It’s always tempting to jump on a cheap website deal. The ads make it sound so simple and tidy. Like, it’s supposed to be the easiest way to make an impact on your brand, right? Like, it’s a whole website for a price that looks too good to be real, and yeah, on the surface, it feels like winning. It’s fast, it’s inexpensive, and it feels like the perfect solution for getting a business online without the stress. It makes sense, and as a small business owner, it’s definitely known for being the more “easy way out.
But as you can see for yourself, those low-cost packages come with strings attached, and not the pretty kind (well, was there ever actually a pretty kind?). They just hide issues that show up once the site is live, and you better believe they show up at the worst time.
Those Templates that All Look the Same
Okay, maybe not every website that sells those cheap packages has the same-looking website, but a giant chunk actually does. But really, here, cheap packages almost always rely on generic templates. And okay, templates aren’t automatically terrible, but when thousands of businesses are using the same layout with the same sections and the same awkward spacing, the website stops feeling like a brand and starts feeling like a placeholder.
Some people know it’s a template, some don’t, but there’s a chance of being judged or labeled as “cheap” or “unprofessional” solely from your website, which makes no sense, but honestly, that’s just how it all is sometimes. Well, those things, but it also just makes the whole business feel a bit forgettable. These templates are usually rigid, too, so changing anything becomes more of a headache than anyone signs up for. It all feels fine on day one, but as the business grows, the site just stays stuck exactly where it started. And yeah, that gets frustrating fast.
There’s Probably Slow Hosting
Now, a lot of people know this, but cheap deals often include cheap hosting, and okay, this is where things really unravel. Again, most people don’t seem to understand or realize any of this (if you don’t know much about websites, that is). But slow websites lose potential customers instantly.
People aren’t going to sit around waiting for pages to load, not when there are ten other tabs open. Slow hosting affects search rankings, too, so fewer people even find the site in the first place. Actually, speaking of search rankings…
Where’s the SEO Here?
Well, there’s next to no SEO with those cheap packages, so it’ll get to the point where you’ll need to hire an SEO agency to help you out. So what’s the deal with the cheap packages then? Well, most of those bargain packages say they include SEO, but it’s usually the absolute bare minimum. Like, a couple of meta tags, a few headings sprinkled around, and that’s about it. It doesn’t actually push the site upward in search results or help customers find anything.
