All-in-one DIY Free Website Builder. These are the types of headlines attracting Australian entrepreneurs and new business owners when looking to get their first website up and running. But as tempting as it sounds, it’s wise to steer clear of these ‘tools’ and allow a professional to help you get started.
Here are our ten reasons why you shouldn’t bother trying to take it all on yourself, and why you should be focused more on applying the important SEO tips available to your marketing strategy!
10 Reasons You Shouldn’t Build Your Own Website
1. You’ll never come close to professional quality
Professionals are called what they’re called for a reason. They’re experts at what they do. That means the likelihood of you meeting the standards you’re hoping for, not to mention the sleek and sexy look your competitors’ websites have achieved, is slim to zero.
Remember professional web developers are practising their trade daily, just like you are with the very business you’re asking them to market. It may be hard letting them take the reins, but you’ll regret it if you don’t.
2. You’re starting off already behind the competition
Get started but get serious! Do you think all those competitors you’ve been rigorously researching became such a success using a free website builder? Of course not.
Not even giving yourself a fair crack by sitting a step behind in the market is the worst way you can start a business venture. Your website should appear just as professional, if not better than your competition’s to be sure you have a fighting chance off the bat.
This includes focusing on branding in every aspect of your website to provide customers with a complete experience of your business, and also creating the most streamlined and relevant user experience for visitors.
3. You know nothing (relatively), about SEO
Search Engine Optimisation in today’s business environment is arguably the most crucial ‘make or break’ aspect of online marketing.
SEO is tedious, time-consuming and isn’t learnt overnight. Even a knowledgeable and experienced professional can struggle to construct and optimise a website successfully. It involves writing your web content in such a way that satisfies search engines’ algorithms, ranking your business highly within the search engine results pages, or SERP’s.
4. No access to tools and other software
Just like any other aspect of a business, crunching the numbers when it comes to web optimisation is a must. Assessing and evaluating what is called off-page SEO analytics, is a part of web marketing that can only be done effectively with the proper researching tools and software.
It can be particularly difficult to write appealing and specific content and reach a tailored market without much of an idea on things like the keywords and phrases used by your customers when searching for your product or service.
5. You’ll be lacking security and may become vulnerable
It’s bad enough when your system catches a virus that completely shuts down your business temporarily. But imagine if one of your customers or visitors starts complaining about malware and other harmful nasties they got from your site. Your reputation could be ruined before it even gets a chance to get off the ground.
Things like dodgy scripts and plug-ins are gateways into your site for hackers and other criminals, so call that professional developer today!
There are also legal requirements of any website that is gathering customer information – so you need to ensure a privacy policy and other legal aspects as adequately covered.
6. How friendly is your site?
Self-built sites are generally quite basic, or they have features that users with less experience may not know how to optimise.
You need to ensure that your website is mobile-responsive to make it beautiful and easy to use for people on smaller screens and to be more favoured by search engines like Google.
You also need to seriously consider making your site disability friendly, with options for vision-impaired and other disabled users.
7. Advertising and other tacky ‘conditions’
It can be almost impossible to find a free website builder that won’t attach their own banners and ads to your site’s pages, and this can be detrimental to business.
These added ‘conditions’ in return for a freebie aren’t worth it in the end, as it makes you look unprofessional and makes it difficult for clients to take you seriously.
8. Restricted customisation
Unlimited customisation may not be something that crosses the mind of the website DIY-ers out there. However, it’s something to consider not only in the beginning phases but also during stages of updating with your site.
As your business evolves, you’ll also likely require larger memory capacity for features like project galleries and other interactive functions so don’t limit yourself by skimming past the bigger picture.
9. You won’t really save the time and money you think you will
One of the main reasons why you would be inclined to DIY your website is to save money, right? You feel that a professional web design would cost squillions that you don’t have, so you could probably be more economical by doing it yourself.
It is worth chatting to a few web designers for quotes and then sitting down to do some maths.
You could spend days trying to get your website done by yourself just to start, and then you will need to spend more time every time an update is needed or something changes on Google – you are almost guaranteed to spend less on a designer than you would earn using you own precious time focusing on earning money in your business.
10. When things go wrong…
It’s almost inevitable for mishaps to occur in a digital world and for the most part, you can fix them yourself. But every once in a while, a major catastrophe brings your business to a grinding halt, and without professional support, you’ll be left right up the creek without a paddle!
Domains can go down, or you could have trouble accessing dashboards or hosting issues. The point is there’s a multitude of things that can go wrong that only a pro can rectify successfully.
Final Thoughts: Why You Shouldn’t Build Your Own Website
The bottom line, and more along the lines of the cold, hard truth, is that you’re simply just not an expert web designer. While it’s possible to have a bit of knowledge you could combine with an idea, it really is always in your best interest as a business owner to leave it to the pros!
Get in touch with us today to discuss building or improving your website and learn other important tips to help your business grow!