With the range of do-it-yourself website builders available, why should I hire a web development company?
It is a straightforward question. It is true that there are a number of do-it-yourself (DIY) website builders out there and from the examples they provide, it seems that you can’t even tell the difference between one of those and a website built by a web developer. It even appears to be cheaper than what you would be charged by a web developer. So, why not?
Let’s consider an analogy: have you ever bought anything that needed to be assembled? It can even be something as simple as a model car (the 200+ kind that requires paint and glue, not the 10-minute 30 piece snap-together variety). Did it look as good as the demo when you where done? Did it take much longer than you first imagined it would? What if it was something that was a little more functional – say, a grill or piece of furniture? Did it work properly after you were finished or did you have to tinker with it for hours and finally get it to work?
Now, I’m not saying that the average person is completely unable to understand how websites are built and will never be able to work on them. What I am saying is that websites are often very complicated and it takes quite a bit of training to understand how they work, avoid the pitfalls of design/programming incompatibilities and assemble the tools necessary for rapidly deploying resources.
Scenario: you need a website for your business which will allow users to easily view a product catalog and place orders. You want something easy to navigate while looking very stylish. Also, you need it to work well on mobile devices. Putting aside for a moment the fact that even website builders can be complicated to use, you have to be willing to devote the time to actually build your website. Also, each item in your product catalog must be entered into the e-commerce system. Let’s not forget photos and other graphics you’ll need to brand your site. Even if you have the software to properly edit them, it can still take quite a bit of time.
So, if we allow that you possess the software and the know-how, you’ll still be devoting hours to working on your website – hours which you’re not spending at your business. At WebVellum, we can usually build a website, from start to finish, in roughly 20 – 40 hours, depending on the complexity of the features and the amount of content. For an e-commerce website with more than 50 products or a site utilizing member accounts and member-created content, that time frame can double. Based on that time frame, a DIY website can cause you to divert up to a week or more of your time away from managing your business.
I don’t discourage clients from learning about how their websites work. In fact, the best websites are usually a collaborative effort between the client and the developer. In fact, WebVellum provides training on how to use the features on our clients’ websites so they may take an active role in creating new content, interacting with their customers and managing their brand strategy.
This collaborative approach can also have a hugely positive effect on the performance of the website in search engine results. Google, Bing and Yahoo generally filter content according to how recent it is and how relevant it is to search terms. Since no one knows your business better than you, no one is better suited to knowing what content needs to be published. What we do is make sure you have the best possible means of getting your content out there.
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