Websites - build or outsource?
Once you buy a domain name, the next big decision comes into play.
At this stage, many content creators jump straight into DIY mode and try and use WordPress, SquareSpace or Wix to build sites and then get unstuck because there is so much to deal with before you can create content and launch a successful site.
However, if a site is a simple calling card - says something about your business and nothing more - no content that is frequently updated (like blogs, videos, etc.) - then some of these quick-to-set-up options above make sense. They provide shared hosting that is cheap and you do not need to worry about security and site maintenance.
As the content is static (does not change frequently) and the building of the site with the WISYWG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) tools like click and drag, text editing and formatting tools that are simple to use, an image library for logos and basic images, these options make sense.
However, if there is more that you want to do with your site, this is a trap to avoid. The reason, I called it a trap is that each of these systems have a learning curve.
Wordpress is considered a bit dated but it is quick, easy and intuitive to use. It is built on PHP, a server-side language and has many themes and standard formats to choose from. The downside is, these formats are rigid and unless you know PHP, you can not change the rigid framework that it ships with. The cheapest option - shared hosting - means you get all sorts of intrusive advertisements that have nothing to do with your site displayed. The most expensive option - full hosting - is only worth it if you think your business case needs it and you are willing to spend around $500 a year (correct at the time of writing 2022) to host your site.
Wix and SquareSpace are pretty much the same. It is a cost to carry your content and store it and maintain it and all service providers charge you for that cost. Both Wix and SquareSpace also come with their learning curve and if you want to do-it-yourself, you will learn how they set up their fixed templates and use them and figure out whether they suit your purpose.
There is unfortunately no short-cuts to trial and error - but these are expensive errors to make if you just want to build a brand, blog-site and content-site that needs your creative input and frequent updates. At some stage you will have to outsource the grunt work to a Wordpress, Wix or SquareSpace expert, either to customise the site to your requirements or to maintain the site updates as you want to focus on the creative input.
Do you learn to code and other options
At this stage in sheer frustration, you may think you want to learn to code - do read the section on learning to code - if you want to go down this route.
As a content creator, you may want to focus on the creative work and not the grunt work and coding, though is creative in its own way, may not be something that appeals to you.
If you do not want to learn to code, what do you do next once you have purchased a name for your website?
- Research your competitors and get ideas and a look-book from their designs
- Draw your own design for how you want your site to look like
- If you can’t do this yourself, get a UI-UX (user interface and user-experience) designer and get a design prototype built
- Give your design to a web developer - they may use static site generators but at least you are in control of what you would like your site to look like
- If you have a complex design that requires e-commerce and users to sign up, you may need to consider security options as well
- You may want to provide a newsletter - in which case you may need to integrate plugins like an e-mail service provider to your site
- You may want social media plugins - again you may need a developer to help you with all of this.
Knowing what you want will determine what you do next. A developer may then set up static sites based on your requirements with a static site generator and manage the e-commerce, sign-in options and the social media plugins.
These add-ons are what cost you to design, build and maintain your site and make the next decision from purchasing hosting. Until you have thought all of this through, it is worth just buying the website name and not hosting while you make these decisions.
The geek stuff
You also need to know a little about the technologies around and who can do what for you. It is easy to assume that any developer can do a better job than you can. They are geeks right - they will sort it out. Wrong.
For example, Wordpress is build on the coding language PHP, a server-side-rendering language. Your developer may know HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), JavaScript and some CSS. So they will have to figure out the PHP bit.
To customise many of these pre-built sites, you may have to outsource this to the right developer - not your friend’s nephew who is studying computer science. You may laugh, but many do go down this route and wonder why it all goes wrong.
It starts with the best intentions, but expertise - and the right kind - needs to be hired. You wouldn’t ask a plumber to fix your electric works because it is a different skill set. Similarly, it is best to get a Wordpress, Wix or SquareSpace expert do build your site, if they have done it before.
If you want to take payments, build a data-base there are several plugins that can be used and if you want to optimise your site and analyse traffic once again, there are plugins that can be incorporated to solve the challenge you face.
None of these are easy to do yourself and will take time for the person or agency you hireout to customise something for you.
You can get someone who knows HTML, JavaScript and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to build a simple site for you - this will be 100% customised and not an off-the-shelf option.
If you have more than 5 pages of a site this is not a great option. This is because code repeated for each page, so hard to update and maintain. Also the number of calls to the server slows down the performance of the site.
React and J-Query are JavaScript libraries. J-Query is no longer being maintained by the code developers and therefore you will run into challenges if a developer suggests this an options - many local government and small scale operations still use J-Query, but it comes with its risks.
React is a more popular JavaScript library that provides you with a single page application SPA. It is more performant as it makes only one call to the server and the rest of the code is compiled and called with code transpilers that do the job in the background.
Downsides are you are now going into the realm of being completely reliant on your developers and not self-serving - as you can with Wordpress and the other off-the-shelf options. React is also not great for search engine optimisation as only 1 page is displayed, the rest are compiled - not something that search engines optimise well.
Next and Angular are frameworks of JavaScript, with Next using React under the hood. It is better for SEO because, like PHP, the code is rendered server-side and several HTML pages are rendered which is better for optimisation by search engines.
Drawbacks of SSR (server-side-rendering) is that data calls are made for every rendered HTML page slowing down the experience for the user.
A static site generator - SSG, for short - generates static HTML pages using a combination of pre-built templates, components and data. There are many SSGs - it’s a whole minefield on choosing one that will fit your use case.
SSGs compile the HTML pages at build time before the app is deployed to the Web. After the initial request, the SSG behaves like an SPA.
SPAs and SSRs can be over-engineered. SSGs take some of the grunt work out of building static sites. SSGs bundle all the files in build time and then sends the files to a CDN (content delivery network) to host.
They are good for SEO as the server gets back a content-rich, pre-rendered HTML page. Performant - as it is pre-rendered. Easy to maintain and update - based on templates that can be reused. Data sources are diverse - you can use content from Wordpress, e-commerce data from Shopify, backend data from Firebase or a simple file system.
So the whole process of building the site needs some thought and planning. This is before we even think about hosting.
In Part 1 of this series, we only explored the purchase of a name for your site and my recommendation was hang on to the name before you purchase hosting with the domain name - some of the reasons I have explored above.
The real reason why you should hold off considering hosts and hosting is lock-ins. Every single host will make it difficult for you to port your content to another web-host. This is without exception. From the “free hosting” or “cheap hosting” options that you will be sold along with your Wordpress, Wix or Square Space sites. The small consolidators are no different from the big players like Amazon, Google and Azure (Microsoft).
In Part 3, I will share my research and experience on why hosting is the most important decision you are likely to make in your journey as a content provider.