Okay, you got us. We make money when people come to us to get a website built. We’re a web design company in Cleveland, Ohio – the capital of hard work and do-it-yourself sensibility, so naturally we talk to many small business owners everyday who want to build their own sites to save money and, in many cases, just to say that they did it with no help. We respect that – we really do.
But we can’t stress enough the headaches you are about to cause yourself in the process!
A website is a tool. Many business owners think of it like a pamphlet or a business card. They see a website as a necessity, and they often build one on Wix or WordPress quickly, just to say that they have a site when someone asks. What they fail to understand is that a well-done website becomes a 24-hour-a-day customer service rep. It can be a 24-hour-a-day sales person moving product while you sleep. It is the most important element in today’s marketing portfolio for any business, and yet, it’s one of the most likely expenses to be cut from a budget or be minimalized.
Unless you have been working with plumbing your whole life and understand the ins and outs of fixing pipes you probably wouldn’t repair faulty pipes in your ceiling. If you don’t understand masonry, you probably aren’t going to attempt to build a decorative brick sign for the front lawn of your business. You wouldn’t be your own delivery person without a CDL and a truck, right? So why is it that you would attempt to produce a website on your own? It’s because today’s user-friendly web building sites make creating a functional site easier than it appears. Yes, you can do it, but that doesn’t mean it should be done!
1) Google might not like your work.
You probably hear buzzwords like “keywords” and “SEO” enough to know that these are things Google uses to determine where your business should rank when someone looks up your industry on the internet. What you might not realize is that Google also wants your site to perform well. A slow site, poor programming, improperly sized images and lack of security protocol coding are all factors that can cause your site to deliver a poor user experience. Google makes money from happy users going to sites that offer a good experience and quality info. Your site might even look good when it comes up, but if it takes longer than it should, or if you don’t have your ducks in a row with things like images, Google might not only bump you down in the rankings, but you might find yourself penalized until you get everything functional.
2) You might not understand the importance of many design principals.
Putting a site together is more than just making something look nice on the page. There are many graphic design and marketing principles that go into play that you simply can’t learn without experience. Where should your calls-to-action go? What should happen “above the fold”? Where should contact info go on a page? Sure, you can learn some of these things from other sites, but every site is unique, and a true web designer knows what is going to work best for sites that need to accomplish what your site needs to do.
3) You’ll need more arrows in your quiver than just a site builder.
WordPress is a very popular site builder that can do many things to help make a great website, but even if you are using all the tools that WordPress has to offer, you will still need more weapons to win the fight! You’ll need photo-editing software, premium plug-ins, rank-tracking software, automation software and many other software platforms to make a site look like the ones you are trying to emulate. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you are equipped to build a professional site without a host of graphic design and computer development programs.
4) You’ve got other things to do with your time than build a website.
It should take you a while to build a site. If it doesn’t, you didn’t do it right. With that said, when you are the accountant, marketing manager, customer service team, CEO, CFO and whatever other titles you maintain, it’s hard to add web designer, developer and programmer to the list. Even with a whole team working on it, it can take 6-8 weeks or more to build a quality site. If you’ve got that kind of time on your hands to devote to a site, you might want to find some other ways to spend it, because your business might not be around when you get your site done!
5) What happens when you are done?
You’ve built your site and you’re just waiting for the money to roll in. But, what happens when you have a technical issue? Are you going to get the kind of support you need to adjust? What about long hold times with a support team? What about on-going updates like adding content to your site? That includes everything from blogs to new pages and products to new images and videos. And what about errors that are found in Google Search Console that are impacting your site’s performance? Wait a second – who’s going to run the Google Search Console tests to see if there is a problem in the first place? There’s more to a site than just building it. If you have ever built a home or lived in new construction, you know the old saying – your work is never done! You’ll need help, and an agency can be a long-term partner well beyond the initial site construction.
If you think any of these five risks might cause you difficulty in building your site, call in the reinforcements. Company 119 can help you build a site, and we can also help you incorporate that site into a digital marketing strategy so that it’s making you money and becoming a source of income and not just a drain on your budget. Contact Company 119 today and find out why we are Cleveland’s one-stop shop for web design and digital marketing!
