The truth is that you can build a business with any website. Some people even choose to only have a Facebook page for their business. With each of these options, there are some benefits and drawbacks for you to consider.
Facebook Page Only
Let’s start by exploring the use of a Facebook Page as your business website. The thing to consider here is how much you trust Facebook with your entire business presence online. They have changed their algorithm multiple times, and each time they offer less organic reach. Building your online presence with only a Facebook Page means you are at their mercy for traffic and they control the price of the ads.
Hub & Spoke Marketing
Keep in mind that we are only using Facebook as one example here. There are a wide range of social platforms and page builders which allow you to build your business site on their service. The key is to use these as spokes which lead the the hub that is your own website.
On your website you control the user experience and the connection with your customers. Your website should be the hub of your online marketing presence. It is where you build value for your company, direct people to learn about your brand, and develop relationships with customers.
All of these platforms are places you should build a presence, but that needs to be directed to your website and not just a page on a social network.
- YouTube
- Medium
- and many others
Choosing a Content Management System
Now that you understand why the hub & spoke method is the right use of social media pages, we can take a closer look at content management systems (CMS). These are the broad name for a range of website builders like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, and many others.
It is very easy to figure out which content management system to choose. If you want to know which platform is the best for building a website that ranks well in search, here’s an easy way to find out. This will use a quick search on Google and IsItWP.com.
- Use an incognito browser to search for “SEO agency”
- Input the URL from each of the top 10 results into IsItWP to see what they used to build those sites.
When we performed this check, 80% of the top sites for the phrase “SEO agency” were build using WordPress. The remaining website were divided evenly between Drupal and custom code.
Why is “SEO Agency” a good test?
If you didn’t already look it up, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. The businesses that rank well for “SEO Agency” make it their business to build websites that do well in search results. If 80% of them rely on WordPress, then it is a good solution for your business.
Time to Choose
Have a look at these usage statistics for WordPress. Of the top 10,000,000 websites (ranked by Alexa), W3Techs found that more than 33% of those are built with WordPress. Of those that use a CMS, this same report found that 60.3% chose to build their site with WordPress.
What are you going to use to build your website?
