10 reasons why designing your own website can lose you money!

There are plenty of low cost and free website building programmes around and it’s very tempting to go down that route to save money. The problem is that designing your own website may actually LOSE YOU MONEY!

Our friends at ADI Ninja explain why:

1. The number of hours you have to put into it, would be better off put into actually teaching people to drive – which after all is your area of expertise.

2.  DIY websites rarely rank well in Google. Test it out for yourself – do a search and see how many DIY sites rank well – my bet is very few if any. Many people may have heard of keywords but it will require knowledge and expertise to utilise them correctly. Poor keyword selection can mean that you are missing out on your potential clients or can even get you website PENALISED! A professional website with good use of keywords that are used correctly in the text of your site (and not abused) will get you far more visitors to your site.

3. Many “build your own website” apps produce bloated code in order to make them easy for you to build. This makes your site slow to load. Bad for your customers and bad for your ranking in Google where page speed is an important ranking factor.

4. A professionally designed site not only looks good but it will be designed with a good call to action, and appropriately prominent ways for people to contact you.

5. Many website builder apps as well as cheap software such as Serif Webplus produce websites that are not responsive and so fail the Google mobile friendly test.

6. Many cheap offers start cheap but then get more expensive after 12 months, or you have to pay for expensive upgrades for basic features.

7. It’s not just about designing the site and adding some text. It’s about understanding what Google wants, what your visitors want and ensuring your site can deliver.

8. What worked with websites two years ago may not work now – don’t rely on second hand out of date information.

9. A web designer will look at your ideas and your online presence and give objective advice.

10. Designing your own website is like a pupil teaching themselves to drive. It can be done, but will take far longer – and will they end up a safe driver?