Why Custom Websites Help Small Businesses Get More Customers

Breaking down what custom websites are, and all the ways they help small businesses.

Figuring out what kind of website is right for your business is super overwhelming; there are a seemingly infinite number of DIY options, services, and technologies to choose from.

Every option has its benefits and trade-offs, but I want to explain why I make custom coded websites, an what my clients like about them that they can’t get from other options (things like Wix or WordPress).

Custom coded websites stand out in 5 major ways from DIY options and website builders:

• Load speed
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Security
• Long-term stability
• Freedom of choice

I’ll break down all five to show you why a custom website is awesome for small businesses.

Custom coded websites load faster, which brings in more customers

It doesn’t take much for the average user to get bored. According to Google, 53% of visits are abandoned if a page takes longer than three seconds to load. ^[1] That means more than half of potential customers slip through the cracks before they’ve read one word.

The faster your site loads, the more people stick around to give you a chance. If that sounds important, I wrote a blog post to help you test and improve your website speed (even if you’re using a no-code tool).

Why custom code is so fast

Simply put: no-code tools are built for convenience, not speed. They come with a lot of bloat that’s not needed for a lot of businesses and not usually optimized to load quickly.

Custom coded websites on the other hand are super fast because they’re tailor-built with only what you actually need. That doesn’t just help with speed now, it still helps months or years down the line.

I’ve never made a custom website that took more than one second to load; they’re insanely fast in a way that other site options actually can’t compete with without a hefty price-tag for fancy (and overcomplicated) services.

Loading in less than one second can massively affect how many customers your website brings in each month because you basically stop losing the huge chunk of visitors that normally leave early.

Custom coded sites play better with search engines

Every business owner knows that Google is the gatekeeper for your business online.

You probably won’t have issues competing for ranking when someone searches your exact business name, but once you want to come up for service name in your city you need to be thinking about SEO (search engine optimization).

Custom coded websites play really well with search engines, which makes it easier for people to find you. In fact, it can even boost your search rankings a little bit.

Because custom sites have leaner and more efficient code, they’re easier for Google to index (that basically means understanding what they’re about). Sites that are easier to crawl and index have an easier time performing well in search results.

Remember how I said custom coded websites are super fast? Well a fast website actually boosts your SEO by lowering something called the bounce rate.

That’s how often a user clicks on your site, but changes their mind in the first few seconds.

High bounce rates are bad because Google thinks it means your site wasn’t helpful. Like we mentioned earlier, sites that load slow lose visitors who get bored of waiting — which raises the bounce rate.

Flipping that, custom coded sites naturally lower the bounce rate because they load before people get bored. That can give Google the confidence to show you higher in search results.

Improved security

No one wants to think about their website getting hacked, and with hand coded websites you don’t have to.

Custom coded sites are static, which means there’s no bulky login system to hack into. I actually handle updates and edits for my clients as part of the service, and people love that they don’t have to spend hours on YouTube to figure out how to make simple changes themselves.

Custom coded websites also tend to be less reliant on third-party code and plugins. Plugins are one of the main sources of security breaches for WordPress websites because they come from all different sources. Some can be poorly made, super outdated, or badly optimized.

With custom code, you know exactly what’s in it. When every line in the website was written by the person who made it, it’s much easier to have confidence in how safe and effective the final product is.

A custom website is more robust by design and you don’t have to worry about being the one updating it anymore.

Improved stability

With custom code, you have full control over when the website changes. No worrying about updates to the platform or plugins that break your site without warning or notice.

I actually took a look at a small business owner’s website recently, it basically had nothing on the pages and the owner was considering his options for fixing it.

The platform he built the website on had gone through years of updates that slowly broke more and more of his site until there was no way to fix it without rebuilding it from scratch.

The last thing a business owner wants is a surprise tech nightmare, they really have enough on their plate already.

Custom-coded sites solve this problem because they’re built from nothing but the code that web browsers actually use. There aren’t layers of software and plugins and disparate libraries stacked on top of each other that jumble up the final product.

Freedom of choice

Custom sites are 100% flexible. Anything you need can be added, and you can add or change plugin vendors to get whatever works best for your business.

You don’t have to worry about being locked-in to the platform and its choice of vendors, which can be unreasonably expensive for what you need.

You’re not limited by pre-made templates, you don’t have to deal with a company that doesn’t have live support, and you don’t have to pay for things you shouldn’t need in the first place.

Conclusion

As your business grows, custom-coded websites open the door for your business to load faster, rank higher, and make more money in the long term.

I work with businesses that need something faster, safer, and easier to scale. If you’re not sure whether your site is still working for you or quietly holding you back, I offer a free audit to make that clear. Email me at wlord.webdesigns@gmail.com and ask me about it!