Are you looking to build your business online but you don't know which platform is the best for you? Here, we are going to give you some tips and make a general comparison of different platforms that allow you to build a Business Website or Online Store to run your digital business.

The first step before to build your Business Website is to organise your business plan and design a strategy and objectives that drive your whole business process online and offline.

Create a Website

When we thought about business websites 5 years ago, it was a kind of stress, expensive and lengthy topics that made our teamwork overnight many times, but now with all those new website builder platforms, create a website has become an easy and quick bullet around business strategy (of course with the whole importance that a website has for a business).

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Pros of building a business website:

• Full control of your Design

You have heaps of options to build your website and customise it according to your business's requirements.

• Content Freedom

You have total control of what you post and when it happens, not like social media platforms where you should follow their rules and parameters. You are the king here!

• Build your credibility

A website gives to your business a crucial support when customers are looking for more information about your business.

• Total SEO control

If you are building your website, you can control and design your SEO strategy.

• You have your personal URL.
  

Cons of building a business website:

• Is not free

Depending to which platform and plan did you choose you will have some fees of Hosting and Domain. As well, there are platforms where you can build your website totally free but limiting a lot of tools.

• You need technical knowledge or hire an expert

It's your business website, not your cat's website and if you want it to be profitable is better do it well or at least at a good professional level.

Social Media

The easy but essential way to support your business is creating a business profile, there is where now everyone is looking for reviews about brands, business and companies, so create at least a Facebook page is a must nowadays if you want to reach your customers.

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Pros of building a Business Profile on Social Media:

• Free & Quick

Create a business account on Facebook is totally free and easy to set up; additionally, platforms like Facebook guides you in the whole process step by step of setting up your profile.

• Targetting Tools & Higher Audience Engagement

Facebook has done an excellent work creating tools for your business where you are allowed to choose which segment of people are you talking to increase your potential audience engagement, but the key is to know how to make your posts profitable.

• Closer to your Audience

Nowadays everybody is in at least one social media, and there is where they go to find more about a product or company.

Cons of building a Business Profile on Social Media:

• Lack of Control

Platforms like Facebook has millions of business profiles promoting their product or services all the time, that is why it has specific rules and parameters that you must follow in order to don't be reported or shut down.

• Limited Design

For example, Instagram has its own format which every company should follow, you can innovate with your posts and the visual structure of your Feed and Bio, but there is a structure pre-designed that you must follow.

• Not SEO control

On social media, there is not SEO structure like in a website, but here to improve your positioning between your Audience is about interaction and content.

Online Store or eCommerce

Online Store Platforms such as Shopify, Volusion, Bigcommerce, Squarespace, Wix, Weebly or others, are multiplying and they are great options if you want to sell your products through their channels as it offers a large number of tools and options.

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Pros of building a business Online Store:

• Not need of Hosting or Security payment

One of the benefits of working with some of these platforms is that they host your business and products info and provides your business security (the majority of them for free or at low cost)

• Sales Tools set up for you

These platforms were designed to help you sell your products, so they provide you with handy tools which you can use to increase your sales and make your business profitable.

• Easy to set up

Platforms such as Wix are designed for dummies and are really easy to understand, but if your intuition fails, they show you how to set up your page with tutorials.

Cons of building a business Online Store:

• Is not free

As you want to make money through these platforms they want as well, for that reason they ask you for a percentage of every sold item through their channels. Additional, there are some plans where you can customise and set up, even more, your store to get better results, but you should pay for them.

• Not SEO control

The better way to control your SEO strategy is creating your website from a blank page, but some platforms such as Shopify let you to install SEO specific apps to upgrade your store' positioning.

Now it's your time to compare which one of these options are best for your business!