Are you thinking of making your own website to boost your business?
Making your own website has never been easier these days thanks to the help of online tools such as WordPress, one of the best DIY websites out there. And with enough practice, you can become proficient in making any kind of website that you need.
There are, however, certain risks questions that come along with DIY websites. If you’re a big company relying on your website for your business, how can you be certain that your website is interactive and won’t crash?
And some more questions too, like, with more and more people using accessing the internet through mobile devices, how can you be sure that your website is mobile-compatible?
Here is a list of some risks that come when you’re making your own website.
What are DIY Websites?
First off, let’s get you up to speed on what DIY websites are.
The term refers to making a site on your own, without the help of a professional designer. Many DIY sites utilize templates to get started since these require little to no coding. Most of the brick-and-mortar websites available on the internet are free, utilizing a CMS like WordPress as a launching pad.
Sites like these are easy to use and provide you with readymade designs for your web pages.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to the risks that come along when you use one of these web builders.
1. Amateur Aesthetics
Making your own website with the tools online can be simple, they can also appear simplistic.
The first thing customers will notice when they visit your website is the overall design of the front page. If the page looks boring, dull, and have poor design, your visitors will most likely not bother to explore your web page.
A well-designed website needs to have a good combination of color. It needs the proper design elements to represent what you are selling. Also, having one or more photos or videos that are relevant to your website and products will help out a lot.
With the trends and tastes changing every now and then, changing the designs of your website to keep up will take up a lot of your time.
2. Lack of Functionality
Functionality is on a direct link with aesthetics in the sense that having a good, functioning website will have a lot of displays such as moving visuals for your customers.
Building a website on your own will prove tricky when you plan on having multiple tabs and small intricacies on it. This will require you to have knowledge of programming for them to prove effective.
If you make your own website, things will not go well when you preview it for the first time. Some plugins will not work right, widgets will not appear in the proper order, etc.
Sometimes, your entire website will malfunction, or some links will appear broken. You can spend your time trying to fix them all, but that will use up much of your precious time.
3. Low Security
Having low security in DIY websites strike the unaware hard and fast. Most people do not realize that keeping your website secure means that you have to be up to date in software.
This means that you’re going to be on the constant lookout for the newest updates, else you have to deal with people hacking your website.
With all that time spent on the lookout for updates and fixing your website’s security, you will get to spend less time on your business. This will take away time you could have spent earning money for yourself online.
4. No Professional SEO
While there are a lot of things on the list of the pros and cons of WordPress, one of the biggest cons it has is its lack of built-in SEO.
SEO (search engine optimization) is now an absolute necessity when it comes to having an online business. Having SEO means that your website has better visibility in online search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Most do it yourself websites don’t come with the tools and features to optimize search results.
Without SEO, it will become less likely that people will even see your website on the first few pages of Google. This will mean that your competition will get ahead of you in sales.
Taking into account that Google, the most used search engine in the world, changes its algorithms in a regular basis, keeping up with the changes and trying to fit them onto your website on your own will take up a lot of your time and decrease your store’s productivity.
That said, WordPress does have plugins that boost SEO but most DIY templates don’t come with these. Only professional designers who purchased the licenses to use these tools will provide them to you.
4. Decreased Productivity
As you might have seen above, all the other risks point to having your productivity go down. That’s because this is one if not the biggest risk when you decide to make a website on your own.
Making your own website means that you will have to be the one to do everything on your own. Including, designing your web pages, choosing among the myriad of layouts, adding and removing certain content, and test the functionality of your site.
Having your productive time taken away by things like tweaking your security or updating your designs means that your store will have less uptime online. Thus, you will have fewer customers overall.
Unless you’re a person who’s quick to pick up on mistakes and quicker to learn how to fix them, making your own website carries a lot of risks with it. All that said, there is a simple solution to all that, hiring a professional website designer.
Web designers provide you with a lot of services that can make your life simpler and help you manage your time better. While hiring one can cost you a bit more money, web designers can boost your web page and your website’s aesthetic, online visibility, and security.
Here are some of the things web designers can do for and provide you if you decide to outsource to them.
5. Use of Premium Tools
Professional web designers will often have access to premium tools, such as Divi on WordPress, as their job will depend on their equipment. This means that they have the tools necessary to give out a better functioning website than most free users.
Not only will they have the tools to build a better website, they will often have the tools to make them look better and more informative, too. Tools like Illustrio, or The iSpot will give your web pages more images or graphics to make it more appealing to the eyes.
They also have premium tools like TrackDuck, and Red Pen, that make it easier for you to gain feedback from your clients or to help you collaborate with others who have ideas for your business.
6. Regular Maintenance
Web designers will offer to perform frequent maintenance on any website they’re working on, checking if things are in order, links are working, security is up to date, etc. Allowing you to have more time to spend on your business.
They will also make an effort to provide you with the best service there is, as their reputation depends on it. So, you can be sure that when you hire a professional programmer, you can rest easy knowing that your web pages are in safe hands.
Professionals also have a hand in dealing with hackers. So, rest assured, even if your website gets hacked, help from a professional web builder will solve the problem and return your site to normal.
7. Experience and Skill
While regular maintenance and having access to premium tools are great benefits when you hire a professional web designer. The biggest contribution they can provide you is their experience and skill.
You don’t have to spend resources to train yourself or other people; a web designing company already has experienced and trained employees to focus on this task while you and your business can focus on what you should be doing: selling products.
Professional web designers will know what your website needs with one look. Whether it’s a simple brochure site, an e-commerce site for financial and/or business transactions, or a business site.
A professional web designer has experience that can prove useful to you, like knowing the differences between a web page vs website, how to use plugins and widgets and the best ones to use for your web pages.
Professionals also have more skill when it comes to the technical aspects of web designing. They can help you with your SEO, even find ways for you to set up a local one for even more visibility online. And they can make sure that your device can be mobile- compatible, too.
Know and Understand the Risks of DIY Websites
While making your own web page is easier with the help of DIY websites, there is no 100% sure way to eliminate the risks involved in making one on your own.
And with the global internet usage expected to rise even further in coming years, it’s time for you to make sure that your site stays relevant by hiring a professional web designer. After all, no online web tool can substitute experience and skill.
If you’re looking for more help with online technicalities, don’t hesitate to contact us now.
