Leave the SEO, Design, and Servers to the Experts!

This morning, my Facebook displayed an article written by a BP contributor. Per usual I clicked on the link and read the post on my phone. I generally do this from the comfort of my bed. I like to wake up with a little motivational prodding from my fellow BiggerPockets members. Not today (and it wasn't because of my kids).

This morning's article contained arguments in favor of creating a self-maintained website, versus using a template or drag and drop application service (think Wordpress or Weebly). The author's reasoning was that by using these other services, you risk literally losing, not only your website, but all of its content, too. "Like building a house on leased land." Furthermore, by enlisting the services of these tech companies that could go out of business at any moment, you might pay up to $600 per year. GASP!

I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of articles that drum-up fear and negative feelings for problems that are easily avoidable or have reasonable explanations. So, lets dive in.

1. Website design, content creation, and publishing, like other forms of marketing, are investments. The author wrote that you could spend up to $3,000 over 5 years on your website by using a service like Wordpress or Weebly. To be frank, $600 per year for website services is not much. In fact, if you have a website that regularly brings you leads, you are, first and foremost, happy to be investing that money in marketing that brings you a return, and secondly, you're likely spending more than $600 per year. I'm all for diversified marketing, and I think everyone should explore ways of contacting prospective sellers or clients that work best for them in their market. 

2. I don't know how, nor do I have the time to learn how, nor do I want to actually maintain a server. If I'm serious about having a website that brings me leads, then I should also have a backup server. What if my primary server goes down? I guess I could read a book on how to repair/reboot my server, but the phone isn't going to be ringing in the meantime. There are people out there who are really good at setting up these systems. 

If that's truly something you believe that you should be responsible for, but you don't already know how to do, remember that you have much more important things to do other than learning how to set up an internet server. There's no good reason for becoming an expert on servers, too. Real estate investing is hard enough. The vast majority of hosting companies you can pay to provide you with a server have multiple layers of backup servers to ensure the most amount of up-time for your website. If one of their servers goes down, they will automatically make your site go live on another. You don't have to lift a finger. 

3. There's only one thing you own, and it's not your domain. Yes, you never really own your domain. You have the ability to purchase your domain name through GoDaddy or whatever service you prefer for a specified number of years. If you're really serious about your business and your website is your marketing plans A, B, and C, then you'll want to purchase it for 10 years. Really, it's more like a lease. After that 10 years, you have to pay for it again. 

4. The one thing: Content. If you have created - and are not sharing/borrowing/stealing/leasing - your content, you own it. Your content is what Google's robots read and record. Google is really the only search engine that matters since 60% of all web queries originate with Google. You wouldn't tailor your content for Bing's algorithm because it only accounts for 20% of all searches (see http://searchengineland.com/virtually-no-change-in...). The author was concerned that users of Wordpress-like platforms could completely lose their content if their provider up and left. Here are some easy steps you can take to make sure your content is backed up and can't vanish into the mysterious depths of the interwebs.

First, all of your written content can simply be saved as a Word document, or whichever word-processing application you prefer. This is a pretty basic technique for keeping the hardest work you (or a virtual assistant) have put into your site safe. 

Second, if you don't look at your website frequently, take screen shots of your site so you can show a designer exactly what it looked like if for some reason you completely lose your site. Screen shots can be taken directly from your browser by pressing the windows logo + prntscrn for Windows (or something similar, very easy to find on Google) or CMD+SHIFT+3 for Mac. 

If screenshots are not something you're willing to do, or your site dissolved into thin air before you had a chance to document it, websites like Upwork.com connect you with freelancers who can design a new website for you at very low cost. I've met and worked with some great freelancers from all over the world in the last 2 years thanks to Upwork at a tremendous discount. 

If you're really afraid that you might lose your copies of these files, be sure to make backup files on, either, a cloud drive, or an external hard drive, or both. This will ensure that you always have copies of your content that can be quickly uploaded into your new website in the event you lose your old one. 

If this post leaves you with unanswered questions about SEO, domains, or another facet of internet marketing, please post them in the comments. I'll do my best to answer them or point you in the direction of a blog or article that can!