Choosing the Best Web CMS for Your Business:

WordPress vs. Wix vs. SquareSpace

Let’s talk about choosing the best Web CMS for your business!

A few terms defined:

• A web content management system (CMS) is a software application or set of related programs that are used to create and manage digital content. 
• A website builder doesn’t require any special programming skills or other technical knowledge since they usually offer templates or themes that you can choose from. Website builders are suited for individuals, freelancers, photographers, small businesses and start-ups.

WordPress is an example of a web content management system that allows users to create custom or template designs and edit with ease long into the future.  Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace are examples of website builders. So what’s the difference?

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WIX

Wix is an all-in-one website template builder that’s ideal for beginners that are looking for an easy cost-effective option or don’t have access to a web developer. 

This platform is simple to use because the drag-and-drop design lets you personalize your site with ease. 

Wix offers themes that you can choose from and make minor adjustments to, but once you’ve hit publish, you’re stuck with the theme you’ve chosen.

Wix Pros

• Easy to use
• Drag-and-drop system is great for beginners

Wix Cons

• Can’t switch themes after publishing 
• No opportunity for total customization
• Choice and Editing can feel overwhelming and time consuming
• Doesn’t search well in SEO/Search Engines 
• Monthly fee to use

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SQUARESPACE

Squarespace has been an increasingly popular website template builder option because, like Wix, it offers an editable template. 

Compared to Wix, Squarespace is a bit harder to use and is more time consuming but offers more modern, sleek designs.

Squarespace Pros

• Better designed templates
• Popular in the creative industries
• No coding involved 

Squarespace Cons

• Difficult to use at first
• More time consuming than Wix 
• No opportunity for total customization 
• Expensive price plans
• Monthly fees

Overall, Squarespace wins when it comes to a minimalist template design but has a steeper learning curve that is time-consuming for busy business owners.

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WORDPRESS

WordPress is the website marketing powerhouse. This web CMS is unique from Wix, and Squarespace because you have full access to own your website and content. The disadvantage to owning your site is that you need to decide how to build your home and maintain it. 

Since WordPress is an open source CMS, you will either need to learn some code or partner with an experienced web designer and developer team to create a beautifully branded site.

WordPress Pros

• Unlimited customization and complete freedom
• Marketing powerhouse for SEO (it ranks in the search engines very well)
• Cost of WordPress: Free
• No ongoing fees 
  • Once you create the website – it’s yours and you don’t have to pay a monthly fee for standard WordPress functionality
• Access to all kinds of third-party plugins that can make your site more powerful and create a better digital experience
• If you’ve opted to work with a company, your site can be made very easy for you to maintain (edit text, photos, add portfolio galleries, etc.)

WordPress Cons

• Requires some coding knowledge or access to a web developer

Overall, WordPress lets you customize your site with complete freedom. It’s a self-hosted software, which means you have unlimited coding capabilities. Although you will need to find, pay for, and set-up your web hosting, this decision can save you a lot of money in the long run because you won’t have to pay a large monthly fee like Wix or SquareSpace.

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The Verdict:

There are several things to consider when choosing the right platform for your business’s website.

Although template builders are easy to use, when choosing the best web CMS for your business, we recommend using WordPress. It is the clear choice because it is completely custom. The idea is to stand out from your competitors, right? The way to separate yourself from the competition is through customization and sharing your unique brand story! With WordPress, you can showcase your brand elements in unique ways throughout your site and create a client experience that is exclusive to your luxury brand. By creating a custom experience with your brand you are communicating a clear and strategic brand promise to your future clients and building likeability and trust. 

Interested in a complimentary consultation to learn more about getting a custom website design and WordPress build for your business? Let’s chat!

To Houzz or not to Houzz, has been the question circulating for the past year or so. Let’s discuss it.

For those who don’t know, Houzz is a website and online community that focuses on home improvement, decorating, landscaping, etc. Husband and wife, Adi Tatarko and Alon Cohen, started the company in 2009 out of Palo Alto, CA. 

Since its launch in 2009, Houzz has attracted more than 40 million monthly users who can find inspiration, shop for furniture, or search through the profiles of roughly 1.5 million professionals offering everything from interior design to pest control services. 

Houzz Facts

• Worth $4 billion
• 1.5 Million Experts Listed
• Raised $400 million in venture capital funding last year
• $30 million purchase of IvyMark, a business management platform for the interior design community, which it acquired in February
• 25 million unique monthly visitors 
• 11 million photos
• 10 million products
• 60 professional categories on Houzz

The company, now worth over four billion dollars, has about 200,000 interior designers who have uploaded millions of images from their portfolios that are shared in their “ideabooks.”

Designers first started having issues with Houzz when the platform started tagging their project photos with links to buy the merchandise. The products weren’t necessarily the exact product, but were “lower-priced and inferior,” according to the petition that started in response to the change. 

Houzz founder, Alon Cohen, reaffirmed the platform’s commitment to the trade. “We hear you on the tags that are displayed on photos. As a result, we’re making a change in the way photos are displayed and hiding the tags whenever a designer’s photos are displayed to homeowners in their local area. We hope that this, in addition to our partnership with Ivy, will help demonstrate our commitment to the needs of the trade,” he said in a statement.

So should you list your business in the Houzz directory?

Houzz frustrations aside, the platform still rules the home décor market and should still be leveraged to promote your business!

What we suggest: 

• Maintain a strong online profile with good ratings and reputations.
• Use Houzz as a directory listing.
• Don’t spend money on the platform.
• Direct people to your business’s website.
• Use Houzz as a tool with new clients.
• Inspire potential clients!

Use Houzz as a directory listing. If you get contacted through Houzz for a project, we recommend that you send them your website for further information. 

We do not suggest deleting your account. We recommend that you continue maintaining your Houzz account, and instead use the platform as an opportunity to redirect potential clients to your business website. If you take your profile off of Houzz, the platform essentially posts a notice on your profile that says you are no longer active which has connotations that your business is closed. It’s one thing to have that message posted there, but all of the images you uploaded to the ideabooks all over the site remain linked to that profile message.

Furthermore, Houzz is not only a great platform for designers to display their portfolio and network their services, but it’s also a wonderful starting point for your clients.

Many design clients may have a certain look that they know they love, but they don’t know how to properly describe it. Similar to Pinterest, Houzz offers up a wonderful tool for design clients to gather their most favorable designs and relay that style to their designer. 

 

Should you use the Houzz site builder?

Houzz offers a free website-building tool called “Site Designer”. The site will be published with a houzz.com subdomain or with a custom URL purchased through a domain-registration service. 

Although the tool is simple to use for beginners, business owners who are looking for a serious internet presence should invest in a custom-built site that reflects their brand. Houzz’s site builder offers a basic, non-SEO friendly website that does not offer any customization ability. We do not recommend using the Houzz site builder. 

 

Final Thoughts

Houzz is a great opportunity for businesses in the home décor market to list their business and showcase their portfolio. At Click & Co, we recommend maintaining a strong profile that acts as a directory listing that inspires potential clients to visit your (non-Houzz) beautifully branded business website.

Interested in taking the leap from Houzz to a custom website? Set up a complimentary consultation today. 

Design Industry Marketing Tips

Mastering the art of Pinterest SEO is a great opportunity for any creative business marketing strategy. It is especially effective for businesses in the luxury design industry (interior designers, architects, home builders, etc.).

Since its launch in 2010, Pinterest has transformed into a powerful and profitable social media platform for savvy marketers. According to Pinterest, there are now more than 150 million monthly users. 

Did you know that: 

• 97 percent of Pinterest searches in 2016 were non-branded
• 80 percent of Pinterest’s traffic is mobile
• More than 2 billion searches take place on Pinterest each month 

Different from its competitors, Pinterest serves a hybrid role. It’s known as a social network, but it’s increasingly also a search engine and bookmarking service. 

This “discovery” platform where Pinners can find new ideas, provides an opportunity for both creativity and storytelling. Leveraging the power of Pinterest SEO will establish a foundation for continued success on the platform. 

So, how does Pinterest SEO work?

The Pinterest Algorithm:

Similar to other social media outlets and search engines, Pinterest has a search algorithm called the “Smart Feed.”

The way this algorithm is set up, people see the best pins first when they search for a specific phrase, instead of the newest pins first.

The algorithm determines the quality of the pin, rates the pin, assigns interests, and places the content in front of the people who are looking for it.

 

4 Main Factors Influencing Your Pins Being “Discovered”

According to Persuasion Nation’s article “Pinterest SEO in 2019: How to Optimize Your Pins for the Changes,” there are 4 main factors that are known to influence whether or not your pins show up on Pinterest:

• (1) Domain Quality
  • Convert your profile to a business account 
  • Carefully choose your username 
    • Make it straightforward and relating to your business
  • Claim your website
  • Enable rich pins on your account
  • Be a consistent pinner
    • Suggested every day
    • Pinterest prefers you to pin 10 pins a day, every day, then 70 on one day and none for the rest of the week. 
  • Create and pin high-quality content
• (2) Pin Quality
  • Create pin-worthy graphics
  • Monitor your Pinterest boards for saves and clicks
  • Write compelling blog post titles
• (3) Increase Pinner Quality
  • Be active on Pinterest throughout the day 
  • Pin already popular content to your boards
  • Increase your saves 
  • Increase your follower engagement 
• (4) Relevance 
  • How do your pins fit your audience’s overall interests, specific searches, and recent search history?

Once you have broken down the algorithm, you will need to leverage Pinterest SEO in a way that actively drives traffic back to your digital hub (your website). 

The purpose of utilizing any social media platform is to drive traffic back to your website so potential clients convert into sales. On Pinterest, you will do this by using pins from your website. 

It’s simple: post pins and get your website followers to post pins on Pinterest.

People browse the Pinterest feed like Instagram and Facebook, but they also do a lot of searching. Therefore, to drive referral traffic, you’ll need to get your pins in front of people which means optimizing for both social and search within Pinterest.

Here’s how: 

• Use a business account (for the analytics)
• Verify your website & profile links
• Use the right formatting for imagery
• Use detailed descriptions
• Link the image to the relevant URL (not just your homepage)
• Use descriptive but catchy titles
• Build up a following on your boards
• Pin lots of quality content that is not your own (ideally popular and interesting)
• Keep boards with a concise, niche theme 
• Comment and re-pin to get in front of other pinners 
• Collaborate with other pinners on shared boards 
• Understand how Pinterest is organized.
  • • Explore Topics, which are the big top-level organization (example: design). 

• Create Boards for Brand Terms.
  • What do Pinners search for when they search for your brand? 
• Understand the competition. 
  • What pins are showing up? What boards are showing up? Do you have something better?

Although this outline will set a strong foundation, we always recommend referring to your Pinterest analytics and your website analytics to see how your Pinterest SEO strategy is performing and how well it is driving traffic to your website.

Our Summary

Overall, Pinterest SEO is an excellent marketing tool. Its hybrid role as both a social network and a search engine make this platform an amazing marketing opportunity for business owners.

As one of the top social networks, Pinterest is no longer just the place to find great design inspiration but is now one of the most relevant social networks that should be leveraged and integrated into your social media marketing strategy.

Feeling like this is a bit too much to handle on your own? Ask us about integrating Pinterest into your marketing strategy today!