Should I use a Free Advertised Website
In the interest of public awareness, we must advise our visitors to, think twice before using a free advertised website.
We’ve all heard or read promotional advertisements urging us go online and create a lovely website in minutes, for free. Come on now! Most of us clearly understand nothing is really free, at least nothing worthwhile. Without even checking out the various different companies offering the free sites, we must think for a minute of the amount of money that is being streamed into paying for these ads. That’s right, it’s mega bucks!
So, these companies are paying for high dollar advertising and offering free websites out of the kindness of their hearts? Of course not! In fact, having one of these sites may actually cause the small business owner or individual more harm than good. Here’s the scoop!
Important WordPress Facts
Before we go one step further please know, you can have a real WordPress website (WordPress is the greatest web content management system in the world), with your own domain and hosting, up and running within a day or two for next to nothing. Yes, you will have to pay about $20 a year for a dot com domain name and then plan on about $30-$40 per month for good managed WordPress hosting. You will have a real, search engine friendly website that you maintain and operate. You don’t need to sign up for any special deals, and you won’t get hooked into paying for service or feature upgrades later.
2022 UPDATE: WordPress has worked out many of the problems with the block editor and if using a great free plugin such as Kadence Blocks, it’s much easier than back in 2019. Still not as easy as a page builder, but the end result is faster page loads. This site is build using the new Block Editor.
2019 UPDATE: WordPress has released it’s own version of a built in page builder. It uses blocks to enable non-coders to create some pretty nifty posts and pages. It’s still a bit of a pain to use but I’m sure they will get the kinks worked out, eventually.
Questions to Ask Before Going With Free DIY Website
To help our visitors and clients think twice before signing up for a free advertised website, we’ve developed a list of questions to consider before using one of these sites.
- Will your free website have your very own .com domain name or will it be associated with another name? Who pays for the registration of that domain name? Unless the domain name is your own, walk away. Remember, it only costs about $20 per year for your own domain.
- What content management system will be used to manage your content? The WordPress CMS is an open source platform created and maintained by tens of thousands of talented developers throughout the world, for free. If it’s not WordPress, don’t bother!
- Will there be any outside advertising on your site? That is, any ads that are not created and posted by you? If the answer is yes, run away now!
- Will there be any hidden code referencing other entities, or an outgoing links to other websites? I doubt anyone will admit to this, but it does happen. If yes, walk away now!
- How well will your free website be set up for Search Engine Optimization? Research shows, SEO optimization for website platforms such as Wix and Squarespace do not come close to comparing to WordPress. A highly regarded SEO expert dug in her heals and extensively researched the seo optimization of these page builder sites and the results were eye opening.
- Where is your website going to be hosted and will there ever be any charges for this hosting? If your site is not being hosted by a reputable company, such as Liquid Web, SiteGround, WPEngine or another reputable hosting company, be very cautious. Be sure to research the hosting company.
- What terms and conditions must be agreed to allow you the use of this site? Be sure to read the small print. This is where they will get you, I promise!
- In order to receive one of the “free” websites you will likely need to provide personal information. Will any of your information be shared? Will you be deluged with any marketing information? Remember, nothing worthwhile is really free. Typically, these free services are very limited and once you are committed and hooked in, you’ll end up spending money! Later you discover it would have been much smarter to choose a different route.
Without any further comment we must advise, don’t fall for signing up for one of these advertised free websites! You will spend valuable time adding or changing content, you won’t have control, you will be a target of up sells, unwanted advertising and used to the benefit of others. This will end up costing you time and money, we promise!
We hope you found this post helpful. Be very careful and think twice before signing up for a free advertised website.