In 2019, I was excited about becoming more visible online with a brand-new website for my fledgling social media virtual assistant business – Genevieve  Owen Business Support. While at that time I had little working knowledge of the mechanics of a website, I already had a list of criteria required for the website to fit my business’s needs and a realistic budget. 

What I needed in a website:

• Creative control – I wanted to be involved in the design, brand continuity and content
• Ease of use for updating content
• Scalable as my new business grows
• SEO capability as a priority not an afterthought
• A positive user experience for website visitors
• Speed – to help with ranking on Google and other search engines
• Low environmental impact
• Security

I researched all my options to find the best solution. This included site builder websites and TypedCMS built websites. In this blog post, I’ll compare both and explain why a TypedCMS built website gives my own business and my clients the edge.

What is a site builder website? 

With a limited budget you can build your own simple website quickly without previous knowledge of coding using a choice of templates. Wix, Weebly, WordPress and Squarespace are examples of the many site builders offered.

However, site builder websites have some important drawbacks. They are:

• Not scalable – If you want to add large amounts of content to a website, you’ll find a site builder website limiting. As your business grows, a site builder website will struggle to keep up.
• Restricted control over your website - Since you don’t technically own your website, moving your website to another provider could be problematic.
• Limited functionality – Often choice of template selection means limited customisation, so a site builder website is never truly unique.
• Low mobile performance score – Many site builder websites score as low as 20-30 points on Google Speed Insights. I also noticed the text and images on some websites appear disjointed and unprofessional when viewing on a mobile screen.
• Slow loading – This is frustrating for your website visitors and equates to a poor user experience. Slow loading websites with “heavy pages” are often associated with producing more carbon because they require more resources and extra power to transport them across the internet.
• SEO can be poor – Search engines often miss key SEO elements in site builder website content resulting in a low Google ranking because the structure makes it difficult for search engines to understand.

What is a TypedCMS built website?

A TypedCMS built website was described to me as a headless content management system. This means that the back end admin panel or content management system (CMS) is separate from the website, and this offers a number of advantages.

How a TypedCMS website gives my business and my clients an edge

A TypedCMS website allows content to be used by multiple applications of which a website is just one. Others include social media, mobile applications, e-commerce, augmented reality and games - in fact any other type of device application. 

The user-friendliness of TypedCMS is a big selling point for me. Each project can have a customised CMS and content structure which is a true reflection of the business. This makes managing content a breeze and is search engine friendly from day one. A well-built website and CMS also ensures that content can continually evolve after launch to facilitate effective, ongoing SEO.

With just one login, I can use the admin panel on the dashboard to easily switch between teams and projects which I own or to which I have been invited to collaborate by clients. From here I can create or edit different types of content including pages, blog posts, testimonials, case studies, profiles, products and portfolio pieces. This is particularly advantageous for copywriters, virtual assistants, and marketers as once on the TypedCMS platform there is virtually zero onboarding with new clients. 

Image uploads can be customised so that images are cropped to a consistent size. This saves time and ensures that the layout remains tidy and on brand. What does this mean for my clients? Time pressured business owners can cost effectively delegate content management to me to free up their time to spend on generating income.

Rather than using a drag and drop method, TypedCMS blueprints bind the content structure together. This makes it easier to add new features, customize existing features and introduce new content types.

Like many business owners, security is a priority to me. TypedCMS uses two-factor authentication when logging in to reinforce security. 

I strive to make sure my business is as environmentally sustainable as possible, so I value how TypedCMS reduces environmental impact by helping ensure that my website has a lower carbon footprint. It is also faster, and creates a better experience for visitors even on a mobile device.

As a business owner with a few years of experience behind me now, I’m confident that my website can grow with my ever-changing business needs. 

Honeystone

In a world where credibility means everything and website visitors take as little as 0.05 seconds to form an opinion of my business, I wanted my website to make a good impression fast. So, it was obvious following initial research that I needed to invest in a website that indicated quality, but was also scalable, offered good functionality and was entirely unique - a TypedCMS built website was the way to go.

I found that the TypedCMS built website offered by Honeystone Consulting Ltd checked off all the criteria on my list. Being Wiltshire born and bred, I also appreciate that TypedCMS is a British software platform, developed in Wiltshire by George Palmer and David Foster. It proudly builds on the county’s tradition of innovation for communications and technology which reaches back through history and includes the railways, canals, roads, and more recently telecommunications and web technology.

To find out more about how I can help you to grow your business by tackling your everyday admin and social media challenges, please visit my TypedCMS powered website.