Should I Hire a Web Design Agency or Do It Myself?

There are several web design platforms out there such as Squarespace or Wix that tout how they can be used by people with no website development experience to build professional looking website.  But is it really a prudent business decision to build your own site?

There are numerous reasons why using a web design agency to build your website is a much better choice than doing it yourself.  Let’s look at why.

There are other critical components to consider.  It isn’t just the website that will allow you to be successful.  The website is one component of an end to end digital strategy, and to get the results you want, they all need to work together.  Your website is linked with your brand, your marketing strategy, your target audience, and the ability to attract new website visitors. This is where “website consultancy” comes into play. You can build a website yourself and choose some colors and away you go, but do you know the implications or appeal of certain colors? Do you really understand what are the key elements of a successful website and how to maintain it with a website maintenance plan, and do you place a value on that experience and expertise?

Professional Appearance.  Many times the very first interaction the public has with your business is through visiting your website. Just as when you meet someone personally for the first time, you want to put your best foot forward and make a great impression.  A professionally designed website with the right language built by an agency is much more likely to accomplish this than doing it yourself.

Converting Visitors Into Customers. It’s one thing to get people to visit your site, it’s another to get them to contact you and ultimately become a paying customer. The right information architecture on your site will funnel the visitor towards your goals of having them call you or use the contact form.

Time Is Money. One of the major reasons businesses attempt to build and maintain their own websites is a perceived cost savings. In actuality, it ends up costing 90% of businesses more to build their own site than pay for professionals to do it. Hours spent learning the software to build a professional grade site, hours designing, re-designing, writing content, editing, re-writing…you get the picture.

Web design agencies have grown in popularity as companies come to them with their hands in the air because they are financially underwater on their site build because of all the man-hours they’ve invested.

Experience. As with any project, there come times when critical decisions must be made which will determine success or failure. It takes experience to call upon past projects and what worked/didn’t work, and then apply that experience to your project. Without that experience, many would-be web designers fail in their initial attempts to build high-quality websites.

Staying Current. Several years ago, there was a panic among site owners when Google said all websites must be as visually effective on all mobile devices as they are on desktop computers. If not, Google dictated, then these sites wouldn’t show up in the search engine results until this website design update was completed.

Web design agencies were deluged with calls from do-it-yourselfers that had no idea how to make the changes necessary.  You’ll need to stay current as a web designer to ensure your site is still relevant.

Site Maintenance. What do you do when your website crashes? If you had an agency build your site, you pick up the phone and call them immediately. They can then go to work and remedy the situation quickly because they know your site, it’s programming language, and the best way to find and fix the cause.

If you built the site yourself you’ll need to find a website design company that knows the software you used to build your site. This can take many calls, all while your site is down. The potential in lost income could be significant compared to the cost of working with a professional web design agency.

Collaboration. If you build the website yourself and have a question that you can’t answer, who can you talk to?  Many times, with do it yourself platforms, your only resource is a toll-free number staffed by overseas contractors. This can be both frustrating and time-consuming.

Agencies don’t have that problem. They have numerous qualified individuals to collaborate with, which helps them to stay on task and complete your website on time and on budget.

In summary, using a web design agency will save you much in terms of time, money, resources and frustration. Why attempt to learn something which is outside your area of expertise when competitively priced professionals are available to do the job right the first time?  It’s much better to concentrate on the areas that turn a profit for you than those that will end up costing you more in the long run.

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