Need a Website? You’ve Got Two Options – Do It Yourself or Hire a Pro

 

Building a website is one of the most exciting parts of starting a business.  You feel official, somehow.  Your hard work, dreams, and caffeine induced brainstorming sessions all culminate into this tiny piece of the digital universe.

But for many of us, the crushing reality is, building a website can be expensive.  It can cost thousands of dollars to get a website up and running.  And if you’re just starting out, you may not have thousands of dollars in the bank or stuffed under the mattress to dole out.

So what are your options? Well, there’s just two, really.

 

Option 1: Website Builders – Do It Yourself

So let’s just say that your bank account is short on a few zeros. If that’s the case, consider building the website yourself using cloud-based web development platforms like Wix, Jimdo, and Weebly.

These free website builders offer hundreds of templates and drag and drop tools that allow you to build and customize your website absolutely free – no coding experience required.

Sounds good, right?  And it is.  But even free stuff has a cost. The free version will get you a fantastic, mobile responsive website (meaning it will look just as good on a smartphone or tablet as it does on a desktop), but you’ll also have somebody else’s ads popping up on your website, no personal domain, and a limited amount of bells and whistles, including storage.

If you want to fully optimize your website, get rid of the ads, use a personal domain name, and set up email, you’ll need to upgrade your account to a premium plan that could cost as much as $25 a month, as shown in this price comparison chart for Jimdo.

And you’ll also need to factor in costs for stock photos and maybe even a little graphic design work if you decide to customize the website’s background with the look and feel of your brand.

 

Option 2: Hire a Professional Web Designer

If you do have a few extra dollars to spend, consider bringing in a professional web designer.  While websites like Wix offer great no to low cost solutions, they can’t solve some of the most common problems start-ups face, like finding the time to pull the website together the right way, not matter how “easy” it is.

Because the fact of the matter is this, there are billions of websites out there.  And creating a good looking website is only half the battle.  There’s a lot of behind the scenes work that has to be done to better position your website to be found.  And unless you do SEO on the side, working with a skilled web designer may prove worthy of the extra costs.

Let’s hear from an expert.  According to Andrea Farr, co-owner of Nashville based interactive services and web development firm, Nashville Geek, there are several benefits to hiring a professional web designer, such as:

1. Allowing you to streamline your efforts and reduce your headaches. As a small business owner, time is crucial and hard to come by. Hiring an expert means you keep your time focused on getting the results needed for your website, rather than getting overwhelmed and lost in the details of construction.
2. Guidience through the many intricacies that having a web presence requires. Your website needs to look great on a desktop and laptop, but also on mobile phones and tablets. The content needs to be professional and well written, but it also needs to appear in search results in Google.
3. Giving you a strategic partner. Your web designer will guide you through every step of the process, including troubleshooting issues that may arise.

The most common mistake Farr sees on DIY websites is a lack of search engine optimization (SEO).  She describes it this way, “It’s like buying a beautiful car, but forgetting to fill it up with gas. It looks great, but it’s not going to take you anywhere.”  Ouch!

But, for those who do decide to build their websites on their own, either by choice or necessity, she has this advice, “Be prepared.  It’s going to take a lot more time than you expect. Start with WordPress. It was built for the average blog user, so it’s a quick platform to learn.  For more in-depth help with programming, Lynda.com is a great resource. And read up on SEO at Search Engine Land.”

 

Regardless of what option you choose, keep this in mind.  Your website is a reflection of you and your business.  For many of your potential customers or clients, its the very first time they’ll meet you…and you know what they say about first impressions.