Is it worth getting a professional to build your website? Our totally unbiased guide…
You may wonder, is it worth getting a professional to build your website? So let us preface by saying there’s nothing wrong with building a website yourself. It can be a fun (if potentially a frustrating) project to take on. Put the time in and you should see good results come out.
However, a professional is a professional for a reason. They know how to design a good looking, functional website. They know what they’re doing. They have valuable experience. And frankly, getting professional assistance with your website saves you a bit of a headache.
If you have the budget, there are many reasons it is worth investing in your website and getting professional to create one for you.
- Your website is your shopfront (now more so than ever)
- A professional can format it correctly so that Google likes it
- They can make sure it looks good on mobile
- They’re experienced in making it look professional
- Some professionals are offering free websites at the minute
Your website is your shopfront (now more so than ever)
Imagine you’re walking down a highstreet in a city you’ve never visited before.You’re more likely to go into a shop if someone’s taken the time to dress the window well, and so more motivated to make a purchase. You’re less likely to go into a shop if the windows are unwashed, it’s poorly lit and you can’t work out what it’s selling.
Websites work the same way. Think of web designers as professional window dressers. A professional will specify an informative meta description (that little bit of blurb that shows up under a Google result to tell you what that website is), so that a customer is more likely to click on your site. A professional can then make sure that you’ve got an attractive, fast loading homepage. This makes a huge difference in your customer deciding whether they will stay, or quickly leave your site.
A professional can format it correctly so that Google likes it
Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about designing your website so that Google understands what it’s about. The better Google understands and likes your website, the higher it will rank it.
So, if you’re a plumber in Yorkshire that’s invested in SEO and someone searches for ‘Yorkshire Plumber’, your site will be closer to the first page of Google. This means you stand a better chance of being discovered by a greater volume of potential customers.
There are many elements that contribute to SEO and it’s a constantly changing, rather complicated field. You can of course have a crack at it yourself. As a very basic start, choose your keyword (in this case, Yorkshire Plumber) and make sure you’ve mentioned it once in your header, in a subheading and a couple of times in your text.
They can make sure it looks good on mobile
People are using their mobiles to browse the web just as often as they are using desktop computers. This means that your site needs to look good and be functional across devices with many different sizes of screens. Concentrating on getting your website looking good just for desktop browsers would be a mistake.
Professional web designers know how to make sure that your website is just as good at attracting customers in its mobile state as in its desktop form.
They’re experienced in making it look professional
People’s aesthetic opinions differ, especially when they’re coming from a subjective viewpoint. Your kid may think their macaroni art rivals Van Gogh’s greatest creations. You might not be quite so sure. The same may be true between your opinion of the website you’ve built and your customer’s opinion of the website you’ve built.
A professional will have experience in branding. They spend all their time looking at and creating websites, so it makes sense that they have a more objective stance on what works when it comes to websites.
Not only can they make your website look good, they can make it work well too. Is there a certain interactive element you had in mind for your site? As long as you give your designer a detailed brief of what it is you want from your site, they’re likely to be able to create it for you.
Is it worth getting a professional to build your website for free?
Some professionals are offering free websites at the minute. Those professionals would be us! No brainer.
We’re Shake and Speare, a digital marketing agency who specialises in working with construction and trade businesses – specifically building websites for trades – but work with companies in all sectors.
With the current nightmare that’s going on, we know there’s lots of you trying to get or bolster your online presence. We’re more than happy to build you a quick and easy one page website hosted on our servers, for free.
This will be a quick start point for you. We’re working on a first come first served basis and have capacity for 4 or 5 a week.
If you want a chat (about this, or anything else online), please feel free to give us a call on mobile or text 01174 418 681, or email on enquiries@shakeandspeare.com
