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Advantages of SiteBuilder

The following are some of the advantages of using SiteBuilder for your website, rather than an external provider.

Continuous improvement

SiteBuilder is developed in-house and is constantly evolving and improving. As a user, you can feed into discussions of its development and request new features for consideration.

We keep our web tools and practices up-to-date with the latest guidance and regulations, such as the PSBAR EU directive on accessibility, and provide support and guidance to you on how to generate accessible web content. We take appropriate steps when new regulations come into place or changes occur, such as to Google's search engine ranking methodology.

Familiarity

SiteBuilder websites have a consistent design based on the University's common website template (though there is scope to customise your design: University Marketing, part of the Engagement Group, specify the criteria for custom web designs – for example, on joint projects with funding or contractual obligations which necessitate co-branding with a third party). Also, all SiteBuilder website URLs start with https://warwick.ac.uk. This means that visitors to your site can be reassured the content they're viewing is genuine.

When the Warwick brand changes, SiteBuilder sites are automatically updated to reflect this.

Free hosting

We take care of the hosting of your site, so you don't need to worry about availability or responsiveness. An external provider would charge you for hosting, with storage space, availability and support arrangements part of your contract with them. External providers can limit your access to your site or its availability to visitors, for example in the event of a payment issue or legal dispute. Should the provider cease trading, you could lose your website.

Using SiteBuilder, storage space for your site is free and unrestricted. Sites hosted in SiteBuilder also have high availability, with any scheduled periods of downtime publicised in advance.

Free support and training

We provide free support via the IDG Help Desk and dedicated Web Team Help Desk (webteam at warwick dot ac dot uk). This includes guidance and support on how to structure and build a good website. Help with functionality and design is also available to you.

The IDG Training Team provides free SiteBuilder training sessions for all staff.

Management of permissions

SiteBuilder sites benefit from Warwick's Single Sign-on service, which means that Warwick members use their ITS Account - no separate accounts and passwords are required. You can easily restrict access to pages to specific groups or individuals and specify who can edit the site's content. If you were to host your website externally, you would need to manage login credentials and the security of these yourself.

Portability of content

When you use SiteBuilder for your website, it's a simple process to move pages or entire sites around within the overall Warwick site. There is no straightforward way to import content into SiteBuilder from an external provider.

Security

We maintain security of SiteBuilder sites and the data they contain. Cybercrime has greatly increased over recent years, with security gaps caused by such things as out-of-date software frequently exploited. If you are unfortunate enough to suffer a security breach or failure associated with your site when using an external provider, the responsibility for this will rest with you. You should report any data incidents or breaches immediately.

Visibility in searches

You benefit from Warwick's SEO (search engine optimisation) scores when you use SiteBuilder to host your site. With an external provider, you would have to build up your own search ranking. Use of SiteBuilder also means that your site appears in Warwick Search results.

Support

Email webteam at warwick dot ac dot uk
How to report a problem