Should You Be Building Your Website Yourself?
Some tasks are better left to the experts. When I tried to change my own car’s oil, I discovered this the hard way. When it comes to creating a website, though, the situation is a little more tricky.
So, should you construct your own website or hire someone to do it for you?
The good news is that creating your own website has never been simpler. While knowing how to write was formerly needed, hundreds of easy tools now exist that allow you to create your own website without knowing how to code—and they're quite inexpensive.
But before, ask yourself the following questions:
1. How complicated do you need your website to be?
This is quite important. You may create a simple one-page website with an email address, phone number, and even your company address if that's all you require. You may utilize a variety of website builders and one-page templates to get up and running quickly.
Take a look at some of the more complex features that you'll find on corporate websites, such as:
E-commerce
Appointment booking
Complicated forms
Social Media Integrations
You might be able to discover an appropriate plug-in (essentially a software that does the setup for you), but you could also hire someone.
2. How much time do you have on your hands?
This is an important factor that may operate both ways. On the one hand, if you're in a hurry and simply need a simple one-page site, it's usually preferable to make it yourself. However, if you need your website up and running quickly and with a lot of features, you should probably hire someone.
Having additional time provides you with two benefits. First and foremost, the opportunity to take it slowly and construct it yourself. You will be able to develop a more complicated site without having to rush. The second point is that even if you pay someone, time will save you money since whatever that has to be done will take longer.
3. How much money are you willing to spend?
It's a common misperception that creating a website is costly. The truth is that getting online with a website that will put your MySpace page to shame has never been cheaper or easier. Website builders like Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly may be as little as $5 per month. More pricier platforms, such as Shopify, start at $30 USD a month (we're not sure why a Canadian firm charges in US dollars, either) and provide a lot more e-commerce features.
Even if you want to employ a developer to design your website, most now use templates as a starting point, which cuts the cost greatly when compared to starting from scratch. There's no need to start from scratch with platforms like WordPress, Shopify, or Drupal when there are hundreds of templates accessible.
A decent figure for having a website constructed by a developer is around $5,000, depending on how much information you're adding or how much customization you require. Still, it's a tiny price to pay for something so important to your company.
4. Do you have a strong desire to learn?
Do you enjoy learning new things, or does the concept of computer code make you feel sick to your stomach?
Learning to code, even if only a little, is a useful talent to have. Learning basic HTML and CSS is a fun side project that can open up new possibilities for you, such as tweaking the templates available on website builders, building a simple HTML website from scratch (excellent for a personal website), or experimenting with smaller platforms like Ghost.
5. How important is your website to your company?
Every company should have an online presence. However, the nature of your business may influence how mission-critical your website is.It's not as hazardous to develop your own website if it's mostly for marketing purposes and you don't sell anything directly from it.
You should probably employ someone if your website has to be a highly tuned conversion machine with 100 percent uptime. Slow loading times, 404 errors, security concerns, certifications, and other risks that might affect the performance of your website are commonly overlooked by amateurs.
If you're creating your own website, keep in mind that you'll need an SSL certificate.
6. Are you the picky type?
For all you perfectionists out there, this is crucial. You should probably employ someone if you're the type of person who gets irritated if things don't line up properly on the page, if the color is a shade off from what you want, or if the menu navigation isn't as sleek as you'd want.
Even website builders, with their fantastic layouts, might give you fits if you're a perfectionist. Templates aren't always as flexible as some people would want, and there isn't always a simple way to make them perform what you want unless you know HTML and CSS.
CONCLUSION
So, what is it going to be? Are you ready to roll up your sleeves and create your own website? Or are you going to entrust it to the professionals? Asking yourself a few important questions might assist you in making the best option for your company.
While we're here, we'd like to offer one piece of advice from the.CA domain registry: if you're going to hire someone to develop your website, make sure you register the domain name yourself, using your own contact and login details. That way, even if your partnership with your web designer/agency ends, you'll have access to your domain settings.
