Dazzly: selecting a website provider for your business

Lewis Anderson, Marcus Feeney, and the team at Dazzly understand the pains people go through when they are choosing a website provider to trust and anchor their ship to. Choosing which business to take care of your website is a big decision, especially in 2022 where the ability to do business digitally is now considered a necessity. In this spotlight blog, we quiz the team at Dazzly about what you should consider when getting a website for your business.

What is the value of using a website builder?

There is a lot of value in using a website builder to create a new website for business, regardless of whether you’re a new business or already have an existing website. Website builders are particularly good when you have a limited budget. Generally, choosing to use a website builder (as opposed to a traditional service provider), is a more economical option. This is because the only cost is a monthly fee. This is typically lower than what traditional providers would provide solely for the website hosting, let alone the full website itself (which starts in the thousands for a worthwhile build). With a website builder, you can skip the large up-front cost and get certainty about what website you’re getting before you commit to spending. 

Website builders are good for getting your business online fast. By using a website builder, it is typically faster to begin your online journey as you won’t need to manage the overhead and delays involved in working with a web designer. You can simply sign-up to the platform and move ahead and launch a website. - Lewis Anderson, Dazzly Director Website builder companies tend to place a large emphasis on customer support, which is a natural ‘gap’ that doesn’t exist when you engage a professional developer. More often than not, with a modern website building tool, you will get a technologically advanced website that can outperform the technologies used by local, small competitors, which ultimately is what you want – a website that correctly visually represents your business online and that performs well. 

What should small business owners look for from a provider? 

As web development technologies move fast, you’re better to hitch on with an up-and-coming website builder provider that is nimble enough to implement recent technologies into their software. Look at their blogs, contact their development teams if you must, but for a more straight-forward approach, simply consider the following: 

- How easy is the software/builder to use? Do I feel comfortable using it? 

- How easy is it to find the contact details of the business? 

- How easy is it to get in touch with them, do I feel listened to and looked after? 

- If the website builder software is greater than 5 years old, make sure you ask if it is still being actively developed. 

- Confirm whether the provider offers registration of .co.nz domains. Many website builders still do not offer this by default. This is a frustrating, time-consuming roadblock that is totally unnecessary. Choose a provider that supports .co.nz (along with our friends .nz, .com, .net, org etc.) 

- Confirm whether the provider has an office and support contact details here in New Zealand. Think carefully about whether you want your key business marketing asset to be managed by an off-shore team in a different time zone with an uncertain relationship or with a local New Zealand website builder platform (of which there are several) to consider. !

What is Dazzly?

Dazzly is one of the local New Zealand website builder platforms. Dazzly was created within the last two years. We enable people across Aotearoa to create and manage their websites with ease. We have 24/7 support and an office halfway down Dominion Road. Websites, .co.nz domains, and getting businesses started on the right track is our bread and butter. 

What does it mean to be a part of the alliance and why should others join?

Being recognised by, and ultimately accepted as part of the Digital Boost Alliance is a real honour for us and we’re glad to be further integrated into this excellent initiative and community. Having an additional platform to get our message out is crucial as a simple means we can reach and help more people together with other alliance members. If you’re considering applying to join the Digital Boost Alliance, please don’t hesitate to do so. This is a transparent, collective organisation with private, public, and international organisations involved. The simple truth is that every additional member opens exponentially more opportunities for collaboration and that means we can help New Zealand businesses in even more ways by combining our resources in our respective subject matter expert fields. 

What initiatives are you undertaking? 

Partnerships – Looking to work with larger enterprises and other Digital Boost Alliance members - we’d love to hear from you, lets's help more people together. Please reach out – [email protected]. 

Internally– so many interesting things happening – we’re only showing the tip of the iceberg on the level of quality and depth of the websites that people will be able to create with Dazzly. Right now, we have eCommerce, single-page, multi-page website templates and a lot more to come! 

Community – know someone that needs a hand and is a star in your community? We are proud to support several businesses, including animal shelters and related organisations with free website subscriptions – they’re doing so much good for New Zealand – why not give them a leg up?

Dazzly’s commitments to the Alliance 

Dazzly is offering New Zealand businesses:

- 25% off the first year using Dazzly website builder for Digitial Boost users