It’s common to hear people questioning the value of a custom built website when there are ‘off the shelf’ tools out there, like Wix and Squarespace, that they think will do just fine. They quote the low cost and speed of getting online. But what they don’t realise is that by trying to save a little time and a few dollars up front, they’re actually setting themselves up for failure and wasting their money. The bottom line is that templated DIY websites will not generate business, whereas our custom websites have been making money for our clients since 1997!
In this article, we are going to explore the value you get with a Pinnacle&Co. custom website,
- The importance of distinctive branding
- Why you need to be in full control of your website
- Security risk management
- User Experience and User Interface design
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Generative Engine Optimisation
- Value for money
- The custom website building process
Reinforcing your brand
With a templated website, you’ll never be distinctive, because hundreds of other businesses are likely to be using exactly the same template. You might be able to play around with colours and images, but everything else is set in stone.
On the other hand, we make certain that every element is aligned with your brand, and you have the flexibility to update features, integrate new tools, and add products and services without being constrained by a template’s limitations.
Keeping control of your website
Having full control over your website is vital for its long-term health and effectiveness. It also means you avoid the security risks that accompany templated sites. Adding plugins to templates can introduce bugs or viruses into the website code and create coding conflicts that can stop it from working altogether.
Another security risk is that support for old templates tends to vanish just when the website is old enough to need it. Website code becomes obsolete, and plugins stop working. In contrast, our custom websites are fully supported and maintained, so they continue to work effectively until you decide it’s time for a change.
What is UX/UI and why does it matter?
Custom designing and building a website to meet the specific needs of its visitors is called User Experience (UX)/User Interface (UI) design. It’s important because Google monitors how long people stay on your website, how fast it loads, and how relevant and unique your content is. In other words, Google rewards good UX/UI and a custom approach to content. So when we build you a website, we do everything necessary for Google to rank you highly. And it works! 92% of our website customers are on page one of Google.
In contrast, templated DIY websites that aren’t unique and are burdened with excessive code that makes them slow are at an immediate disadvantage. They also give you very limited ability to access the technical SEO settings that influence the vital ‘near me’ local rankings, which is a massive obstacle to success.
SEO and GEO
When we build a website, we’ll ensure that it’s attractive to Google and AI search engines like ChatGPT.
In a recent article, we took a deep dive into AI search and discovered that to appeal to Google’s AI Overview or ChatGPT, you must have a broad range of relevant information on your site. Ironically, AI loves to see authentic human created content like customer reviews and fresh blogs – which are both things we can help you with.
Value for money
You wouldn’t buy a cheap work van that doesn’t go just to save a few thousand dollars, so why would you buy a website that won’t work how you need it to? Yet that’s what a lot of businesses do when they buy a templated website – and then wonder why they’re not getting the results they hoped for.
True value for money in business can only be calculated by return on investment. Pinnacle&Co. custom websites perform brilliantly – our clients have seen up to a 400% increase in sales when they switched to us. We know what works, because we’re mad about measuring results.
With a templated site, you can’t do any of that – making what looks like a sweet deal in the beginning look more and more like a bad investment as time goes on.
A clear and simple process
We’ll work together to develop a clear picture of your objectives and marketing budget, define what makes you distinctive in the market, identify your best customers, what motivates them, and where to find them. With that agreed, we’ll scope out the new website to see what content and features it needs to be most effective. The next stage is sharing our bespoke designs for how the website will look on desktop and mobile devices. Then, with your approval, we’ll commence the build. Most custom websites take three to four weeks to complete, depending on their scale.
Let’s build you a custom website
To get started, let’s have coffee and a friendly chat about what you want to achieve with your new website. We’re passionate about helping businesses succeed and would love you to join the long list of Pinnacle&Co. clients with custom websites that produce amazing results.