DIY Website vs. Professional Website

Last week, we talked about the cost of building a new website. A consideration that we would like to delve further into this week is whether it is better to build a DIY website or to hire a professional to build one for you. Obviously the cost of a professional website might be higher upfront, but there are a few other things you should keep in mind when deciding whether to go DIY.

• Whether you build a DIY website or hire a designer, we highly recommend building a WordPress site. WordPress is known to be the most Google-friendly site out there. They are up-to-date on everything Google does, which ensures that people who use their product are findable online.
• Think about what you are trying to achieve with your site. If you are using your site for marketing and as a way to find new customers, search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial. When the Internet was in its infancy, just having a website gave you a certain amount of street cred. But as the Internet has grown up, so has the need to build a smarter website. Google and other search engines care about how your site is optimized, the quality of your content, how often you add new content, and more. So while you can certainly use one of the DIY website builders–such as Squarespace, Wix, etc.–the problem is often that your new website won’t be fully optimized to be findable by your customers.
• If you REALLY want to build your website yourself, you can still hire a professional to take care of your SEO and search engine marketing (SEM) needs.
• Make sure you are taking the cost of maintaining the site/hiring professionals to troubleshoot and hiring out your SEO/SEM needs into account when you balance the DIY website costs with the professional website costs. As we mentioned last week, if you have a professional build your site, you can often get a low monthly maintenance package to go along with it.

Essentially, if you need to find customers online, we do highly recommend having a professional build your site. If you have additional questions or need help finding a website designer, we would be happy to give you some guidance. You can contact Niki at [email protected].