To have an official presence on the web, your business needs to have a website.
Whether you're creating a new website or updating an existing one, the choices you have to make is whether to create it on your own, or have it developed by professionals.
Before, people tend to hire professionals because the choices are obvious. But thanks to the number of courses and online tools, as well as website builders, people can create websites on their own without having to hire professionals.
Although it has been easier for non-technical people to build a more-than-decent website, it doesn't always mean that your shouldn't hire professionals.
The reason is simple: there are things that are better done by professionals, and some projects cannot be replaced by tools.
The Options You Have
With website builders, you are offered with some of the easiest and least expensive ways to create a web presence. In general, website builders and their tools can help you create a great looking website, fast and easy.
Website builders usually have visual page editors where you can drag and drop, as well as edit elements of a website. While there are easy to use and visually appealing, they aren't flexible: they limit creative control, and their templates often confine users to limited options. Because of this, they are best suited for startups that are just launching, nonprofits, personal websites, small websites, or those on an extremely tight budget.
If you need a fully-fledged website with features that are customized to your needs, your option is to hire professionals to do the job. This is indeed the most expensive option, and the cost depends on the size and the nature of your website.
But with the cost, you're also greeted with great flexibility and limitless possibilities.
What Kind Of Website Do You Need?
Before choosing to create a DIY website or hire a professional, you may need to understand your goal. In order to choose the best option, you have to know what kind of website that matches your business.
A company profile website, for example, showcases your business. This type of website is one of the simplest to create because it doesn't have too many features and only host several pages. On the other hand, if your business is handling a lot of online transaction, an e-commerce business with big goals in mind, a B2B company that handles customers online, etc., you need more than just a simple website.
Things are complicated on larger website. As it needs more features and security, as well as the ability to load fast on any devices, you need customization and beyond what website builders can provide.
For some businesses, their website is their business. They may opt for web application like project management tool, search engine and others that are examples of web applications. While some can be built using CMS (with customization), others need framework or even a custom built platform.
Another way to know what kind of website you need is to ask yourself how important it will be to your business. If your business is a brick-and-mortal company, and your website is just a way to showcase your product, you probably won't be needing a fully-fledged website to run your business.
But if you website is aiming to get more than 60 percent of your revenue, it's likely that your website needs ability to answer customer demand and have multiple functions. Even if your website is simple, if it's going to be responsible for the majority of your business generation, it's always best to hire a professional developer.to have your website customized.
Your Level Of Expertise
Website builders are the most basic tool. Your don't need any programming knowledge or coding experience to create an appealing website. They are easy to use, and with them, you can have a website running in no time.
But as described before, website builders and their tools aren't flexible.
If you have expertise in HTML, server-side and also client-side programming languages, you may opt to use CMS like WordPress. While it requires a higher comfort level with basic hosting and HTML, it's more powerful and customizable than website builders and are still relatively easy to use. To customize things, you may refer to the WordPress community, and feel free to join any discussions.
But if you have an extensive experience and expertise in programming, and your business requires a sophisticated system, you can start creating a website from bare scratch.
Your Budget
When deciding between a DIY experience or hiring a professional designer, budget is an important factor. But know that it is certainly not the only one.
Website builders, online tools or blogs can cost your from 0 to anywhere upward in creating and maintaining. But to hire professionals, the cost varies significantly.
Professional design, like many of the aspects of running a business, is an investment in your product. This investment will illustrate to your potential customers and audience. If you want them to take what you do seriously, you need to first take your brand seriously. A website and digital presence that is built with your goals as the primary focus, can pay for itself and offers better experience for your users.
When you hire a designer, you're not just hiring someone, or some company, to create a website. You're also hiring a more professional experience, customer service, and people that want to understand your unique needs. Professionals are for hired before they can help you realize your vision and goals through a collaborative process that will be apparent in your digital presence and strategy.
Conclusion
Whether or not you need to hire professionals, depends on the needs of your business and your customers.
Website builders can be a great way to create a website and having it running quickly and easy. But with less customization, your business needs more than just tools if it wants to grow. Remember that if your website is your official presence on the web, it's something that also represents your brand.
Using website builders, you need to acknowledge that other businesses or organizations have access to the same templates as you do. This will lead to others having a website that looks similar to yours. And also because builders have advertising and their own scripts built-in for the service you're using, this can be bad for your brand.
And if you want to market your website to specific audience, builders also have limited SEO capabilities that limit your marketing efforts.