Is your DIY website hurting your business?
It is an important question to ask yourself because your website is the online home of your business. If it’s not a great reflection of you and your business and doesn’t really speak to your audience then it’s time to consider a rebuild. If your website is not mobile responsive then the rebuild needed to be done yesterday. As far as Google is concerned it doesn’t even exist.
Before talking about pros and cons of DIY website building I want to start with a bit of a story, some food for thought shall we say.
At our last visit to the accountant, the question of booking keeping was raised.
I am sure that, in another life, Steven was a finance professional of some sort. He used to love doing our tax returns when our finances were simpler. BAS and bookkeeping is something that he has been responsible for. In recent months it’s started to eat into time that would be better spent on other things.
Consequently, when our accountant asked if it was time for them to take over our bookkeeping I said yes.
For us bookkeeping had become one of those things that was regularly falling to the bottom of the to-do list. It was causing an unnecessary level of stress. Taking time out of our workday and leading to late nights that would have been better spent on other activities (like sleeping).
Sure, handing over the bookkeeping to the accountant adds to our monthly expenses. However, the time and brain space freed up in our business allows us to focus on activities that will more than compensate for the additional outgoing amount.
Can you see how this same situation relates to your online marketing? Particularly with respect to specialised areas like website design & development, SEO and lead generation.
Let’s talk about DIY Website design.
Yes you know you CAN do it…BUT…is it actually the BEST way to go for your business?
DIY Website Development & Design
These days you have lots of options in terms of getting a website together for your business. Wix, Weebly, SquareSpace, WordPress.org and Blogger all offer easy to use, DIY interfaces and seem like great options on face value.
However, there are a things you often don’t discover until you have invested hours of DIY website building to create a site you are happy with.
- You don’t own the content on these platforms. This is an obvious business risk and the number one reason we recommended steering clear.
- Applying important marketing functions to these websites is not straightforward and, in many cases, not possible.
Self-hosted WordPress is the content management system (CMS) we recommend and use for the majority of business website builds.
There are plenty of reasons why:
- Easy for the user to maintain and update.
- One of the most widely used CMS platforms in use today.
- Infinitely configurable to create everything from a simple landing page to a complex membership site.
- You can build everything you need in one place and you own all of it.
- Key marketing functions are easily built in to your site.
- Load time suffers as a result of too many add on components that could be replaced by developer code.
WordPress is easy to use. There are multitudes of how to videos on YouTube. Consequently, a DIY Website build for your business might seem like a more attractive option than forking out for a custom website build.
Can I impress something upon you for a moment here? Your website is the home of your business online. It is one of the FIRST places that a prospective customer will check you out online. It’s really important that you have all the elements in place that a potential client needs to see to establish trust. Working with a good web developer and designer, with a solid understanding of online marketing, will ensure nothing gets missed.
Sure, with a bit of research and reading you’ll likely figure out what you need and how to implement it…but how much time is that going to take? Time when you could be doing something that’s got the potential to generate income for your business. Don’t discount the impact of enough sleep on your ability to generate that income either.
Once you’ve figured out what you need then you’ll need to build it. Enter overwhelm from a zillion themes and plugin choices. A web developer can get straight to work because they already know what the right pieces are for your website.
Once you’ve decided on a theme then there is all the time you’ll spend on:
- creating the framework,
- filling in the pieces
- figuring out how to make it look exactly how you want it to look
- becoming frustrated when you can make it look exactly how you want it to look
I assure you that it will take you much longer than you think it will.
Plus you need to make sure you have all the images and words you’ll need to fill in the pieces,
Your new website will take much longer to arrive on the scene than if you had accepted the quote and handed it over to a professional to build it for you.
Time where you leave money on the table because you’re stuck in diy website maintenance mode.
Not to mention Time that you could have spent on activities that are within your genius zone. Adding value to your bottom line rather than DIY Website building.
There’s also a chance that, after spending hours in a labour of love on your new site that you’ll decide you actually do need to go back and accept that quote and get someone else to do it. Maybe they’ll give you a discount because you’ve already done that work yourself? In reality that’s unlikely to happen because they’ll likely need to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch and it’s still going to cost you the same, if not more, because it’s six months later now.
If you have an established business (or are serious about growing one) then a DIY website build should not be on the agenda. Whether you’ve built one on a platform where you don’t own your content and need a rebuild or are considering a DIY job take a step back and look at how much time it’s actually going to cost you in your business. Remember that investing in a professional website build increases the bottom line value of your business.
Whether you want to upgrade, launch a new website, add a membership site or eCommerce we have solutions for them all. We start with an initial discussion where we get to know your business and understand your requirements. It also give you a chance to get to know us and how we work.
Our Web Design packages for businesses are competitive, starting from $3500+GST. Once your build is complete we hand everything over to you but also offer ongoing website maintenance if you’d like us to handle it.
Head over here to get all the details and book a FREE consultation.
