5 ½ Reasons Why You Shouldn't Build Your Own Website

Many templated website builders advertise free or low-cost services. However, you are likely to need additional tools, such as plug-ins, and extra features, that will incur further costs. You are also likely to be charged a monthly fee for web hosting and domain registration, which is very often charged as a lump sum payable at the beginning of the contract. 

 

A ‘free’ website may actually mean you start out on a free trial before becoming subject to steep monthly charges, or that your entire site is littered with ugly banners promoting the website builder’s services unless you upgrade to an expensive hosting package. 

 

Before you know it, your cheap website has cost you nearly as much as the price of one built and designed by professionals. And that is before you calculate the cost of your time that will be taken to build it. 

Have you ever attempted a seemingly simple DIY job that ‘will only take a couple of hours’, only to find that several hours later it still isn’t finished? The job that a skilled and experienced professional would have done better and in less than half the time! The same is true of building a website. 

 

Creating an effective website is hard work, and it takes a long time to build a great website. It requires skills in design, copywriting, programming and SEO know-how. If these aren’t within your skill set, you will have to learn them as you go along. That takes time. Lots of time. 

 

Instead of spending endless hours trying to build and perfect your website, invest time on doing what you do best – running your business. 

First impressions count. According to CXL, specific studies show that it takes just 0.05 seconds for users to form an opinion about your website that determines whether they like your site or not, whether they’ll stay or leave. 

 

That first impression depends on many factors. A positive impression is not likely to be achieved from a one-size-fits-all templated self-build website. The fact that self-built websites often look poorly designed, are difficult to navigate and appear identical to many other websites further reduces the chances of them retaining website visitors long enough for them to engage and make contact with you. 

Concerns about what first impressions your self-built website creates, makes the assumption that people will actually find your website in the first place. 

 

A self-build site is likely to have very little capability for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), which will effectively render your website virtually invisible to potential customers searching on the web. There is far more that goes into being found online than someone who isn’t a website professional would realise. You have to make sure that the search engines can find you, and when they do find you, that they like what they see. This brings us back to the skill set of design, copywriting, programming and SEO know-how that we mentioned in point 2. 

 

Also, websites with shared hosting, which is standard for DIY site builders, are typically plagued by slow page loading times. This further reduces the likelihood of your site ranking on Google, and will also cause potential customers to leave your website in frustration due to the poor user experience. 

 

Self-built websites are often not fully responsive which means that they are not mobile friendly. According to Ofcom, 66% of people in the UK now use their mobile phone to browse the Internet. That figure is only likely to increase, so what is the point of creating a website that is hard to view on a mobile device? 

If you are not experienced at creating websites, there is a strong likelihood that you will need technical support at some point. And that will almost certainly come at a cost! 

 

Website support will not normally be included with a self-build website, so when you experience a problem with your site and require help, it’s going to cost you, or at the very least take up a significant amount of your time as you spend hours trawling through online FAQ sections and tutorials. 

 

What happens in the event of a hardware failure? What will you do if your website shuts down? Will your site be backed up daily to ensure your data is safe? What security is in place to protect against hacking? Hackers love to insert viruses which could affect anyone who visits your website.  

 

If you do need help and support you will not be receiving a personal service. The most common scenario you can expect when you come to seek help is being put through to an international call centre, meaning long waiting times for any website changes or fixes to be carried out and a waste of valuable time and money for you. 

At it'seeze Horsham we have seen plenty of half finished websites. The business owners thought it would be a good idea to build their own site to save money. Unfortunately they didn’t finish the site because it was too complicated, and took longer than expected.  

 

Some of these sites haven’t, and never will go live. They lay in cyber space, an undetected waste of time and money. Others, however, are live; uncompleted projects portraying a less than professional impression of the company they supposedly advertise. Just as well they will rarely get found! 

At the end of the day, building a successful website requires a wide range of skills, and realistically it’s impossible for you to become an expert at everything that’s involved. That’s why when it comes to your website – your key marketing tool - it pays to go to the professionals. 

 

Providing experience and insight, a web design company can offer you a professional design, expert guidance, face-to-face support, full control of your content, and above all else, a high-quality website that generates enough traffic, and ultimately income, to effectively pay for itself and more. 

 

At it'seeze Horsham we’re here to help you find success on the web. Don’t hold the growth of your brand back with a self-build – contact us today and let us help your business to thrive online.