Before you build your own website you should really learn why hiring a web designer is the right choice. There are many web design platforms available nowadays that allow you to design your own often clunky website. According to these services, all you need is creativity and a web hosting company. It seems simple, but is that really enough?

The popular expression: “You get what you pay for” truly applies in this instance. As a business owner (no matter which type of business you have) you must have the most professional and most appropriate image online for your business. Your image, which represents your branding and reputation, must not only deliver a clear message about who you are and what you offer but it must also be search-engine friendly and easy for others to navigate once they arrive at your website.

New Website Content Matters

For a while now, the concept of the static website has been obsolete. Websites must constantly be offering content that is fresh and is on innovative topics. The content must be informative and interesting as well as educational. It must also offer some sort of solution to the problems of the people who have searched and landed on your website. It must answer the question: “What’s In It For Me?” (WIIFM), in other words, it doesn’t matter how wonderful you and your business offerings are. The only thing that matters is how you are able to help the other person.

The technology behind those concepts is very sophisticated and the work that goes into developing the website is just as sophisticated and should not be left to amateurs. If the website is not designed correctly and does not include all of the elements that will guarantee the advancement of the business, whatever the investment is that you put into it will be worthless. It is never a smart idea to be penny wise and pound foolish.

In order to be able to build a website properly, you need a good understanding of information architecture, the aesthetics of web design, search engine optimization (SEO), the ability to develop web forms and a great deal of other technical abilities. Attempting to do it yourself (DIY) is good in theory, however, considering that web design is most likely not your area of expertise, the only way that you will be able to really accomplish the task correctly is if you take a great deal of time to study and sharpen your web-designing skills, which will take a great deal of time. In all likelihood, you don’t have the time for that in your life.

Amateurs With Creative Control Hurt Conversion Rates

If you start to build your own website, you are given choices regarding font styles, colors, backgrounds, etc. Your next thought, of course, would be that this is a breeze and as long as you are able to make decisions regarding your website, you will be able to create an effective and pretty website for the entire world to see. That is, unfortunately, not necessarily the case. One thing that many people who go the DIY route forget about is company branding. You need to ask yourself if your website conveys a professional and familiar brand that differentiates you from your competition. Does it clearly convey WIIFM and make your unique selling proposition (USP) obvious. It is very easy for an amateur web designer to create a website that turns people away and hurts the website’s conversion rate.

People who scour the Internet can usually tell quite easily if your website was designed by a professional or by an amateur. That determination will drive their decision to look more deeply at your website or to move onto another website that appears professional to them. People will be much more inclined to deem a website that has been designed by a professional web designer as credible and trustworthy than the non-professional one.

HTML, JavaScript, & PHP Knowledge Is Needed

Basic HTML is not difficult to learn, especially if you have a great deal of time on your hands and the energy available that you will need to devote to your study of HTML. If you learn only the basic codes, what do you think your website will look like to others? The chances are great that your website will still look amateurish compared with websites that have been designed by professional web designers. Your objective is to have your website seen by as many people and for it to leave a lasting impression that is professional.

There are many reasons to hire a professional web designer, including the avoidance of security loopholes in your HTML code, the assurance that users on all platforms will be able to view your site with any and all browsers that they use and the probability that the search engines will be able to read your code and index your website.

Professionals Save Time And Money

If you decide to buy a DIY web design kit, it will seem, at initial evaluation, that you are saving a great deal of time and money. One of the important questions that you need to ask yourself is: how much is your time worth? If you happen to have a great deal of extra time on your hands because your business is slow, you may be ok with the DIY route for now. However, if you are not sure about how much available free time you have you may want to go the professional route. What happens if you get halfway into the project and find that it is taking a lot more out of you than you had anticipated? You will then be left with a web design project that is halfway done and won’t do you and your business any good at all. In that case, you will probably end up hiring a professional to complete the web design. So, in the end, you will have spent a lot of money, wasted a lot of time, and potentially lost some customers that saw your half-completed website.

Web design is one of those services that a lot of people think is easy and simple to do. This may be true, but the end product will look a lot different if you hire a professional web design company, such as OverDrive Digital Marketing.

A DIY attempt or hiring an amateur web designer may save you some money, but they could very well cost you thousands in the loss of prospective customers.

Here are some more reasons why hiring a web designer with several years of experience is better than hiring an amateur.
1) The Web is Visual. The very first impression a visitor receives is based on the outline or the design of a website. A slick, sophisticated website with easy-to-navigate links or tabs will pull in more visitors than one that is hard to follow. A professional web designer will design your website to draw in your ideal audience.
2) Knowledge. A professional web designer will have knowledge in more than one type of computer language, such as PHP, Perl, C, C++, JavaScript, HTML, MySQL, Flash etc. In English: anything you want your website to do, they will be able to do it, from ecommerce to adding social media to your site. They will also know how to search engine optimize (SEO) your website so it shows up on the 1st page of Google search results.
3) Experience. When you hire a digital marketing agency rather than an amateur or friend, you gain not only one person’s experience, but a conclave of minds that will be able to turn any problem into a solution. They can also provide you with advice on the best way to target your audience, whether it be through Facebook or a commercial on YouTube.
4) Consistency. Hiring a company instead of a person or a relative – or a friend of a relative – will provide you with a guarantee that if you ever need a new web design, or an upgrade, you will have someone to go to that already has the knowledge of your business, rather than having to start anew. They will also keep up to date on current techniques and programs, ensuring your website is always groundbreaking and eye catching.

The comparison of DIY vs professional website design is very important to understand if you want your business to appear legitimate and trustworthy. Your money and time should always be spent as wisely as possible. Many people who build their own websites contact professional web designers 12 to 14 months after they have built the original website because they are not achieving the search engine rankings that they want and business is not increasing. They begin to realize after that that their website is just not effective and people are not paying any attention to them. It is vitally important that you get a return on investment that satisfies you and helps you and your business to become more and more successful over time. Web design agencies like OverDrive Digital Marketing have guarantees in place to assure their customers that they will get more website visitors and show on the 1st page of Google. An amateur web designer will never be able to make those guarantees.

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