Developing a website is important for every small business. However, everyone thinksthat building a website on your own is a fairly simple task. Plus, there aretools like WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, GoDaddy, that make you believe in such things. You can use these website developer tools to drag and drop images, insert wording, and template on your website and you are good to go. But these templates in these apps are generic and not specifically made for your business needs. And if you do not want your website to stop at any hour and work smoothly then DIY is not a promising idea. Also, web development requires coding that not every person can do for their website. By hiring professionals, you make sure that your business website serves the need of your business. Your website should attract visitors from the start and turn them into loyal customers. So how your website appears at the first glance makes a lot of effort in the success of your business.
Hence, Web Design Jacksonville experts has listed below various factors that you should consider when choosing between a professional web designer and buildingyour website.
· Professionalism-
Most entrepreneurs have this delusion that people will come as soon as they build awebsite. No! This does not happen. Internet is a vast place and it has so many websites that any Simple Website Design will get lost in the crowd. You might have experienced that when you visit a website and it does not have a proper response to your actions, or it is difficult to navigate, or the templates and images used to look too minimal and generic, you often think that this website might not be credible. You need a good website layout with ease of navigation, high-quality content, and functionality for the success of your business. The appearance of your website is very important to attract your customers. Your website should be mobile-friendly and should have a responsive design. Jacksonville Web Design Company experts have said that around 50% of people believe that website appearance is the most important factor in determining a company’s credibility and that around 38% of people often leave your website when they don’t find it attractive.
· Increase in sales-
Professionals help in the buyer’s journey by increasing sales. Let's say you use WordPress website design tools to drag and drop images, templates, and content on the website. You end up making a first-class functional website. It was easy right. But it is the perfect website for you and not for all your customers. You need to make your website according to the needs of your customers. The design of your website impacts directly on your customers. Web Development Jacksonville experts have noticed that if your website even takes one additional second to load it leads to around 27% decrease in sales, 11% fewer page views, 16% decrease in customer satisfaction, and 7% loss in conversions. Hence you should take professional help in building your website.
· The Right Tools and Experience-
Creating a website by a professional involves using specialized tools like Photoshop,software for auditing your website, and plug-ins. These tools are expensive and can be difficult to use for amateurs. It can take you months, even years to fully understand and learn how these tools work and make a good amount of use from them. Also, everyone doesn't have access to these tools. So instead of going through all these difficulties and hindrances, you can just hire a professional Website Design Company and get your work done efficiently.
· Your Best Competitors Use Professionals Designers-
When you start building your website it might seem that website building tools makeit possible for you to design a site without any major hassle and also that you have sufficient time to make a top-class website. But remember that you are also competing with your competitor's website, which is probably made by professionals. You always need to be one step ahead of your competition in terms of websites, bringing traffic, generating leads, etc. as it marks the success of your business. So, you might want to make sure that your website measures up in terms of quality and attractiveness. Additionally, it's not just the appearance that matters but also the functionality and SEO. Also, a survey from Jacksonville Web Development has shown that over 80% of industry experts believe that design-driven businesses are more successful.
· Not SEO friendly-
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a technique of ranking websites and pages higherin search engines such as Google. SEO is evolving every day and it's difficult for a non-expert to keep pace with it. Hence, DIY websites are not so SEO-friendly. The codes used in DIY websites are not read well by Google. So even after making the most beautiful site for yourself, it's of no use if it cannot be read by Google. Even a small mistake in terms of SEO can drive away thousands of visitors. That’s why you should be hiring a professional website designer. With their help, you can boost your clicks by 117% and visits by 113%.
· Security and support-
It's easy to design your website and publish it. But it can be a horrendous task tosecure it. A non-professional doesn't have the technical knowledge and expertise to secure his website from getting into the wrong hands. Your DIY website can be easily hacked by cybercriminals through vulnerable scripts, plug-ins, or dishonest vendors. This paves the way for hackers to tamper with your site and collect valuable data. Needless to say, due to this you also lose credibility and the last thing you would want is for your visitors to end up with viruses and malware.
· Not so mobile-friendly-
A lot of your visitors are mobile users and there are various search enginesavailable with the combination of Android and iOS like Safari, Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera Mini, or the dreaded Internet Explorer. DIY websites made by you are not optimized for every screen resolution, web browser, and device. You might lose one customer due to this. That’s why you need professional website designers like Jacksonville Website Design as they test your website for every possibility and on every medium. DIY website also hinders your SEO ranking which can lead to a 10% drop in traffic.
· Speed-
When you make a DIY website, you can only create and perform functions in yourwebsite with the limited options available in the website design apps. The coding and technical aspects that DIY websites provide are not up to the mark to support heavy JavaScript and HTTP requests. This led to slow speed and response from your website which will eventually drive away your visitors. Also, a study has shown that around 40% of visitors will entirely abandon your site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to respond.
· Ownership-
One thing that you should always keep in mind is that you don’t own the DIY websiteyou have created. The ownership remains with website design tools like Wix or Squarespace. So, if any of these companies go out of business, there are chances that you might lose everything. You don’t have any right to your website or the customer information that is stored on your admin page. And if they have your domain name or email you might have to start from scratch. So instead of going through all this trouble, you might want to hire a professional.
· No Cost Savings-
Generally, business owners who make their website think that choosing the DIY route is cheaper than hiring a professional web designer. But what they don’t see is that it's not just the investment that counts but also the return on that investment. So, DIY websites cost you more. Also, creating a DIY website means that you might make all kinds of mistakes because it isn't the area of your expertise. Professionally designed websites help you succeed as they create your website keeping in mind your business needs and potential customers. They also help in converting your potential customers into loyal customers who might purchase products from your site.
· Wasted Time-
A lot of people think that creating a website is easy and does not take a lot oftime. You just have to drag and drop images, templates. Content from with the help of tools. But in reality, it takes a lot more time. It will take hours for a non-professional to even learn how to choose images, themes, templates, and other content that goes with the idea of your business. A professional web design company takes around 60-80 hours to complete one website design which means it takes around 120-180 hours for non-professionals to complete one website design. So, instead of wasting your precious time on a DIY website, you should be focusing on other important priority matters of their business.
Conclusion
You can of course, build a DIY website but you should keep in mind the disadvantages it has. Cost is the only factor that promotes DIY websites but even in this, the return on DIY websites is not so good as compared to professionally designed websites. Therefore, if you want your website to succeed choose a professional web designer or aproach our Web Design Jacksonville experts, instead of DIY your own website.