Episode 25: Website Builder Brisbane

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[00:00:00]  Saul: Hi everybody, and welcome to the Web Design Brisbane Podcast. This is episode number 25. Today's episode is entitled Website Building Brisbane. My name is Saul Edmonds and as usual, I'm joined by the lovely Gillian Smith.

[00:00:13]  Gillian: Hello Saul. How are you doing?

[00:00:15]  Saul:  I'm really great. How are you? 

[00:00:17]  Gillian: I'm very well.

[00:00:19]  Saul: Great to hear here. We are the co-founders and creative directors of Roundhouse, the creative agency, a local business with a passion for helping our clients grow. Over to you, Gil. 

[00:00:29]  Saul: No worries. 

[00:00:30]  Gillian: Well, today, we're going to talk about website building with a special focus on websites built for business. Our goal here is to help small business owners’ start-ups and entrepreneurs in the city of Brisbane, Australia, take their opportunities to the next level with brilliant website design, if you're from another location, or city. Welcome. Thanks for joining us today. And we hope we can help you make the most of your business in the online space. 

[00:00:54]  Saul: So what's today's topics we're going to talk about? 

[00:00:56]  Gillian: Well, today we're specifically talking about website builder his first question being what is a website builder? And from there, we'll talk about the pros and cons of different website builders against custom website design development. Sounds interesting. Okay, so let's get started. So you're the website expert, the resident website expert. 

[00:01:18]  Saul: Yep, that's me.

[00:01:18]  Gillian: What is a website builder? 

[00:01:20]  Saul: Okay. A website builder is basically a way to build a website so another word for that is a content management system. You may have heard, maybe CMS content management system but a website builder is, on one sense, it's the same thing but website builders are a little bit different in that they let you manage your content but they also let you play an active part in the design and layout of the two. Popular platforms that people probably would have heard of is Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, and WordPress, which is a popular content management system as well, if not, the most popular in the world really is another one that has a range of different ways you can build websites inside it. WordPress is slightly different in that it's a content management system, that you've got different sorts of templates or website builders that you can actually put inside WordPress. They're all made by different third party. People that have their own kind of versions of WordPress, in a way. Some are better than others. Some are a little bit more like Squarespace. 

[00:02:52]  Gillian: customizable.

[00:02:53]  Saul: Yeah, that's right.  

[00:02:55]  Gillian: So from your experience, which do you prefer to work with? 

[00:02:59]  Saul:  Originally, when we made a decision to work with Squarespace, which was quite a number of years ago now almost at the start of Squarespace. We were working with WordPress as well, but also Squarespace, because partially driven by people who were using Squarespace, and so they liked it. And we found out that for some people, their experience with things like WordPress or other content management systems, they just had really nothing more than they had a preference. It was easier for them to edit, which they were doing a lot in their website, it was easier for them to use Squarespace so it was driven by a need that some people had or a preference, not necessarily about the features of the site, although Squarespace has a has a whole host of great features. So we would primarily use WordPress and Squarespace.

[00:04:14]  Gillian: Okay, well, what advantages do these CMS platforms offer? In terms of getting a website off the ground more quickly and more efficiently? 

[00:04:23] Saul: Yeah, so there's, there's a very strong element, especially in something like Squarespace of it being very intuitive. Yeah, this is pretty subjective to in, some people would say exactly the same thing about WordPress. And for people who are used to using it, that's no doubt that's true, because they've had a lot of practice using it, or they're okay. But for other people, that's why they gravitate over to things like Wix, and then Squarespace, because it's very easy to dive in straightaway. You can put content in, it's very simple and intuitive, and straightforward. And so that's a really key point is that people can do it themselves and feel they've got some control over.

[00:05:15]  Gillian: So in your opinion, what are the key pros and cons of using these website builders over a totally custom web solution?

[00:05:23] Saul: Well, yeah, that's a good point. we would even from a project perspective, if we, if we, if someone came to us, and said, We want to build a custom website, there has to be built from the ground up, one of the first things we would want to find out is what's the purpose of the website? What does it have to do? If the answer to those questions lead to yet definitely, it has to be built from the ground up, then we do that, but there's a lot more cost involved in doing that, too. If you have to do it, then that's it. But especially with something like WordPress, which is its own website builder, you can do a lot of what you have to do already out of the box. They may...

[00:06:23]  Gillian:  save time. 

[00:06:24]  Saul: Yeah, it saves on time and ultimately money, too and then you've got a framework already, they're ready to go

[00:06:33]  Gillian: and tested.  

[00:06:34]  Saul: So but  if really the solution, if you have a much better outcome, which is ultimately what it's about is what's going to be the best outcome, not what we want. But what is the best outcome for the client, if that means that they should have a custom solution? And we would suggest that to them as an option. 

[00:06:57] Gillian: Okay, well, these website builders, these platforms such as Squarespace, WordPress, Wix and so on, are they suitable for e commerce solutions?

[00:07:06]  Saul: Yes, they are.  And once again,  same deal is that if you've got if you've got an ecommerce site that only requires certain features, and you don't need to have anything more elaborate, than you can use these just fine. But once again, it gets back to what are the targets? What are the goals, one thing that crops up a lot with things like Squarespace and other platforms, is that when it comes to more advanced things inside a store to order things a particular way, or to ship things a particular way, and to send information to people, sometimes, those requirements within the platform just aren't there, and you don't have the ability to customize them or you don't at least in the way that a client might want you to do that. But then with something like WordPress, really just about everything you need, and then if you don't further on, then you might shift over to a completely custom bill, or a completely customized version of WordPress, but still use it as a great framework.

[00:08:30]  Gillian: In my mind, one of the negatives of building a website with one of these website builders is templates, you don't want to look like everybody else. How effectively can you customize these templates to make them really your own?

[00:08:44]  Saul: Well, you actually can when you know what you're doing is that if a person comes in, and they open up a template, and they start editing it, unless there was some level of expertise in the deeper level that some things like Squarespace do actually offer and you're able to code certain elements in and actually customize them quite a lot. If you don't know how to do that. The assumption always is that you can't, and, and to some with some elements of them, you actually can't they restrict you from doing that, and probably for good reason, because then they don't want people mucking around too much with this stuff. They just don't because they're geared mainly towards people who want a simple solution. They don't really care that much, frankly, about having it looking like other sites, sort of a big deal for a lot of people.

[00:09:43]  Gillian: Okay, well, and just finishing up here, what advice would you give to people who are thinking of using WordPress, Squarespace, etc. and wondering whether they should do it themselves or turned to an agency to help them with that?

[00:09:56]  Saul: I think it's always good, if that is and the answer that is, once again, partially driven by how much people want to spend or if they want to spend any money if they want to do it themselves. But , some people need to find need to have that experience themselves. It's always good to actually have a little bit of exposure to something like that, as well before you make a decision to work with an agency and to have brand spanking you. Nice, professional website. But that's actually it for today. Again, guys, thank you so much for listening, and before we go, please don't forget to rate review and subscribe to this podcast. We'd love to hear your feedback. Also, if you'd like to read the transcript of this episode, please visit our website at roundhouse.cc forward slash web-design. We're on a journey to help local Brisbane businesses grow their opportunities online and exceed their thanks for listening and we'll see you tomorrow. Bye

[00:11:03]  Gillian: Bye, guys.