Cheap. Easy. Instant. If building your own website seems too good to be true, that’s because it is. There are hundreds of website builders out there, and it can be tempting to view creating your own site as a quick-fix solution to getting your business online, but the reality of a self-build website is often far from ideal.
A modern-day business essential, your site needs to look professional, rank well in Google search results, be easily navigable, and ultimately get results – here are our top reasons why a self-build website isn’t even worth considering if you're really serious about promoting yourself on the web:
1. Cost
While many templated website builders may advertise free or low-cost services, the fact is that this rarely holds true, not to mention that the time involved in personally building and maintaining your site all comes at an indirect cost to your business.
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.
As well as this, you will often encounter several hidden costs – for example, if you want to add plug-ins, apps, or extra features you are likely to be charged a considerable amount, whilst web hosting and domain registration will incur an additional fee per month on top of the standard website costs.
2. Appearance
First impressions count. In order for potential customers to see you as a trustworthy company, it is crucial that the look and feel of your website conveys your credibility as a professional business.
Created with one-size-fits-all templates, self-build sites often look amateurly designed, are difficult to navigate, and appear identical to the other thousands, if not millions, of websites online that are using the same generic template.
With extremely limited options for customizing and enhancing the appearance, your templated site will leave you failing to stand out from the competition.
3. Performance
Proving that you really do only get what you pay for, self-build websites contain serious design flaws that will end up hindering you in the long run. Simply put, they just don’t work.
Likely to have very little capability for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), your self-build site will effectively render your business virtually invisible to customers on the web. Even if your website does include built-in tools to help you optimize it for search engines, unless you yourself have a sufficient knowledge of SEO, it can be a difficult and time-consuming process to understand without professional advice.
On top of this, websites with shared hosting – as is standard for DIY site builders – are typically plagued by slow page loading times, causing potential customers to leave your website in frustration due to the poor user experience.
4. Support
Unsurprisingly, the level of assistance you can expect to receive when you opt for a self-build website is often non-existent. Website support will not normally be included, meaning that when you inevitably 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.
As well as this, you will not be receiving a personal service – the most common scenario you can expect to encounter when you come to seek help is being put through to an international call center, meaning long waiting times for any website changes or fixes to be carried out and a waste of valuable time and money for you.
5. Time
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither should your website be. Whilst the thought of getting your site built in less than 24 hours has its appeal, the truth is a quality website takes time to create. Normally the first place that people will go to learn about your business, your website is an important investment, and for this reason it requires time and effort to make it look and function how you want it to.
However, you’d be wrong to assume that this means you yourself should be spending hour after hour working on your site. Creating an effective website is hard work - at the very least it involves design and SEO know-how – and for this reason self-builds are incredibly inefficient. Instead of exerting all your energy building a website, your time is much better spent doing what you do best – running your business.
6. Experience
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 TheMillCreek.net, 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.
