There are numerous reasons why business owners tend to use DIY (do-it-yourself) tools to create their websites, most of the time though the decision is simply a financial one. Below I will go into detail Why DIY Websites are a risk for your business.
Using a DIY website may help you in the short term to get your brand online, however, you really need to see the bigger picture and the many future implications of doing so.
You’ve heard of the saying... “Don’t Judge a book by its cover, right?” Well, unfortunately, most people are as shallow as a frying pan. The same applies to your website appearance.
Often, your potential client will base their first impressions of you and your business, on your website. If your website is old-fashioned, cheap or tacky looking - that’s the impression given about your business as a whole. I know most of the time, this is not the case, but your potential customers might not see it this way.
Everyone thinks they’re a designer!! It’s indeed one of the only professions where everyone seems to be an expert, let’s be brutally honest very few people can truly understand good design from bad design without at least having some prior experience in this subject area. Usually, this is apparent when visiting a website that has gone this route.
It’s not only the appearance of your website that will suffer when taking the DIY website approach. I could spend all day listing problems with the average DIY website, and this may come across as slightly pedantic.
I will explain below why these so-called small details can make all the difference to your business’s success.
Do you or your business partners have knowledge of Google’s ranking algorithm, probably not?
Wishful thinking won’t get your website to the 1st page of Google or even the top 10.
A considerable amount of businesses now depend on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to attract customers to their website or their online shop window as you should think of it. However, most DIY websites are not equipped or optimized to work with the algorithms are used to rank the websites in the first place.
This may be the reason why potential customers can’t find your website.
It’s now widely documented that mobile and tablet browsing has overtaken that of desktops. Unfortunately, a lot of the DIY websites have not caught up, meaning many templates work poorly on mobile or offer no responsive functionality. Most of your visitors will have a bad experience on your website and may leave the site straight away, potentially moving on to your competitors.
Another area often overlooked is how long it takes to create your website. Even the most straightforward DIY website tools require a considerable amount of time choosing your base templates, colours, fonts, creating forms, checking links, etc.
The time spent working on your website often could be better spent chasing up leads, networking, meeting clients. It could work out more cost-effective hiring a professional than using your earning hours away from your business.
Strong security measures are a must these days, especially when storing customer information and taking online payments. Very few DIY websites offer adequate security protection to you and your potential clients.
In the beginning, a DIY website may offer you and your business a simple and basic website solution. However, as mentioned in the above points, you really should consider some of the implications of doing so.
Stop taking risks. Sit back and let a professional agency, such as ourselves to create the website you and your business need.
