"Yes; you do still need a website."
Your website establishes your identity online. It is yours. Social media has its place, but you only have limited control over what you can put there and how you can organize it. And most importantly, how your clients can find you and the information about your business they need.
There are many choices for which tool, platform or provider to use to build your website. Some are better than others for specific purposes. We can help you with the right choice.
Content Management Systems
inQsec specializes in website construction and maintenance using an open-source Content Management System (CMS). The leading CMS are WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal. Each has its place and much of the internet runs using these systems.
A CMS separates "web design" from "web content" and ideally separates detailed knowledge of the technical underpinnings of the website from the day-to-day necessities of updating text, images and other content.
For the business, this allows authorized staff members to update different parts of the website content without needing any in depth understanding of web technologies. Technology and security updates can then be handled as needed by an IT guy with the appropriate skills.
A CMS is called for if you have a lot of content (text and images), constantly changing content or regular new content (e.g. a blog).
A CMS is a robust framework on which third-party developers have created low-cost, packaged business applications which can be seamlessly integrated with your website; for instance, e-commerce, club membership management, subscriptions management, appointment management, online ordering, etc.
inQsec typically handles all technical aspects of the CMS site for our clients from the intiial creation to an ongoing role to handle bug fixes, security patches, webhosting and domain registration matters. Optionally we can take care of making content updates if that fits your preference.
Site Builders
Sometimes a business may only need a simple website with basic contact information - essentially an online business card, brochure or "landing page".
There are many options available to build this sort of site which may be right for you. Wix, Weebly and Squarespace are some examples which have created simple tools to build attractive websites.
A site builder tool may be right for your website if you just need to get something up quickly and inexpensively and do not expect there to be much need for updates and changes and do not expect to need additional online features to serve your client or business needs.
A drawback with a site builder is that if your needs expand, it may not handle your new requirements and you will need to rebuild using a different tool and probably on a different platform. And, if you use Squarespace or Wix you will also need to change to a different webhosting provider since those companies lock you into their software running on their equipment. Using a site builder on a more general web hosting provider such as GoDaddy would also require a rebuild if your needs exceed the tool's capabilities, but you could remain with the same platform and use another tool. The work to switch is going to be about the same, but you may save on account changes and charges.
If a site builder is right for you inQsec will set up the initial site and then step back to let you manage any minor infrequent content changes. The webhosting company provides security and bug fixes to the site builder tool itself. However, we can remain engaged with your team to handle matters arising, and be on hand to rebuild using a more capable tool if needed.
