The other additional benefits that you will gain while on the website builder include links to the social networking platforms. The current business world is increasingly becoming dominated and reliant on the social networking platforms to spreads their business tentacles around the world. The website builder has been designed to give the business people the edge that they need to push their success even further and serve their clients in a much better fashion.

User friendliness on the website is something that a website builder ought to be on the lookout for. Good website builders usually allow the website developer to a well run and easy to use website with many functions. The ease of use has to apply to not only the clients but also the administrator to make it easy for them to communicate with their clientele. The other thing that good website builders have done is to ensure that they can be used by those people who do not have IT knowledge. Not everyone can understand html language and all the technical lingua that developing a website comes with. However, if these commands are put in a way that is understandable by the normal person, then it becomes much easier to use.

Add this to the fact that it saves on time and money to build your own website and you have the winning combination and the right shot in the arm for your business.

E-commerce relies on the internet to make a business grow. It is a section of a business’ strategy that involves tapping into the people who frequent the internet and covert such people into regular consumers of the product that a company sells. In coming up with an e-commerce strategy, the first important thing to consider is the website design and ease of usage. It is important to have a website that is easy to access and contains just enough information. It should also be easy to maneuver around the website to allow the clients to interact with the different parts. For those whose business can be done online, this is an especially important point. At times it is quite easy to lose a business deal just because your website is difficult to navigate through.

As such, you can begin to understand the way e-commerce and web design are inter related. The success of one, often the website, almost always leads to more business.

Why would you create a website for your business?

To start with, the website allows the business to tap into a large market that includes the millions of internet users. It is estimated that of the seven billion people in the world, at least half of them have access to the internet. As such, you can imagine the potential that tapping into a percentage of that population will do to your revenue stream. These people are generally attracted by beautiful web designs and strong content. If the website is not appealing, then you will find it hard to attract their interest. Additionally, a website allows you to access markets that are in far flung areas with the simple click of a button. In this way, a firm can reduce its advertising costs and other administrative costs that may be increased by geographical boundaries. Among other things, the website provides the client with a portal from which they can get information about the firm and its services at any time and with as little cost as possible.

E-commerce relies on the internet to make a business grow. It is a section of a business’ strategy that involves tapping into the people who frequent the internet and covert such people into regular consumers of the product that a company sells. In coming up with an e-commerce strategy, the first important thing to consider is the website design and ease of usage. It is important to have a website that is easy to access and contains just enough information. It should also be easy to maneuver around the website to allow the clients to interact with the different parts. For those whose business can be done online, this is an especially important point. At times it is quite easy to lose a business deal just because your website is difficult to navigate through.

As such, you can begin to understand the way e-commerce and web design are inter related. The success of one, often the website, almost always leads to more business.

Global reach

Every business yearns for an opportunity to branch out and spread its influence and products. Indeed the true measure of success is in how many people a business can serve while sustaining its productivity and quality.  The internet has made it possible for the world to become just a small village where distance and territorial boundaries are a nonissue. The website has brought communication and interaction to another level creating a virtual store where people from round the globe can enter and make a purchase.

Affordable marketing

E-marketing is the fuel that websites run on. Prior to the era of online marketing, mainstream advertising was solely a preserve of the huge companies that could afford it. The ushering of the internet however brought with it new tools that even start ups could afford. The huge marketing costs are no longer important as simple strategies such as SEO can accomplish a similar goal.

Leveled playing field

When you create a website for your business you join the club of big boys and girls and stand a chance to enjoy the same benefits enjoyed by the rest if you play your cards well. The internet has created an environment where the small companies have an equal chance of striking gold just as the big companies. A look around the most successful companies and the fastest rising indicate that they have invested a lot in online marketing. In this era, money is not the only factor determining success but rather is the strength of the moves.

Increased productivity

The link between online presence and increased productivity cannot be denied. As mentioned above, a website is a virtual portal through which the company interacts with the customers. Orders can be placed, queries responded to, complaints handled and advertising done at the click of a mouse. This hence means that the organization has ample time to concentrate on the core duty of production. If you create a website today, you can be sure your business is on the right path to success.

Affordability

Most of online entrepreneurs often decry the huge costs associated with website design especially when it comes to classy and appealing sites. With an effective website builder, however this is a cost that can be overcome. This is so as most of the expensive intermediaries such as designers and programmers are eliminated. This program allows you to have a voice in how the end product will look like without necessarily compromising on the cost.

Simplicity

A few years ago, web design was regarded to be a complex process and only a reserve of professional programmers. With advent in technology however, you do not have to be an expert in HTML and programming language as a top website builder will do the trick. The beauty of all this is how simple the process is and the duration of time involved. If you choose a builder with good visual and layout qualities, you will have a product not only with the necessary navigational and interactive settings but also one that is compatible with modern browsers.

Array of options

A good entrepreneur is known for his or her distinct tastes and products. You want to stay ahead of the game and creating a unique website is one way of achieving this. Website builders come with this major benefit of allowing the users to customize their sites and ensure that they rhyme with the desired themes. You have a chance of changing the touch, the feel and the look of your site and incorporate all the fine details that you feel defines your website best.

Website hosting

Creating a website is a simple step but making it accessible is the ultimate step. An effective website builder will produce a good website and also host it removing the need for questionable third-party gateways. To achieve all this however, the trick lies in having quality software.

If looking for an excellent website builder that’s also friendly on the wallet, give the following top-five a try:

WIX

WIX gained fame for allowing users with pretty much zero experience to design unique websites that look and operate exactly as desire. Perhaps the biggest draw of all to WIX is the way in which the simple drag-and-drop user interface serves as something as a step by step lesson in website building in its own right – a million miles from the complex coding and programming languages needed with other packages. The online-based web site maker offers literally everything a person needs to get started with their website, with endless scope for adding photos, text, graphics, animations, video files, links to other sites, music, Google Maps and dozens more.

Web Hosting Hub

Most seem to be unaware that Web Hosting Hub offers a superb web site maker 100% free of charge to anyone that opens a hosting account with them. As such, there are few better ways of securing the web hosting services the site will need anyway while at the same time taking home a simple and powerful website builder, which comes as a free addition to the package. One of the best things about this option is the way in which over 500 templates are offered as standard, which immediately take most of the effort out of the equation for any budding designer.

EXAI

Famous for being one of the simplest website design tools to negotiate for the newcomer, it is perfectly possible to create a living, breathing and downright gorgeous website with EXAI in a matter of minutes – literally! The service uses a series of fields in a website creation form to go about the most important design and build aspects, asking the user to simply decide what he or she likes best and letting the artificial intelligence of the site do the rest.

Jimdo

An absolute must for those looking to build a website with business in mind – Jimdo makes the creation of an online store easier than ever before – and 100% free of charge! Jimdo simplifies the process of creating fully-functional shopping-carts, add-ons and the ability to take secure payments, while at the same time being practically limitless in design options.

Weebly

Last but not least, the delightfully-named Weebly website builder took pride of place in Time Magazine’s Top 50 Sites of 2007, though is by no means past its prime in 2012. In fact, it has been afforded countless tweaks and changes to boost its already enormous appeal and remains one of the very best for the creation of websites of every conceivable purpose.

 Website Builder Basics

In essence, a website builder is a tool that allows you to design and make a website without requiring you to have extensive prior knowledge in web development. You don’t need to do manual coding, which makes it attractive to beginners and to people who want an instant website.

There are generally two website builder categories: offline and online. With an offline website builder, you can modify or create pages even when you are not connected to the internet. Most offline tools allow you to edit the source code or the cascading style sheet (CSS), requiring you to have some basic HTML or CSS coding skills. Offline site builders are sometimes referred to as website design software because it is generally a standalone application.

On the other hand, an online website builder is commonly a proprietary application developed by web hosting providers to assist users to generate their own websites. Web hosting companies usually ask users to register to able to access the tools. An online website builder can accommodate features such as pre-designed templates, social media content, sharing widgets and many other services typically found on standard business or personal sites.

Making the Most Out of Online Tools

Developing and managing a website can seem like a daunting task, but the online website builder simplifies it. Firstly, most online website builders are free, which saves you from unnecessary expenses. You are also spared from any additional charges that pile up when you ask a designer to tweak some minor details because with an online website builder you can easily make the changes.

Secondly, the web-based website builder is hassle-free and straightforward. Because it is normally hosted by a reputable provider, you don’t need to worry about site security and to fret about software updates. You basically won’t need to install anything on your computer. With an online website builder, you can work on your website from anywhere as long as you’re on the internet.

Finally, developing your own site can be an excellent way to learn. With your online website builder, you can become more familiar with the available tools that can help you in your endeavors.

1. Use compression, either of the JPEG or PNG variety. PNGs will need to be crushed in order to not be huge file sizes. Your front page should not be filled with images over 10kb (aside from maybe the banner). If you have a blog, try to keep images under 50kb. You can have users click on thumbnails to see larger versions.

2. Use appropriate sizes. If your HTML declares an image to be 250×150, the image should actually be that size. If you resize a larger image, the visitor’s browser will still have to load the full sized image, which takes longer to load.

3. Use the appropriate alt tags. In order to be standards-compliant, all images on any page should be properly described in alt tags so that visually impaired visitors will know what they are.

4. For large packs of images, use a gallery. If you are going to be displaying images in bunches, use some type of gallery or light box (modal windows). People who see the initial page will still get fast load times, and if they want to see the images up close, they can choose to wait longer.

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons