Ownership: Because you are paying monthly or annually for a website, you do not really own your website. This can be an issue if you decide to drop out of the program. You could face loosing your entire website including the content.
This may also be the case with your domain name. In some cases you are only renting your domain name rather than owning it. In case you ever decide to sever ties with that company you will want to be sure that you own your domain name at no additional cost, and with no legal implications.
Cost: There is no question that the initial cost is much lower with this type of website. However, consider how long you will own your website, and how much you would pay in the long run. Often people find that it is less expensive in the long run to own their own website. Contracts. initial cost
Functionality: Be sure that the site is attractive and user friendly. In many cases we hear that people are unhappy with the design and are not able to easily make a change.
It can be difficult to anticipate the additional features and functionality you will want for your site in the future. You will want to be sure that you will be able to customize all options as your business grows. You do not want to deal with limitations because you can not make changes to the code on your site.
In many cases, customers can tell that you do not have a one-of-a-kind design. You will want to make sure that this is an option for the future.
If there are logos and links for the company managing your website, customers and prospects will know the site is rented. Some consumers will view this as an indication that your company can not afford their own site, and it will cause doubt.
In some cases there is are limitations on what can be uploaded or changed in a certain period of time. This can make it difficult to keep your content fresh. This can have a negative affect on SEO efforts. New offerings
Confirm that you will have the ability to use Social Media Marketing on your website. This is not always an available feature.
Staying Current: W3C compliance is a widely used standard for measuring code quality, accessibility and browser compatibility. HTML 5 is the current HyperText Markup Language. It was recently updated to support the latest multimedia. You will want to make sure that your website will be regularly updated to current standards. A website that is not current could experience problems working on some web browsers.
Support: When there is an issue with your website, or you are looking for some changes, you want to speak with someone local