Design it yourself websites are becoming increasingly popular. It is estimated that thousands of businesses use a build it yourself website builder each week. There are many benefits and many drawbacks to designing your own website. If done properly your website has a chance for a decent search engine ranking. If done poorly your website will never get the recognition it deserves and potential customers will not be able to find your business. If customers can’t find you on the internet, your website is as valuable as the price you paid for it. So if you choose to design your own business website, do plenty of homework and plan on investing a lot of time in the designing, development, marketing, and maintenance of your website.
Free “Do it Yourself” Websites The Good & The Bad
There are hundreds, if not thousands of companies on the internet that are offering low cost websites that you can build yourself. Essentially what they are offering you is a platform and then send you off and running into the great world of website design. Choosing if this option is right for you can end up hurting your business more than helping it if you make the wrong decision. A simple sentence or overuse of keywords can quickly get your website banned from top search engines. Imagine how little traffic your website would get if your potential customers could not even find you on the internet. If you are the least bit nervous or skeptical about building your website it may be best for you to hire a website designer. If my car blew an engine I might be tempted to work on it myself, but the better result is going to be for me to take that car to the mechanic because that is their specialty. The bottom line is if you feel comfortable building your own website you should make a stab at it. However, for the majority of business owners it is best to hire a website designer.
Having Your Website Published On The Internet Is Not Free
While the platform to design your website is free, there are still multiple costs of the do it yourself packages. First and most commonly are the website hosting fees. It is free to design your website, but acutally making it live on the internet involves website hosting, which doesn’t apply to the free website design offer. You can expect to pay anywhere from $10 to upwards of $30 a month for the hosting of your website. So while you may be saving a few hundred dollars up-front by not hiring a website designer, you are still paying for your so called free website package.
Know How To Market A Build it Yourself Website
Now that you have designed your free website the next step is to market the website. There was a famous quote in the movie Field of Dreams “If you build it, they will come”, that is not true with website design. If this were 20 years ago, that quote might apply. However, now in 2010 there are millions of websites out there and thousands of them are going to be competing with you for search engine rankings. A search engine ranking is what number the search engine ranks your website. The goal for any new website would be to have a ranking in the top 100 results, which would put you on one of the first ten pages of search engine results. If your website is ranking past page 10, the chances of potential customers finding your website are slim to none. What free website design packages do not offer you is the best way to market your website. For someone who is not familiar with search engine optimization, keyword marketing, meta tags, or content analysis, then chances are your site will be one of the other thousands of websites in your industry that are not ranking in the top 100 results. You may have designed one of the most professional looking sites offered by a free website template design company, but not having a way for your customers to find you could cost you the loss or closure of your business.
Professional Website Design Is More Affordable Than Ever
Hiring a website designer to professionally design your website can run you as little as a few hundred dollars. This is a one time fee to have a professional website custom designed to your business with keyword analysis, search engine optimization, and attention to search engine attractive content. My company, The Website Shack, offers complete custom designed websites for a few hundred dollars and offers one for the most reliable and lowest priced website hosting services in the industry. The benefit of hiring a website designer is that we are trained in building websites to succeed in the search engine rankings. This is our area of specialty whether you have a plumbing business or a dental practice. The professional design and marketing of your website will provide your business with the highest level of visibility, and the ultimate increased success of your business. It wasn’t too long ago that companies were charging thousands to have their business website designed. This is an area that was not impacted by inflation, because higher quality designed websites are now available for custom design for just a one time fee of a few hundred dollars. Every day more and more of us are throwing away our paper telephone books and using the internet to resource companies and products. Having your business listed on the internet, regardless of your location or industry could be the only exposure your business gets to potential customers.
Decide What Is Best For You and Your Business
If you are looking to simply have a web presence for your business where quality of design and search engine rankings, then a design it yourself website may be the route for you to go. As we discussed with monthly hosting fees after your free design, there is nothing really free about a free website builder. Hiring a web designer for a few hundred dollars will give your site a more professional look and increased search engine visibility for your business. Also consider hiring a company for your search engine optimization and local internet marketing of you design your own website.