content, that makes the business stand out from the rest, well, duh, sure, you want a custom website.

Too often, though, what it means is that there is going to be some custom code, some "backend wizardry," that is non-standard web-design - something that will keep the business owner beholden to that web-designer, or web-design firm for as long as possible.

Let me give  you and example:

Huge web-design firm, "Cosmo-Demonic Web Design and SEO" designs a site for "Joe's Whatsits." They build it on a "custom platform - designed just for your company, Joe."

Joe is flattered. His site is on a custom platform. Oh, boy!

Joe loves the results. What a pretty site.

But a few days after the site is up, Joe needs to change something. Of course he can't do it himself. The designer needs to do it, because the site is on a custom platform that only he knows how to administer. So he gets to charge Joe every time an i needs dotting or a t needs crossing. And he charges by the hour. And he isn't cheap.

After awhile, the web-design firm grows, and it's prices increase. It's getting bigger and bigger clients, and Joe is now just a small account. Joe notices the difference in service, and he sure as heck notices the rising prices. After awhile he gets tired of his calls not being returned when he needs work done on his site.

Joe's had enough. He decides to take his business elsewhere.

Not so fast, though, Joe! You have a custom site on a custom platform. No other designer in the world knows the platform like your original designer. Any new designer has to first deconstruct the site to learn it, if he can learn it at all. In many cases he may have to re-design your whole site onto a more standard platform that he knows well.

Please don't get me wrong. The big web-design firms really aren't demoniacal. They aren't doing this maliciously, and they probably aren't even thinking in terms of keeping your businesses hostage.

Like many web-designers, though, they are obsessed with their own talents, and want to be as creative as possible, even when it doesn't benefit the client. After all, they are designers - they want to design.

That's the problem. The businessman didn't intend to be a patron of the arts. He wanted a well-tailored solution to his business situation.

So when you are looking for a web-designer for a small business, keep these things in mind:

Big doesn't necessarily mean good. You get more personal attention from a free-lancer.

Custom doesn't necessarily mean good. You don't need a custom-built Ducati to haul merchandise. Make sure your solution fits your business needs.

Make sure whatever solution you chose is something that can be handled by other firms should you have to bail from your first choice.

Consider having your website made on a WordPress platform. It has become the industry standard for small, medium and some very large sites.

WordPress is what's known as an open-source platform. That means that anyone can develop new things for WordPress, such as themes, plugins, widgets and other things that give WordPress sites more functionality. And all of those things must adhere to the strict standards of the WordPress Codex.

That means that anything developed on a WordPress platform should be easily understandable to just about anyone who develops websites using WordPress. So if you take your site to another designer, you should be able to find someone who understands WordPress easily.

It also means that a lot of functionality and security is built in to every WordPress site, because many thousands of individual coders have worked to build the basis of the platform.

Using a "custom website" platform when there is such a stable platform like WordPress already out there is like re-inventing the wheel.

Unfortunately many web-designers learned to design using either pure coding or some program that creates sites in HTML code. That kind of old-school designing is fine for the very view enterprises that need custom coding solutions, like art sites. (And it's not even good for many of those.) But that kind of designing does not take into consideration all the functionality and ease-of-use of an open-source content management system like WordPress.

So before you get into a dilemma like Joe, make sure you find a small firm or free-lancer who will work with you personally and make sure his or her solutions fit your situation.

I feel Joe's pain. I know Joe's story. I'm the guy Joe comes to when he finally has had enough grief from the big guys. Don't be a Joe, though. Let me at Upstate Business Websites help you solve your business website needs.
I'm an Oneonta Web Designer and SEO consultant from upstate NY who you can help build a website that is about getting you more customers, no matter where you are.