The art dealer’s website reflects the dealer’s vision of quality! In today’s online business environment, every business has a website, and a company’s website typically showcases its brand and reflects its mission. Art dealer websites can demonstrate an overview of the dealer’s quality inventory and appealing works of art.
During the last 20 years, California Art Company has created, owned, and maintained, at some point, over 50 art dealer websites. In 2002 we were one of the first art dealers worldwide to create websites using artist names.com or .net domain names and built 50 deceased artists’ name websites.
Today this website, along with our dealer website at CaliforniaArtCompany.com, consists of two prominent examples of websites demonstrating our commitment to quality website building. Most of the websites we created over the years used Network Solutions, Web.com, GoDaddy, or WiX all-in-one, drag-and-drop template websites. Most recently, we have experimented with Squarespace and designed this website and CaliforniaArtCompany.com, with the assistance of our web developer team of seasoned WordPress professionals, utilizing a WordPress and theme platform.
Content Management System (CMS) and Website Builder Platforms
Research online “website builder market share,” and you’ll find that the results vary widely. There are different definitions for types of “website builders,” and many of the results that will come up in your search engine results page (SERP) will be biased. The same is true when you search for the “best website builder.” Many websites that will display in your SERP when searched for “website builder market share” or “best website builder” websites are biased, and the information is inconsistent. If you look carefully, you’ll notice that these websites often promote their preferred and linked sales commissioned builder platforms.
Here’s our take! When it comes to creating a new website, you have basically three choices.
- Closed platform, “all in one” template drag-and-drop website builder
- Open platform, “theme-based” semi-custom website
- Hand coded from scratch “proprietary” fully custom website
The best choice of website platform for you will vary depending on your marketing needs, budget, security concerns, and tolerance for the amount of time and effort you want to dedicate to building and maintaining your website. For a more detailed explanation of the three choices we have outlined above, please give us a call or educate yourself online about the three choices (highlighted above in blue) by searching online.
“All in One” Website Builder vs. WordPress “Open” Platform
Should you build a website using a drag-and-drop templates editor platform like Squarespace, GoDaddy, or WiX, or attempt to create a WordPress site, hire a WordPress website developer, or go all in for a fully custom-coded proprietary website?
The web has endless information regarding various comparisons and reviews of everything mentioned here, and if you are considering a new website build, we suggest you do your research. Keep in mind the website-building business is highly competitive, changing daily, and what may be popular today can change over time.
There are many considerations, options, and discussion points when considering a new art dealer website build. So, in addition to what we have mentioned above, here are some additional observations, considerations, or recommendations.
General Art Dealer Websites Considerations:
- Cost, time commitment, and effort are the least with a drag-and-drop template website builder program and the greatest with a fully custom-coded proprietary website.
- When building a new website or improving your existing one, consider the user experience, quality of the content, page loading times, and search engine optimization (SEO) of each page.
- Pay attention to your website’s responsive page design or responsiveness for all types of devices, from mobile devices and notepads to large desktop display monitors.
- Hand-coded, fully custom, and proprietary websites can be extremely costly and require significant commitment and maintenance.
“All in One” Drag and Drop Website Builder Platforms:
- If considering a drag-and-drop template editor platform, we recommend Wix and Squarespace. Of all the drag-and-drop template website builders, both WiX and Squarespace are currently ranked the highest for market share and user experience in the drag-and-drop website builder market.
- In our opinion, Squarespace is a little easier to use than WiX but offers less flexibility, templates, and design options, and Squarespace websites tend to have that unmistakable template appearance. However, Squarespace is slightly better than WiX when creating a website that responds (responsive design) to all device and display sizes.
- WiX has a new website builder platform called Editor X which is a game changer when creating a responsive design website. However, Editor X is not as simple and easy to use as WiX and is most likely more of a competitor to WordPress.
- Drag-and-drop template website builder platforms are “closed source” and proprietary to the company that created them. As a result, these websites cannot be transferred if you want to change the company you are working with, and you’ll be bound to that company for the life of the website.
- Some will argue that closed-source websites are safer from being hacked than websites on an “open source” platform. For more information, research “open source vs. closed source websites.”
- An advantage of working with drag-and-drop template website builders is that they offer a one-stop shop for purchasing the domain, hosting, website, and website add-ons (website tools and functions which some website platforms can charge extra for).
WordPress Website Platforms:
- More websites exist on the WordPress platform than any other website builder.
- The online community of WordPress developers, experts, videos, etc., is the largest of any website builder platform.
- A WordPress website build has a much higher learning curve than most drag-and-drop template editor websites. This results in many WordPress websites having inefficiencies and not looking right.
- There are “drag and drop” website builder programs available for WordPress; however, mastering these programs can take significant effort and time. Some of the companies with the highest market share include Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Divi.
- The number of websites’ “themes” (similar to templates in appearance) to choose from is extensive. However, we believe art dealer websites tend to be minimal in design, and the need for complex themes is unnecessary.
- WordPress is an “open-source” platform, and the website’s code is publicly available. The open-source platform of WordPress offers more flexibility if you ever decide to move your website to another builder, designer, or developer.
- There seems to be a consensus online that “open-source” websites are more prone to hacking than websites on a “closed-source” platform.
Which website builder platform is best for you? While WordPress enjoys the undisputed market share of existing websites, according to many online sources, its market share percentage has declined in recent years. In contrast, market share has been increasing with WiX, Squarespace, and a few other “all in one” website builder platforms. Presently, we are monitoring WiX’s latest release and “fully responsive” website builder platform, Editor X. Although more challenging to use than the WiX website builder tool, Editor X might be a primary challenger for WordPress in the coming years.
Hopefully, the information we have written here is helpful to you. But again, if you have any questions or would like to discuss anything, please contact us.