Navigating the DIY vs. Web Designer Decision: Tips for Builders and Contractors
As a builder or general contractor, you understand the value of making informed decisions when it comes to your business. One such decision is whether to take on web design yourself or to hire a professional. With so many website builders and DIY options available, it's tempting to try to do it all yourself. However, there are many factors to consider before making a decision that will affect your online presence and brand (and as a result, your traffic, conversion rates, and sales.) In this post, I'll be providing some tips and insights to help you navigate the DIY vs. web designer decision, so you can make the best choice for your business.
How to Decide Whether to Hire a Web Designer or DIY Your Contractor Website
You’re already at the point where you know you need an effective website to grow. In today’s competitive market, it’s a necessary part of doing business. Your website serves as your calling card or storefront, letting people know who you are, a medium to display your portfolio and expertise, and begin building trust with your ideal clientele. Plus, a website is also helpful for logistical things, like getting people booked in with you for phone calls, setting up appointments, and giving your customers a sense of your pricing.
Now the question has become…
“Should I tackle this myself, or hire a designer?”
That’s where things can get tricky. I have lots of clients come to me with this question, and I get it. Putting together a high-quality custom home builder website is an investment and it’s natural to explore different options.
Let’s walk through five questions you need to consider when you’re deciding whether to hire a web designer or do it yourself.
Question 1: Do you already have a website or are you starting from scratch?
If you already have a website that you’re looking to upgrade for one reason or another, chances are you’re ready to hire a designer. After all, there’s a reason you’re not happy with the one you have now. (And this is super common, by the way. A lot of clients have an old site that they built or had someone build years ago, but just doesn’t quite cut it anymore.)
That being said, if you have a website that still works well for sales and generating leads for your contracting business, but it just needs a few quick upgrades, you might be able to do those yourself. It is still probably worth consulting a designer first to make sure adding or revising the content on your site won’t break existing code, make navigation confusing for your users, or other strategic elements that might not come to mind right away.
If you’re starting from scratch and have never had a website, you can go either way.
If your budget is really tight, I’m all for having contractors get a starter site to at least send people to. There are so many options online today of website builders and templates that you can plug and play your content into relatively quickly and get you something to hit the ground running.
However, if you want to get the most out of your website from the start (even if the website starts small), investing in a good website early on will help you earn more and you’ll save money over time by not having to deal with multiple upgrades and rebrands.
If you’re looking to DIY with a template, check out some of these options:
Squarespace.com has tons of free templates you can use to get a website up and running quickly
SQSP Themes has compiled even more Squarespace-compatible templates from many providers across the web. You can sort by price, industry, designer, and more! For contractors, I would recommend checking out the “Forge by Storysite” template (designed with the Storybrand framework in mind).
Question 2: Are you really great with tech (or do you know someone who is?)
If you’re already pretty good at navigating tech, and you just happen to have never built a website before, then it might just make sense to give it a try yourself before reaching out to a designer. Especially if you are in the earlier stages of your business. There are a lot of intuitive drag and drop web programs you can use to build a simple website for your business.
But, if you’re not so great with tech, or you just can’t be bothered to put in all the time it takes to deal with the learning curve of putting a website together, talk to a designer. It’s like the difference between someone building their own house using books and plans they got from the public library vs. you going in and taking care of the project professionally with your tools and experience – the end result is a whole different product (and at a fraction of the cost and time invested).
The one exception here is if you maybe know somebody who’s great with tech. By this I’m not talking about your nephew or somebody who messes around on Minecraft a lot. I mean someone who’s built websites before, and who can either walk you through it, or do it for you. This can be a great budget-friendly option for putting together a starter website, but again, only if you know somebody who’s actually good at this.
Working on your website this year?
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Question 3: How complicated does your site need to be?
In other words…
What do you need your website to do?
If you’re just looking for one page that has your phone number and a list of prices, that’s pretty simple to DIY. (Though I will say from experience, that’s not going to get you the kinds of inquiries or sales you want!)
If you’re looking for something a little more complex, like a website that has a multiple pages and needs special functionality for online appointment bookings, e-commerce, or blogging — it’s worth talking to a designer.
There are a lot of moving parts in the design and development of a website and it’s really easy to accidentally miss a connection or a link somewhere that ends up impacting the rest of the site.
Plus, working with a designer means you also get their experience when it comes to the branding tools and techniques that make remodeling company websites effective. Things like colors, fonts, font sizes, headers, pictures, legal compliance, SEO, and user experience all make a big difference in the way that your potential customers see you, so it matters that you get this right.
One of the biggest mistakes I see contracting companies make is putting up a site that accidentally makes them look cheap, untrustworthy, or shady, just because they don’t have the same kind of branding expertise a web designer does. And while there are better DIY options out there nowadays –– I recommend Squarespace if you do go that way –– they still don’t have the same kind of punch that a professionally designed site does.
Question 4: What does your budget and timeline look like?
Just like with construction and contracting projects, budget and timing play a huge role in web design projects. If you’ve got a big budget and not a whole lot of time, then going with a professional web designer makes sense. If you’re a little shorter on budget, and you’ve got loads of time to figure this stuff out yourself, then you may be better off doing some DIY and then getting a designer to come in on the next round.
But don’t let the question of budget and timing scare you.
You can always talk to your designer about scaling your project up or down to fit your budget. Of course, the other thing to think about here if you do have a smaller budget but more time is whether you actually want to spend all that time fooling around in the backend of a general contractor website. If that sounds fun to you, go for it! But if you have other things you’d rather be doing, or if you find that you just can’t quite seem to get your website over the finish line, definitely talk to a designer.
Question 5: How much creative control do you want?
For some people it REALLY matters that they have a strong hand in the website creation process. They want to choose the colors and fonts, decide what pictures go on the site, and even write the words! For other people, that’s way more trouble than it's worth. Consider how much creative control you need in your web project – does it matter to you if you don’t sign off on every little thing? Then you might need to do a DIY job. (Or find a very, very patient designer!)
On the other hand, if you just want the job done fast and well, a professional web designer is the way to go. While each one works slightly differently, almost all of them involve you in the process to some degree or other. (After all, it’s your site, it needs to look the way you want it!) This can give you just enough input, without having to put all the decisions at your feet.
You deserve a construction website that works hard for you.
I work with custom home builders and renovation companies to design strategic websites that are effective in turning website browsers into buyers. Let’s chat about what a custom website can do for your business on a free 30-minute consultation today!
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TOOLS MENTIONED IN THIS POST:
Squarespace — Website builder with no coding exprience needed (and get 20% off your first year with this link!)
SQSP Themes — Squarespace templates to build your website quickly and easily
