When starting a new business, it’s likely that one of the first things on your to-do-list is to get a new website done. Or you might be an existing business who needs a bit of a ‘website makeover’ due to growth or rebranding. So, you do a quick Google search for ‘website design’ and are shocked to find that the price to use a web design agency is a little higher than you expected, especially if you have a relatively low marketing budget.
With web design becoming increasingly more accessible to non-web designers through software such as Wix and Squarespace, you might be tempted to just sign up for an account and take on the project of building your new website yourself. Here we explain why that’s always not such a good idea, and why forking out for that initial expense will probably save you time and money later down the line.
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1. Your Website is Your Biggest Sales Tool
Put it this way, would you entrust someone from a non-sales related background with the task of managing your sales team? Probably not. This same thought process should also be applied to your website.
Your website is often the first thing potential customers search for when they hear about your business. In a lot of cases, it’s how they discover your business in the first place, and in some cases, such as if you run an online store, your website is your business itself. It’s where consumers will interact with your brand and is usually their reference for making buying decisions (that’s if they’re not doing the buying on your website itself), which is why it’s vital to get it right.
The best website design is not only measured by the quality of your content, or even how it looks. It’s measured by how easy it is to navigate and how quickly users can find what they’re looking for, which can be the difference between someone doing business with you or not.
If you don’t have a background in web design, you probably won’t be considering the different ways that people will potentially interact with your website when you’re designing it. This relates to user experience (also called user journey) and covers everything from where and how your content and images are displayed on the page, all the way down to the choice of colours in your design. A good web design agency will prioritise the user experience when designing a website to ensure the greatest chance of ROI (in ways you probably never would have thought of yourself).
2. Code is Not Dead
The key selling point for DIY website builders is that you no longer need to be an expert in HTML to build a website, however, that doesn’t mean that building your own website won’t require any technical expertise at all. Buying a WordPress template will only get you so far – you’ll probably still need to use a little HTML and custom CSS here and there to customize the template to suit your business (and you’ll definitely want to do this if you want to avoid ending up with a website that looks exactly the same as another company, or even worse, a competitor).
Coding aside, if you’re a non-web designer, you probably won’t be thinking about other technical aspects of design such as how the size of the images you’re using will affect page speed, or how different elements of your design will appear on a mobile device. A good web designer will ensure that everything is in place to allow for the most optimized user experience no matter how it’s being accessed, whether it be via desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile, or all four.
3. A Web Design Agency is Always up to Date With the Latest Trends
Web designers and developers will be constantly looking for new ways to improve website design and user experience, that’s if they’re not the ones conceptualizing these new trends themselves. There will be new functions and features that as a non-web designer you probably won’t know about, which could be stopping you from standing out against your competition.
Whatever you want to achieve with your website, a website designer will often know the most effective way to execute it.
4. Not Everyone Has an Eye for Website Design
Let’s face it, if you run a plumbing company, creative design probably isn’t your main strength.
Web designers, on the other hand, are Masters of Design. They know how to make something “good” look exceptional.
A web designer will also be able to look at your brand identity (your logo, fonts, colours and other creative assets) and ensure that your website reflects that. Many small businesses will create their own website internally only to produce something that doesn’t match their wider brand identity.
The psychology behind good, consistent branding means that when done right, a consumer is likely to better engage with your brand – so maintaining consistency across your marketing materials is key. Aside from that, inconsistent branding can make your business look unprofessional.
5. Time is Money
If you’re not a website designer, chances are you’ve never made a website before, and if you have, it probably didn’t turn out to look as professional as you’d have liked – right? That’s because learning how to build a decent, professional-looking and converting website requires time and skill.
Learning how to use build-it-yourself software won’t happen overnight either – they usually come with various features and functions that you’ll need to learn to navigate. Even then, you could end up spending hours of your time building a page only to find that a certain element doesn’t work properly, by which point your time and effort has been wasted and you may end up having to consult a web designer or agency to step in and fix the problem anyway.
So, if you’re thinking about building your own website to save money, you might want to reconsider. 9 times out of 10, if you’re a business looking to grow, appear professional and make the most out of your website, which we presume you are, it probably pays work with a web design agency. Always remember – the seemingly hefty price you will pay upfront is more likely to save you time now and costly fixes in the future, and ultimately land you a better ROI from your website in the long run.
Luckily, our web designers have years of experience in the field, so whether you’re a new business looking to create your first website or have an existing business that needs a new look, you’re in the right hands. Get in touch today to see what we can do for you.
