Drag and drop websites

I keep seeing all these drag and drop website builders either promoting themselves as easy. Although I used one 6 o4 7 years ago, I am not using one now. I was new to building sites and could not figure out how to get text to wrap around a graphic on the site I had at the time so I thought this might be the answer. I was able to get the text the way I wanted but getting the navigation bar to show up on any page besides the home page was time consuming and frustrating. There may have been more to doing this than I remember but it seems like I had to copy each listing on the home page nave bar one at a time and past them one at a time in to any other pages I wanted the navigational bar on.. I know someone who is really new to building sites who has a great product and service but he dose not have much money to pay someone to build it and besides that he wants to do it himself. He has looked at a number of drag and drop sites builders and seems to think that is the way to get started. As far as website builders go it seems when you do a search they all are drag and drop.

My experience with this was a long time ago and there may have been a easier way to get the navigational bar on more than the home page using the drag and drop software I was using but it there was I could not figure it out. Anyway I need some help convincing my friend not to go the drag and drop direction so I want to know if anyone can give me a list of disadvantages of using a drag and drop website.

For example is there any reason to think these kinds of sites get less traffic even with a original looking template.

Are there any reasons to think they are not as user friendly like I discovered

It has been such a long time since I tried this these sites may have improved but I would really like to here from someone who knows the real deal with these sites.

 

They're user-friendly but extremely limited. They are more often used by newbies that either haven't taken the time to learn some code or don't 3rd party it out. I think these quick, makeshift sites just get forgotten about and not updated on a frequent basis. At least that's the pattern I've seen through the years. Those drag and drop things are clunky and can actually be frustrating in the long run. I remember messing with them several years back before I learned DreamWeaver and started getting help.

I would advise him to use a blog platform if he's not good at building sites and doesn't want to pay someone. Blogging is easy and you can find really nice templates dirt cheap. Or he could use a forum software. Similar thing in that there's a lot to choose from and they're super easy to work with and plug in. I'm not sure what type of website he's interested in building so not sure if either of these solutions would work for him.

The best bet would be for him to pay someone to customize a site for him tailored to his specific needs and have them include a nice backroom interface. This way he could make effortless changes whenever he wants.

Hope this helps!