6 Crucial Features Of A Good Website Builder
Nowadays, it has become mandatory for every business to develop a robust web presence so that to survive in the competitive marketplace. But the task of developing a website or a web application from the ground up can be a daunting task. Entrepreneurs and enterprises have two options: either hire PHP developers an Atlanta web design company or leverage website builders.
Hiring PHP developers is a great option where you need to build complex web applications.
A website builder’s sole objective is to let an average user build a site with minimum or no interference of professional designers. The main advantage of these tools is that now it has become possible for people to develop, deploy, and maintain a fully functional website with no coding skills.
1. Templates & Themes
A website builder must have quality templates and themes for web app design and layout. There should be a large section of these two components where the key elements are already in place to suit the specific project and business requirements. Each template and theme should come in a full preview mode with its functionality, pages, buttons, etc.
These templates and themes should be highly customizable and fully optimized for mobile devices. Also, they should have pre-designed page layouts so that it will be easier for the user to add more pages.
2. Image Gallery
Images are an integral part of any website and different website builders let you display them in their own specific ways. A good builder should have an image editor that is fully loaded with features such as rotate, add effects, resize, caption, crop, etc. Also, these images should be displayed in layouts of different types like carousel, gallery, vertical/horizontal, carousel, etc.
3. e-Commerce
A good website builder should have the provision of adding the e-commerce design component to a site. But it's not necessary that every user will need this feature. This task can be performed in two different manners. First is by adding a shopping cart module especially in cases where the builder has its own online store.
Secondly, you can integrate your website with popular shopping cart systems such as Magento and Shopify. Most of the builders offer their own template with an e-commerce module and follow standard shopping cart processes. But you are allowed to tweak the interface and add your own brand logos and colors.
4. Forms
It is essential for a good website builder to have its own form builder that is specifically designed to cater to different project requirements. They can offer form in different ways, such as a contact form, a registration form, or an opt-in subscription.
One of the most striking features of these forms is they can be customized to varying degrees depending upon that particular software. Also, these forms should be linked to a database or email address.
5. Website Analytics & Reports
Most of the popular builders provide users with an option of third-party integration with major analytics solutions such as Google Analytics. This allows you to monitor the traffic and spot your most popular pages and posts. With the help of integration, you can easily generate reports and view the statistics inside the interface of a website builder.
6. Social Sharing
One of the most significant features of a good website builder is that it allows you to add social sharing buttons to your site such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. These buttons direct your site visitors to your social pages. Also, these buttons can be utilized to share your web content to the visitor’s social network.
7. Blogging
Blogging component is not necessarily present in every website builder, but some are specifically designed for blogging alone. This component enables the site owner to add post following a predefined layout, encourage social sharing, manage comments, automatically archive old posts, etc. Also, they can set categories and enjoy the freedom to host the blog with a customizable URL.
8. Mobile
A good website builder should be based on HTML 5 which facilitates the development of mobile-responsive websites. While there are a few solutions where the users are provided with a separate mobile interface where they can redesign the site in accordance with the screen of the mobile devices. Moreover, there are solutions which offer tools to integrate different mobile device’s features such as phone camera or GPS.
In this way, these are the top eight features that a good website builder must-have. If a website builder lacks these features, users will definitely abandon it. An ideal website builder should guide its users in developing a comprehensive site, deploying it easily, and maintain it throughout so that to improvise its brand's digital reach.
You can choose an appropriate builder in accordance with your specific business and project needs. Just remember to get hold of all its basics so that to easily create your own feature-rich site with unique functionality.
About the Author:
Anubhuti Shrivastava is a content crater at Arkenea, a custom software development company helping entrepreneurs and businesses build successful web and mobile apps. She is passionate about writing articles on topics related to design and the software development industry.