Have you built, or are you in the process of building your own website?
You may want to rethink this decision as it could lead to lost sales and more money in the future.
I’m going to presume that you understand the importance of having a website. So let’s have a look at why hiring a professional to design and develop your website will increase your chances of success, immensely and allow you to focus on your business instead.
With so many options available to build your website yourself - the likes of Shopify, Wix, SquareSpace, Weebly (and that’s only naming a few!), it can be tempting to give it a go yourself. Especially when they make it look so easy!
While it may seem like a great cost-saver now, it’s more than likely you will pay for your decision down the track.
We’ve pulled together the main benefits of having a professional build your website so you can understand why the money will be well spent.
Professionals understand website design best practices
The look and functionality of your website can make or break its success.
There are many best practices that designers will follow when it comes to building a website. They also understand the latest trends and what will work and, of course, what won’t!
Then there are all the little details that a non-designer can easily overlook - having ideal spacing, ratios on point, pulling your brand aspects throughout the site, etc.
They also understand copywriting and how to use the layout to best drive conversions from this perspective.
They make your website pop
A professional designer can take your website from standard to top of the line. With the ability to alter code, there’s not much they can't do!
When you use one of the pre-built themes there are limitations as to what you can do. And it's likely you won’t realize it until you've spent 1 million hours already creating your site.
Yes, you can alter the colours, fonts, and some of the layout yourself (although for the average Joe Bloggs even this can be difficult). But if you’re wanting something a little different - think; a custom map to show your locations, or an online donation tool - you’ll end up pulling your hair out not knowing where to start!
They understand SEO
SEO is like a minefield for anyone who doesn’t understand it.
With 3 main aspects - technical optimization, on-page optimization, and off-page optimization, there’s a lot to get right if you want to be found online.
By getting a professional on the job, you can guarantee your technical and on-page optimization will be spot on (off-page optimization sits outside a web developers realm).
If you don’t know how to make sure the following is correct:
Site load time
Site architecture
XML sitemap
404 and 301 pages
Headlines are in the correct order
Meta descriptions, title tags, alt descriptions
… then you should 100% be getting a professional on the job.
They have the right tools & software at their fingertips
An experienced website developer will have everything they need to get the job done.
This includes the technical software to design and build your site, as well as the best referrals for anything you may need - copywriters to produce impeccable content, graphic designers and photographers to provide amazing illustrations, and everything in between!
This means you can leave everything in your chosen professionals' hands and not worry about finding multiple providers. When you’re not in the know this can be time-consuming!
Building your website will be faster & less frustrating
Put simply, they know what they’re doing! Can you imagine trying to complete your end-of-year accounts yourself (for those of you who aren’t accountants!)? You’re likely to get it done but it will take you a ridiculous amount of time, the errors will be endless and you’ll regret it when you end up having to pay a professional to fix your mistakes.
Your website is exactly the same. Save your precious time and frustration and get it done right the first time.
This will also work out better for future-proofing. If your website ends up with bugs or needs to be altered to support business growth, your developer can jump straight in and make the required fixes and changes.
They know how to build the best user experience
Having a website with all of your content slapped in haphazardly could be disastrous.
It’s best to think of your website visitors as lazy, as bad as that may sound. We want our lives to be as simple as possible and have become adept at scanning content on a page. This is why designing and building your website to offer the best user experience is so important.
If your website structure isn’t straightforward and strategically designed to take the user on a journey through to taking action, it’s almost guaranteed they’ll leave your site and move on to the next.
An experienced web developer knows how to structure a website to drive conversions and achieve your goals.
They will ensure your copy is written to engage your audience
If the copy on your website isn’t persuasive, convincing, and written to drive the reader to take action, it doesn’t matter how good your website looks and works.
There are many benefits to having professional copywriting written for your website. They will take the time to understand your business and the goals you are trying to achieve, and make sure your website stands out online.
A professional website developer can often organise a copywriter for you, ensuring every aspect of your website is going to drive results.
Your website will be fully optimized
With 62% of website traffic coming from mobile devices, and 92% of internet users accessing the internet from a mobile phone, it’s critical your website is fully optimized.
This means your website can be accessed from any device while still providing the best user experience. If you don’t, think how many potential customers and sales could be lost!
While most of the free platforms and themes allow for mobile optimization, there are multiple aspects that can slip through the cracks. Having your website designed and built by a professional will avoid this completely.
The important GO LIVE moment
Once your website is designed and built, you're ready to go live!
You will need to connect the website to your domain, which you may already have or will need to buy separately. Depending on your domain provider, this can take up to 72h to process.
But, it’s not just your domain you need to worry about. There are a number of things that can go wrong when connecting your website to your domain host. Many are unaware that this is also connected to your email host.
This is a critical moment. If something goes wrong, it will be both your website and your email that’ll get lost in cyberspace! And those emails will be lost.
So again, getting a professional developer on board will mean there’s no lost time, no frustration, and, most importantly you won’t lose any potential customers.
Let a professional take charge so you can focus on building your business.
As you can see, there are numerous benefits to hiring a professional to design and build your website.
You can 100% give it a go yourself, but as pointed out above, you’ll probably regret it! Let a professional step in so you can continue to focus on what you do know and understand best - your business!
Here at Create Your Online Presence, we are passionate and experienced in website design and development. We have built countless websites that bring brands to life and archive our clients' goals and would love to help you too.
If you’re in the process of launching a new business or want to evolve your current website, let’s have a chat. We can provide a free website audit to analyze where you’re at currently, or get straight in and provide a quote to work our magic.
