You stand to gain a lot by owning a website because a website does not only give your business credibility; it also makes your business known to the whole world. If you build and design your website properly, it gives your customers the idea that your business brand is professional and most importantly, they will enjoy a wonderful user experience when they visit your website whether they visit your website on their smartphones, tablets or even their laptops.
A good website will let your customers know the new products and services you are offering to them and at glance, customers can see upcoming events and promotions. To develop a great website, you can choose to either source for Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Websites or have a professional design your website.
What Website do you need? Small or Large
Before deciding on which option to go for, you have to understand what type of website your business needs. For instance, there is a company profile website that is suitable for companies with very simple features. You may need a more complicated website if you are involved in an e-commerce business or have a B2B company.
DIY websites are also referred to as website builders. They have the easiest and least expensive options when building a website. With their editing tools, you can develop a website within a short period and it would still look very attractive. Website builders like Wix, Weebly, Intuit, Yola, Moonfruit etc., have visual page editors that allow you to easily drag and drop as well as other editing features. DIY websites can also be created using a content management system like WordPress which has more distinct features compared to website builders. Website builders usually include domain name registration and web hosting in their packages. Most of them peg their services at $10 per month. WordPress, on the other hand, is free but requires that users pay $5 per month for web hosting and $10-20 per year for domain name registration.
Although DIY websites offer very attractive and easy to use websites, they are still very limited when you look at the creative options available. You can only make limited changes to their templates and this because these websites are built for smaller businesses like personal websites and non-profit websites.
If you plan on building a comprehensive website that comes with all the features to match your business needs, then your option is to find a professional to do a proper website. Getting a professional website designer may seem like an expensive option, but most times, the cost depends on the size and the type of website you are creating. You also benefit from using a professional website because you have flexible options which are limitless.
With larger websites, you will need to get added features like security and mobile-friendly features which is beyond what DIY websites can offer. Some businesses need unique web application features like search engine optimization, project management tool, content management software (CMS with customization).
To know what type of business website you need, you need to consider how important your business is to you. If you are running a small business that just requires you to introduce your products to customers, then you may opt for DIY websites.
However, if you are looking to earn over 70% of your revenue, you should get a professional to design a full and comprehensive website for your business.
Your Skill Level
All DIY websites don’t require anyone to have knowledge about programming or even to have experience in coding. Anyone can develop a website using website builders because everything is embedded in their templates. You can easily set up your website and have it running within a short time.
However, if you are already a programmer who can build a website from scratch as well as having adequate knowledge about coding and programming languages. You can choose to use content management software like WordPress. WordPress works well for people who have experience in HTML. Its software is more powerful than other DIY websites and is still very easy to use. WordPress has thousands of themes to choose from and it also has a community that can assist in customizing your website.
Also, an experienced programmer who knows how to design a website can choose to build a website from scratch if you feel your business requires a more advanced website.
Your Time
Even though sourcing for a website through website builders may seem easy and very fast, it also comes with its own shortcomings. You will find out that the time spent on building your website on DIY website builders could have been utilized handling other affairs for your business. For instance, you could use that time to handle marketing, product conceptualization and promotions for your business. There is also the issue of validation errors which is very common on website builders platform. As a result of these errors, one will find it difficult to get their pages easily accessed on search engines. Another challenge faced with building your own website by yourself is that the pages may be slow to open when loading.
Conclusion
There are very few businesses that actually need to hire professionals for their website especially businesses that need customized apps and the ones that are looking to generate 100% of their revenue. For businesses that want to generate at least 20% of their revenue, can utilize website builders to develop their own website.
To determine which options work best for your business, you need to get guidance from an expert before choosing whether to go for DIY websites or a professional developer.
You also have to consider your budget when you want to develop a website. There are many options to choose from like the WordPress platform which will save you a lot of money and has a lot of options to match your business needs.
The more revenue you expect to get from your website, the more the investment you have to make to build the website.