Five reasons why choosing a digital platform is better for your business

There’s a lot of choice out there for those looking to invest in a new website or update their existing online offering. With so many off-the-shelf options at incredibly low costs you’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve found the perfect solution to bring your website up to date without having to shell out much money to do so. But SME’s beware; if you want to compete with those at the forefront of the market and ensure your online presence works as hard as possible for your business, you need to invest in the best build you possibly can. 

An effective and engaging web presence is becoming more and more important and the Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals markets are catching up fast; it’s a first point of call for any potential audience and in a competitive landscape you need to ensure you stand apart as a modern and forward thinking organisation. An online presence today is not as simple as just a ‘website’; a far more appropriate term is ‘digital platform’ of which your website is simply a starting point of wider possibilities for audience interaction and engagement. To create something truly unique and effective a bespoke solution is the only choice you should consider. Here’s why: 

1) The design will be tailored to your exact requirements 

A design that is specifically created with your business in mind, without the restraints of layout. This means that the digital platform will be built to ensure it’s working hard to convey your brand style and uniqueness rather than an off-the-shelf design (which could be the same as the business next door). It’s about getting what you want rather than ‘what you see is what you get’ and also ensuring the digital platform is able to grow and develop as your business does. Without the restraints of the template there’s also the opportunity to design online tools and resources that can be built from scratch; the possibilities really are endless. 

2) You will get a team of experts 

A dedicated team of individuals who are expert in the various fields of web development will work with you to a structured project plan and will be on-hand whenever assistance is required. Investing in bespoke development gives you the reassurance that your online presence is completely up-to-date; being built with the latest coding languages and optimised for different search engines and devices. With a wealth of experience, knowledge and resources behind your build you will be confident it is as good as it should be. 

3) Your digital platform will be Search Engine Optimised  

It’s incredibly important that you are optimised for SEO, this is what will help push you up the rankings in Google. For this, you will need to have expert input. Off-the-shelf solutions often come with built in features and settings that are not relevant to your business’ SEO requirements. Having a dedicated coding expert who knows how to set up your digital platform to include the correct code in the right places will pay dividend in the long run. 

4) Your content will be easier to manage 

Behind the scenes, the engine room of your digital platform is just as important as the front end to ensure style updates are consistent with the original design. With a purpose-built design you will receive custom admin pages to allow simple, straight-forward editing of your content. Generally, if you pay less for an off-the-shelf website it will be a generic design theme with a page builder plugin and every small change will take additional management to ensure style is consistent. 

5) The platform will be faster and more compliant to web standards 

Using an off-the-shelf theme means that you are paying for far more functionality and features than you will ever use. This is because theme builders try to be all things to all people, to appeal to the widest possible market and this includes an abundance of code, most of which is redundant and can slow down your site. Having your platform designed and built from scratch, and tailored to your exact requirements will ensure you only have the minimal amount of code required which will result in efficiency and more compliance with web standards. 

If you’d like to find out more about bespoke solutions that could transform your online presence and work hard for your business, speak to us.