When Do-It-Yourself Web Design Isn’t Enough

There are many situations in which a do-it-yourself approach is cost effective and often rewarding. Web design isn’t necessarily one of them.

These days, many businesses rely on a bare bones website to make up their complete online profile. That’s a big mistake. As a Utah web designer, I see this for both local businesses and those targeting a much larger national or global audience. They often rely on basic, inflexible templates to put up useful contact information, often using ClipArt graphics or other easily accessible design elements to complete the picture.

For a time, this may be acceptable for your audience. If you’re just developing your company, or you haven’t yet settled on a logo and overall branding strategy, a basic, do-it-yourself website can act as a placeholder until you get something more formal set up. For long-term website design, though, this plan rarely stands up. You may not think others care, but the image your website projects really matters.

Time Value of Design

There are also issues related to the amount of time it takes you to build a site versus the value you get out of it. A professional website takes creativity, planning, developing and maintaining, and your time is valuable — probably a lot more valuable than you realize.

Think about it this way: if the plumbing or electricity in your house were to go out, you probably wouldn’t think about going into the crawlspace with your toolbox and how-to guide unless you had a working knowledge of what to fix and how to fix it. That’s because without the right knowledge, you might end up making things worse or spending countless hours working on something that will require the hand of a professional in the end, anyway.

Website design might not be as pressing of an emergency as a burst pipe, but the same premise holds true. The amount of time it will take you to learn how to do it and apply your knowledge in a way that yields positive results is probably not proportionate to the value of your time as a whole. Most people hire a lawyer rather than study the law for a personal case, and most people hire an accountant rather than wade through mountains of tax paperwork every April 15. That’s because they know they’ll get greater benefits for their money by outsourcing to a professional, rather than taking time from their day job to do it themselves.

Putting Your Trust in Expert Utah Web Designers

You are an expert at what you do, and web designers are experts at what they do. And because web design is a constantly changing and growing field, it’s an area of expertise that requires continuing education and an ever-expanding skill set. If you’re not sure whether or not you’re ready to make the leap from homespun website design to something a little more polished, consider the following:

• Weigh your hourly value against the amount of time it will take you to build and maintain your website. Which one makes more fiscal sense in the long run?
• Are you ready to tackle things like SEO, coding, blogging, and branding? These are all the hallmarks of advanced web design. With the right professional, you can get all this in a relatively low-cost package.
• How important is the image you project? Just about every consumer is online these days, and they’re able to spot the difference between a self-made website and one that has the professional finish that comes from hiring a web designer.

One of the best things about hiring Utah web designers like Interlinx Group is that we can give you the best of both worlds. Our most popular websites incorporate a do-it-yourself element, in that you can easily update your own web pages or create new ones if you like. At the same time, we’ll make you look good — and all for a price that is a lot lower than you probably expect.