Cheap, Fast And Good Cannot Coexist

Bill E.: My website was built on v1 of a shopping cart platform several years ago. It lacks the bells and whistles of something like shopify. My problem is that I lack the time, money, and technical skills to move it, and don’t want to hurt my search ranking. What should I do? Thanks.

 

Clyde A. Lettsome, PhD, PE, MEM
 

 
 

 
 
 
  		Answer: I hear from clients with this dilemma all the time. You need it good (bells and whistles), cheap (no money to get it professionally done), and fast (too quick however for you to learn how to do it yourself). Unfortunately, you cannot have all three. You have to pick two. Given that, here are the options I would give you:

  1. Do it yourself (Slow). You can change to an e-commerce content management system like Zen-cart or WordPress with e-commerce plugins (both Free) to build your new website around. Both are updated regularly and thus you will have bells and whistles for a while at least. You can find website templates to help with the design of the website and you can eventually determine how to move your stored customer data. Also, you can also get SEO plugins for both to address your SEO concerns.
  2. Pay for it (Pricey). A good website designer will do it right and faster than you can do it.
  3. Leave it as is (no bells and whistles). However, you save money and you save time.

Good Luck with your decision!

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