If you’re considering a new or revised web design, you might be considering two different options: hiring a web designer, or doing it yourself. While both have their advantages and disadvantages, there are a few key differences between a hiring a pro to produce a custom web design and buying a template and DIYing your site.
1. Design quality
One of the biggest differences between a professional web design and a DIY website is design quality. A web designer has experience and expertise on creating a custom design that is tailored to your business and its goals for your website. A designer has a good understanding of design aspects and can make your site visually appealing within your brand identity and target audience. Designers know how to create a website that stands out from your competition.
DIY templates look great, and are laid out in a way that allows you to have a complete website that provides your audience with the information they might need, but you’re limited to the design options already set in place. This could result in a generic-looking website and the risk that your audience might not be as compelled to stay on your site.
2. Customization
If you’ve built a site before, you know that there are roadblocks you face when you have a specific design or idea in mind that you don’t know how to execute. This is where a designer can help you out. A designer will be able to create custom features and integrations tailored to your business needs. They will have a collection of tried and true tools they use to make their websites that you as a DIYer might not even know about.
You could figure out how to create custom aspects of your site by using google or peers on Facebook, but there is a time tradeoff that might not make it worth it in the end.
3. Technical Expertise
Building a website requires technical expertise, such as a knowledge of CSS and HTML. A professional web designer has the understanding of how to create a website that is optimized for search engines, loads quickly, and is responsive among any mobile device.
A good web designer will also know how to make your site secure and follows best practices to keep out any spam or hackers.
A DIY website template will be optimized to a certain extent, but the more you add and customize the site to tailor to your business, the more you could potentially expose yourself to slow load times, malware or worst case breaking your site completely.
4. Time and Effort
Creating a website takes a lot of time and dedication. Do you have the time to devote that to your website? Or is your time best spent in your own zone of genuis while a web designer builds your site for you?
DIY sites require you to learn how to use a website builder, find the right template, customize that template to fit your needs and so on.
You will save so much time, effort and frustration with outsourcing your website to a web designer.
5. Support and Maintenance
Your website is a living, breathing being. There are always updates and changes being made in the tech industry and your website is no exception.
A web designer can provide ongoing support to keep your site optimized, secure and functioning properly.
With a DIY site, you are the one responsible for maintaining and updating your website, which can be time consuming and may require more technical knowledge than you have time for.
Overall, a DIY site can be a very accessible and cost effective option, and if you don’t have the opportunity to invest in a custom web design, than the DIY option is sufficient. But if you have the means to, choosing a web designer to build your site will offer you a superior design, customized to your business with the technical expertise needed to execute.
If you’re ready to make the leap and hire a web designer to meet your website’s goals, let’s chat because I would love to be the designer to support your business! Click here to schedule a call to see how I can help you today.