Can Automated Software Build Profitable Websites?

This has long been a question argued within the web developers circle. Certainly several years ago the automated software lacked a lot of ability. Today however, automated software is catching up fast with manual programming.

As a hard coder I have had to come to terms with the fact that one day I will become obsolete. How and when this happens I hope is still some years away but the writing on the wall is visible by the distant rise of the automated software on the horizon. For the past 20 years companies have been trying to develop these programs to imitate coders.

Programs like WebEazy and Cinematic Profits have definitely found the right track to follow. With their continued development of these products it is not hard to see why many web site owners are turning to them to develop their web sites.

Hard Coders Advantage

At present the systems do have several glitches that seem to miss out on several very key points when it comes to web site development. The first and for me the most important one is search engine optimization. WebEazy is definitely lacking when it comes to SEO tactics. You can do the usual things like header tags within the software but when it comes to the barrage of other tags that have become more important within a web site it fails miserably.

Hard coding has always allowed the web designer to plan ahead and set out the fundamental structures of the web site before any thought is given to the content. Each and every tag are coded to yield the greatest results within the search engines. Coders write in a language that search engines mostly like. Some times it is hard to find a balance between what the search engines want and what is readable by humans. This juggling act though is some times seen as a bit of give and take on both sides. Doing this leaves the web site owner with a work of art that not only ranks well but also converts well with web surfers.

On the other hand where software developers have targeted a specific niche within web site development they can be a hard to compete with. Cinematic Profits is an example of this type of web site development software. Rather than trying to aim at a very broad spectrum of web site development they targeted just one very specific area.

These specialist target software's are able to compete with a hard coder as they are programmed to the specific details related to that niche area of web design. No stone is left unturned when it come to these targeted programs. In some ways it is like trying to compete with a heat seeking missile and you can not even see the flames of the fire.

Tried and Tested

Recently I took a challenge to build a hard coded web site against one of these automated targeted software niche programs. The challenge was to build the web site and see where both sites ranked within 4 weeks. The web site had to stand on its own feet with no off site SEO practices at all. Cream will always float to the top!

Both web sites were built around the same niche and both had very keyword targeted domain names. We used the same keywords, pictures and some extent the same content. The content could be written however one wanted as long as no additional key words were added. I lost the toss for domain name choice, so I was told which domain name I would use. Taking that all into account a challenge is a challenge.

The software was faster at developing and releasing the aforementioned web site than I was with mine. None the less I soon was able to release mine after hours of work. All I had to do now was sit back and wait for the results to come in. Over the next 4 weeks I followed with great interest the results as they formed. The only form of a notice to the search engines was a simple comment on a blog site with a text link back to the respective web sites. This was done primarily to make sure the web sites were indexed by the search engines.

Results in Changes

Once our allotted time was up, I was please to see that I had managed to achieve a first page ranking on Google and the automated web site was also listed on the front page to my surprise.

Competing against a program is not easy as I found out. I believe that the only reason I was able to out rank the software's production of a web site was that I am human and my counter part was not. Some slight differences between the 2 web sites were studied. These differences although not huge were enough to give me as a coder an edge. I would imagine by now the errors of it's was have been corrected and even better results will ensue.

This challenge did bring me to a very simple conclusion. Should the software developers maintain their fixed vision on specialist niche programming, then I and other hard coders are headed the way of the dinosaur.

It is time to start to reflect how these programs could affect how the internet will grow over the next 20 years and what the impact could be. I do not see too many black clouds on the horizon just yet but I think they could well be forming over the cusp. I do not think I will be rushing out the door just yet to find alternative employment, but the position of greeter at a very well known store was vacant.