Should You Build Your Own Website?
If you’ve landed on my blog, chances are you know how important having a website for your business is. Having a website attracts new prospective clients that are searching for services like yours online.
The problem many business owners face is knowing how to even begin building a website. Do you hire someone? If so, who? What do you need to get together for your website? It can be an intimidating process, for sure! And with all of the different website builders out there claiming that anyone can build a website, it can be tempting to put one up yourself.
While it’s true that you — yes, you! — could put up a website with one of these tools in a matter of days or hours…there are some things you should know first.
In this week’s post, we will look into some of the important things that go into building a quality website and why doing it yourself is not always the best idea for your small business.
Building a Website Takes a Lot of Time
On average, it takes anywhere from several weeks to a few months to create a quality, high-functioning website. Building a new website is broken down into at least three different phases:
Planning
This phase involves gathering together all of the content for your website, including written content, photos, testimonials, contact information, bios, and more. This phase usually takes the longest, since getting together quality content is a top factor for ranking your site on Google.
Creation
This phase involves creating the template for the website, arranging its architecture, building the site out, and making sure it is put together with one main goal in mind…converting site visitors to CUSTOMERS. This takes a lot more thought, research, and planning than you might think. Just because someone goes to your website doesn’t mean they’ll do business with you. There’s an actual science to what you say, how you say it, and where that all goes on your website to increase conversion rates!
Testing
This phase involves testing the website for bugs and errors. Some website designers (like me) will optimize the completed site to rank well online.
Depending on the website designer you choose, it can take a few weeks to create a standard website. Larger websites and online stores will take longer to create, sometimes even months.
If you’re going to try to build a website on your own, it may take even longer because you’re busy running a business. Save yourself the time and money by investing in a professional website designer to design, build, and optimize the site for you. The right designer will give you a website that makes you money AND one that you’re proud to show to friends, family, and customers.
Quality Matters for Any Website
The ugly truth of the internet is that search engines like Google and Bing judge websites very harshly according to their standards known as “algorithms.” Google is famous for providing the most accurate search results for any topic and they dominate the #1 search engine title with their competitors FAR behind.
In order to protect its reputation, Google will only rank the best websites on a number of factors. Usually, cheap and amateur websites created on a website builder aren't going to cut it. In the end, you could waste your time and money creating a website that will never outrank your competitors.
(Note: The website builder is not the flaw in ranking. There are plenty of professional website designers who use website builders to build professional, high-performing websites. My point is that just because you can put up a website yourself on one of these tools, does not mean it is put together in a way that will perform well.)
Quality Websites Can Make a Lot of Money
When you hire a qualified website developer (and one who knows SEO) to create your website, you’re making a great investment into the future of your business. The majority of website designers know how to create websites that align with search engine algorithms.
This means you can rest easy and receive a website that will have a great chance at outranking your competitors and attracting more attention from potential customers. This can create more opportunities to use your website to drive more revenue to your business.
To Sum It All Up…
It’s definitely possible to create your own website. You might even make a really good looking one! But it’s recommended to rely on a professional website designer to ensure that your website performs and gives you a high return on investment.
