Building a website for your business is one of the most important things you can do. It’s a critical part of your marketing strategy, and will form the foundation for much of your promotional efforts. Thanks to a lot of investment in DIY solutions, it’s never been easier for you to build and design your website yourself, and not spend a huge amount of money doing it. But is that always the right way to go? Is it best to create your own website, or is it worth hiring a website designer to build your website for you? To find out, there are a few things you should ask yourself.
How Complex Does Your Website Need To Be?
This is a big question, as this will help you figure out if you can actually build the site yourself, or if you need to hire someone with professional skills. If all you need is a basic one-page website with some text and a few images, then you can absolutely do that yourself, and it will likely be a lot cheaper. There are a lot of website builder sites that even have one-page templates you can use.
However, if you need extra functionality like:
- E-commerce capability
- Appointment scheduling
- Complex forms
- A support library
- Client log-in and a portal
Then you probably need to hire a professional. They will not only have the tools to create these elements, but they will also be able to design them in a way that looks good and doesn’t break the website’s functionality.
One of the biggest problems we see when people create their own website is that because it isn’t what they do every day, they don’t know how to plan and write the copy for their website to help it rank on Google. When we work with our customers on their websites, we can provide insight into what should work and then provide an SEO package to analyse the data the new site generates and make further improvements.
How Much Time Do You Have?
Websites are not a quick thing to build, especially if you’ve never built one before. Even a one-page website takes time to create, review, edit and launch. If you’re in a rush, then you won’t get a good product if you do it yourself, and it will be more expensive to have it done by a professional (rush charge is a very real thing). Having time available will mean your website will be more polished if you do it yourself, and if it’s being done by a professional will mean it’s cheaper and fully functional at launch.
What Are Your Skill Levels?
Here is where you need to be very honest with yourself, and ask how tech-savvy you really are. Designing a website is much more than just dragging and dropping things into place. Even the most basic website builders require a level of technical knowledge, and sometimes even basic coding to make things look the way you want them to. If you feel your skills are up to the challenge, then great! But unless you already possess the technical skills, or are willing to learn, then building your own website could be quite a challenge for you. This is often why business owners opt to have a professional design their website for them while they focus on running their business.
How Critical Is Your Website To Your Business?
Every business needs a website, but what kind of business you run will determine just how mission-critical your website is for operations. If your website is more of a marketing and promotional tool, then there are fewer risks in building it yourself. However, if you’re selling directly from your website, or it’s critical to your success in some other way, then you will need to make sure it’s a finely-tuned conversion engine That means 100% uptime, quick loading, fully functioning pages, valid security certificates and full security protection. All of these things can significantly impact your site’s performance, and a professional can ensure they are all working properly for you.
How Picky Are You?
This might seem a bit rude, but bear with us. If you’re a perfectionist, you need to hire a professional. If you’re the kind of person who would be upset if things didn’t line up perfectly on a page, if the colour wasn’t quite right, or if the menu navigation isn’t exactly as you would like, then building your own website isn’t for you. DIY website builders do allow a lot of freedom with design, but there are also a lot of limits in place – mainly to stop you from breaking things! And while templates are great, they often don’t quite do what you want them to do. Hiring a professional means your website can be uniquely coded for your preferences. So even if the designer starts with a template, they can adjust it to ensure things appear exactly as they should. Professional web developers are the perfectionist’s best friend.
So Should You Hire A Web Designer?
Once you’ve answered all of those questions, then you should have a good idea of whether or not building your website is the right choice for you. If you’re ready to roll up your sleeves and build a website from scratch, go for it! But if you think the job would be better left to the experts, then that’s no bad thing.At Lion Spirit Media, we offer custom website design for startups, small businesses and even large enterprises. Our websites are easy to use, mobile-friendly, aesthetically pleasing and help you to accomplish your business goals, whatever they may be. If you’d like more information on our website design and maintenance services, just get in touch with the team today to book your free consultation.
0 Comments