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Do it Yourself or Hire a Professional?
Very good question and really, it depends on several things. The most important thing is how skilled you or your employees are in the software and technology needed to build a professional website.
Remember: your website is often a potential customer’s first look at your company. With nearly all, if not all, of your competition sporting websites of their own, you have to be able to stand out from the crowd and present an online ’storefront’ that makes you visually appealing and worthy of a second look.
That said, having just a small amount of the needed skills isn’t enough for a couple of reasons:
- Time – the time it will take you to create a professional looking website is going to be exponentially higher than simply hiring a company to do it for you
- Presentation – it is very likely that you will not possess all of the skills to produce the type of website you are after
- Website builders DO NOT work – they are time consuming & cumbersome to use and typically turn out sites that look, well, like they were built with a website builder.
The skills you will need to design and build a professional website include:
- Design ability – this includes access to and proficiency in one of the many graphic design software programs available, such as Photoshop (the #1 choice).
- Artistic ability – this means you have to be able to take your skills in the design software and turn it into something creative and attractive, as well as functional.
- HTML/coding ability – you will need to take the artistic design you’ve created and know how to get it onto a web page.
- Programming ability – this means that you can make your website do the things you want it to do, such as submitting forms, allowing customers to access a login area, add interactive functions or integrate it with a database.
- SEO/Marketing ability – there’s more to it an just posting a website; people have to find the website for it to be effective.
In short, building a website is a complicated process. Simply OWNING programs like Photoshop or Dreamweaver does not make you a web designer!
There is often the illusion that anyone can make a website; that may be true, however, not everyone can make a professional, attractive website that converts visitors into customers. It may be that you have some of these skills but not all of them. It’s possible to hire a company to do as little or as much of your project as you want them to do but remember, it shouldn’t be about the money.
The money saved by you often comes out as a huge amount of your time spent out of your depth. Meaning that your main concern should be getting more sales/customers to your business and that is where you time is probably best spent. You may save money in the short run, but in the long run, it’s unlikely. If you already have a company brand, hiring a professional website designer is a must to maintain and further your branding and your business’ image.
Ready to hire the best designer for your website design project? Contact me today!