In today’s world, prices for business subscriptions continue to increase. More and more business owners are looking for ways to save money so that they don’t have to keep increasing their prices. Although some cuts are good to make, and can easily cut down on expenses, others are not so great.
There is a growing trend among photographers, virtual assistants, and other professionals to use Dubsado forms (or similar) as their website. The thought process is that if they have a nice looking landing page that they can funnel clients to, why pay for a secondary place to show similar information?
In this blog post, we are going to dive into this topic and explore why it’s beneficial to have a dedicated web page for your business.
Jump To:
What are the Limitations of a Dubsado Form?
Can you use SEO with Dubsado Forms?
How do Dubsado Forms as Websites Affect Professionalism and Credibility?
How Does Using a Dubsado Form as a Website Affect Scalability and Growth
What are the Limitations of a Dubsado Form?
Dubsado was originally designed for client management and helping you to systemize your business. It has many features to be able to facilitate communication between the business owner and consumer. One of these features is the ability to have a public proposal to allow clients to see information about the business and potentially book services.
Although Dubsado forms can stand on their own, there are some limitations. First, there is only so much customizing you can do to the form. Sure, you can add CSS and make it look like a website, but even with coding, the form still lacks some of the basic functionalities that a website would give you such as showing a portfolio, having multiple pages, etc.
But the biggest thing that will hurt you by using a Dubsado form as a webpage is the impact it will have on your organic reach. Organic reach, in today’s economy, is priceless. Without it, you might not get as many leads, your business would suffer, and the little bit of money that you are trying to save by not paying for a website would be wasted.
Can you use SEO with Dubsado Forms?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is one of the best ways that you can get your business to generate leads organically, without having to pay for ads. It takes a little while to get set up, but once you have a solid SEO strategy in place, you will get organic traffic to your website that you won’t have to pay an extra cent for!
Unfortunately, Even if you set up your custom domain to white label your forms, Dubsado forms do not allow the following:
1. Indexing on Google
2. Optimization of site structure/speed.
3. New content (such as new blog posts)
4. Optimized Meta Description
All of these things are necessary to show up on Google, and without them, you are left without the ability to use SEO as a way to drive leads and revenue to your business. Of course you can use other methods to gain leads such as social media, in-person networking, etc. However, your reach will be much more limited.
Another option I see people do is to start out with a Dubsado form and then create a website later on. Although in theory this sounds good, SEO also gets better with site age. I.e. the longer you have had your website domain, (Not the free version, a paid website.) the better it might rank on Google. I encourage people to get a website as soon as possible so that it can start to age.
How do Dubsado Forms as Websites Affect Professionalism and Credibility?
Even if you are okay with the loss of potential organic leads, there is another aspect to consider. There is a lot of people out there starting businesses, and unfortunately, a lot of people trying to scam people. Consumers are getting smarter about scammers and are looking for any sign that the business owner they are talking to is legit.
Consumers will often look at your website address as a way to tell if you are a serious business owner or not. Even if your website is white-labeled, the string of letters and numbers on the website URL might be enough for them to not trust you. It is professional to have a website and an email that is associated with that website. Doing so can increase your leads as well as how many of those leads turn into clients.
How Does Using a Dubsado Form as a Website Affect Scalability and Growth
The next reason why I never recommend using a Dubsado form as a website is because it’s impossible to scale and grow it. Dubsado forms give you one page, which might work if you only have one service you are offering, but if you want to scale or expand your offerings and only show relevant information to potential clients on a single page, you won’t be able to do that. If you have a website already set up, it is easy to create additional pages and space for other offerings, products, etc. and optimize them all individually for Google search.
You also have to be careful with how you send Dubsado forms. If you are planning on using a Dubsado form as a website, you will need to make sure you are using public Dubsado form. This is because if you make updates or changes, only a public form will reflect that. Private forms sent within projects will not be updated should you make changes.
In Conclusion
The main reason why we want to avoid using a Dubsado form (or similar) as a website is the impact it will have on our organic growth. The sooner you can get a website up and running, the faster you will be able to start getting organic traffic to your business. Advertising on social media or Google is expensive and often doesn’t lead to the type of results you are looking for. Once you start capitalizing on SEO and getting organic traffic, the possibilities for additional leads are endless without having to pay anything additional.
