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Your digital brand should be so important to your business. Without it, it gets exponentially harder to market and grow yourself in an increasingly competitive online space. Here’s why cheap websites are very rarely the right way to go.
You Really Want That Representing Your Business?
I know, I know, I sound like a snob. However, a digital brand’s website is everything. It’s your business card, your shop front, your whole functioning online operation if you’re an eCommerce business. You can’t be building all of that on a cheap, unreliable, cookie-cutter site. While it might make sense right now, financially, in the long run, you’re going to run into issues.
Poor Functionality Will Let You Down
I’m talking about websites that are difficult to navigate, lacking clear button placement, weird loading times, poor user optimisation, bad mobile optimisation. All these things will see your would-be customers running for the hills. That’s not even mentioning the potential impact bad on-site SEO optimisation, horrible loading times and a lack of on-site digital marketing features can have on your ranking and digital brand.
Sure, your website is up and running. However, is it really going to be doing all the things you need it to? This is the risk of a cheap website. In a lot of ways, it can be much better to go with a budget-orientated quality website. Limit the number of pages and other elements. As well as this keeps things strictly focused on the necessities while maintaining that important level of quality. Don’t stoop to a cheap website that seems to have all the bells and whistles.
Unreliability is Unacceptable for Digital Brands in 2021
So, let’s say your digital marketing strategy has really been paying off lately. You managed to catch a wave and suddenly your business and brand are getting a whole lot of attention, the dream! Right? Well, if you failed to invest in a sturdy enough site. You could be seeing a whole lot of that positive exposure completely wasted as your site reacts badly to the sudden influx of traffic. That could be overloaded servers, increased cybercrime attacks, or any number of the issues and complications that come with increased traffic.
You need your website to be an effective structure when it comes to making the most of this exposure, using it as a springboard. Granted, this is an unreliable website worst-case scenario in a lot of ways, but the fact is, having a site that’s anything less than solid isn’t going to ever be a good thing to build a thriving online digital brand upon.
Security is More Important Than You Think
If there’s one major error we keep seeing small online digital brand owners make, it’s the failure to invest in proper security and proper security protocols. People have this weird belief that if they’re not a huge online business, they’re somehow below the radar. In reality, the exact opposite of that statement is true. Big businesses get targeted plenty, that’s for sure, but the vast majority of cyberattacks are leveled at smaller online businesses.
There’s a whole bunch of reasons for this, but one of the biggest is dated websites with plugins that haven’t been updated in a long time making for a very easy target. Compared to the big online businesses that invest millions in cybersecurity. The paltry efforts of most small to medium businesses make very easy pickings for online criminals.
The cost of cyberattacks to businesses isn’t just monetary either. These attacks can cause a whole lot of varied issues for online businesses, far beyond the obvious. This is exactly why you can’t be depending on a cheap website. Fortunately, with a few simple protocols, the right modern website, and forward-thinking, it’s pretty easy to protect your business and digital brand against the vast majority of attacks.
Lack of Future-Proofing Brings Digital Brands Down
Look at the past ten years. From the takeover of mobile browsing to the imminent challenges of cryptocurrency, new technologies are part and parcel of the internet, and they have to be planned for. Without at least being aware and ready for new tech. Businesses run the risk of getting completely left behind by tech savvier competition, and seeing their digital brand fail.
Properly designed websites utilise elements like responsive design, specifically created to adapt to new and varied devices. New approaches designed to embrace speedier loading times or simply keep the site more secure around new tech are essential when everything is continually shifting online.
The risk when it comes to a cheap website is simple. Picture the scene, the year is 2014 and while you’re aware of mobile browsing and how it could affect the net, you’re not worrying too hard about it. Your cheap, clunky, slightly old-fashioned site works just fine on desktops. Fast-forward a couple of years and you’ve been left behind by the adoption of a more mobile browsing experience. It’s not always going to be quite so dramatic. However, keeping an ear to the ground and a site modern enough to adapt is always going to be a powerful strategic approach for digital brands looking to keeping up with the competition and changing times.
Cheap Hosting Is Rarely a Great Idea for a Solid Digital Brand
Lastly, I’m going to talk about cheap web hosting. The effects of cheap hosting are pretty terrible for sites. Especially with the increasing importance of speedy loading times, great rankings, and reliable hosting services. If your pages are taking an age to load, you’re dropping down the rankings and you’re struggling to get in touch with your hosting provider, you might just have fallen afoul of cheap web hosting.
This is exactly why it pays to go with a tried and tested provider. Unreliable hosting and a great website are like cheap supermarket trainers and a bespoke Italian suit. It’s a weird, weird decision.
