Do I need to hire a web designer?
Website Designer vs Website Builder
You may think that being a web design studio, we would recommend you hire a web designer to build your website for you. But this is not always the best advice for a small business. Sometimes it is better to start with something that you can build and manage yourself to keep start-up costs low. Once your business is making a bit of money and your time is taken up running your business, at that stage you will inevitably need to hire someone to take your website to the next level.
Things to know about using Web Designer
Pros
- A web designer understands how a website should be structured to perform at its best
- A web designer will create a bespoke website tailored specifically for your business
- A web designer will know the ins and outs of SEO to ensure your website ranks well on search engines
- A web designer can do in a short amount of time what can take the DIYer several days to figure out
- Having a web designer looking after your website will give you time to focus on running your business
Cons
- The cost involved will be higher and you may need to wait for changes to be completed
Things to know about using a Website Builder
Pros
- A website builder can allow a website to be set up at a very low cost and in a short amount of time
- A website builder provides the business owner with full creative freedom over the appearance of the website
- A website builder allows the business owner the ability make changes without having to wait for the agency to schedule in the work
- A website builder required very little technical ability to create a basic website
Cons
- Will not allow for a custom designed, professional looking website due to website builder limitations
- Will not perform as well due to slow loading times and limitations to SEO strategy
In Summary
As you can see, there are pros and cons to both courses of action and it really depends on the individual circumstances of you and your small business which way you go. But in the end, having a web designer on board provides the technical support and peace of mind that your website will perform at its optimum for your business. If you feel confident in your abilities to tackle designing your own website and learning as you go, then a website builder will give your business a great start. Inevitably a web designer will become a partner to your business at some stage, so it is a matter of when rather than if!
