Hiring a web designer can be expensive for a small business.
I totally get it. It’s tough to spend money on something intangible like a website, SEO, and digital marketing with a small budget.
And your business has made it this far without it. So, is it worth it?
The answer to that question is up to you.
Smartphones are in the hands of the majority of the population. Guess where consumers start their search for products and services? Yep. On their phones.
So, in my opinion, it is absolutely a necessity. Unless, of course, increasing traffic to your business doesn’t interest you.
It has come to my attention that these “free” website building sites are hurting web designers and hurting businesses. They make the process seem foolproof.
Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace are three popular free web design sites for businesses. Their drag-n-drop user interface and low pricing are highly enticing for any business to create their own website.
And I get it. It is easier than ever to build a DIY website in 2019.
Is DIY Web Design Right For You?
These sites offer clean website templates, offer upgrade packages for low prices, and make web designers seem obsolete in this new DIY culture. If you have basic knowledge and time, by all means, these sites may be the way to go for your business.
What most people don’t understand is that there’s a lot more to it than simply adding images and content. A LOT.
Well, what do you mean? What else could there be? Glad you asked.
Additional Web Design Must-Do’s
In this digital world, a business’ website is likely the first impression a customer obtains.
While these drag-n-drop sites offer clean layouts, a simple mistake like adding large media that takes a long time to load, not utilizing above-the-fold space correctly, not making primary information easily accessible, failing to write legible copy, or something worse can be costly.
It Might Not Fit
Drag-n-drop user interfaces can be confusing. The space you want to add a specific image to may be completely wrong for the size of your image. Once added, it could be distorted.
Can you fix this problem if it arises?
If Looks Could Kill
Although these DIY sites offer a variety of free templates, is the one you want a good fit with your business type and brand?
Do you understand color schemes, using typography, what pages your site should have and what the design should look like? There’s a lot of visual decisions to make when designing a website.
Smooth Flowing Information
Organization of your website is EXTREMELY important. This refers to the flow of your design from the Home page to all your additional information.
Poorly organized websites = loss of visitors.
S to the E to the O
Not only can your poorly designed website cause visitors to quickly vacate back to the SERP (search engine results page) for the next query, it can also gravely affect your SEO.
Never heard of it?
Search Engine Optimization Explained
SEO or search engine optimization is utilizing keywords while developing and designing a website to appeal to search engines (Google, Bing) and improve your chances of getting listed high on the SERP for related search queries.
If you build it, he will come.
Field of Dreams (1989)
Not likely, Kevin Costner, not likely at all. Just publishing a website to the internet will not bring visitors to it.
Search engines have algorithms to help them rank websites. They send “robots” to crawl your website pages and determine if it meets their criteria.
These algorithms are getting harder and harder to please due to the abundance of websites in existence.
Without any experience with SEO, the likelihood of your site showing up in search results are slim to none.
It’s true, there are a variety of tools that assist a novice with SEO. Some walk the user through each basic step. Many offer green, yellow, and red dots to let you know the status of your SEO attempts on each page and post.
But, are you using the best search terms for your content?
You probably just picked the main topic of your article or something related to your business. Sorry friends, this method does not usually deem successful.
Much research is required to choose the absolute best terms for your website. Software such as Moz is an excellent SEO development tool. Here is where the time comes into the equation.
Without experience, learning about SEO could cost you valuable time you could spend in another area of your business or with your family and friends.
This is just the top layer of what’s involved in SEO development. If it sounds over your head at this point, do yourself a favor and hire a professional.
Make A Wise Decision
Now that you have a small view of the work it takes to successfully get your website up to par with today’s expectations, is building your website yourself an
If you decide to hire a professional, make sure you hire an honest company that isn’t going to screw you. There are many different companies out there. Some expensive, some cheap, some are freelance, some are huge firms. Some don’t do the work promised because their clients don’t know the difference. And you still pay for the service.
In conclusion, all I ask is do your homework whichever direction you decide to go.