DIY Websites… The Right Choice?

I remember 25 years ago when I took my first programming class. It was QBASIC bought by Bill Gates for $23.50. Majoring in programming, part of my studies involved learning html. The internet was exploding at the time and it was cool to be able to create your own webpage.

Today, the web industry has immensely progressed and you can do things with websites that you could never think about doing 25 years ago.

Those in the industry know that it’s impossible to build a great professional website without knowing anything about webdesign and development.

The reason why I wrote this article was to inform people of the pros and cons of the DIY self market regarding websites and website design.

The DIY market is like telling a 6 year old, ok we have a DIY kit to change out the alternator for our car. Now go out and change the alternator. Or it’s like telling an average Jane to go out, by a professional camera to go out and take professional photographs. Not going to happen.You have to know things like angles, framing, aperature, exposure, and other sorts. I can tell you that I have some knowledge of photography but I don’t have the expertise and experience to go out and proclaim myself to be a professional photographer. I know enough to manipulate and adjust graphics and photos for webdevelopment but not enough to do photography.

The same thing goes for web development. Creating and developing a website takes hours and hours of time. A lot of that time goes into research for relevant content, graphics and photos pertaining to your site. Integration is also a huge part of building websites. If you’re wanting a specific plugin or program to work in your website, it’s not always compatible or easily install ready for your site. You have to know work arounds and sometimes know if there is no solution currently to a specific item  you may want because of incompatibility.

For those that come to me and tell me that they’ve gone the DIY route in building their website, I immediately know what’s involved and know that they’ll be back in a few months because the DIY route doesn’t do what they want it to do. I just tell them, “Call me when you want me to build your website professionally.” It usually doesn’t take that long.

So let me give you some of the key items that matter in a website:

1. Responsive Webdesign – Responsive has been thrown around wildly without much explanation to the average person. Everyone knows, “I need a responsive website” but you’d be surprised to know that a lot of people who are saying that don’t even know what the term responsive means. Responsiveness or a responsive website is a website that adjusts itself or responds to whatever device or computer you use. So if you use your desktop computer than it will be viewable for your desktop. If you’re viewing your site on an iPhone than the webite adjusts to your smart phone.
2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – You have to be careful with this one because not all SEO strategies work to improve your site. Some can actually do harm to your site ratings. But in a nutshell, Search Engine Optimization is just what the meaning says. It’s building the website according to Google or other search engines  standards that best optimize the search process so that when someone searches for your industry’s keyword then it queries your website or has  a higher likeliness of displaying your business.
3. Hosting – One of the things that you have to consider when running your website is determining the amount of traffic you will be having going to your website and for what purposes. Hosting falls into different categories based on each individual business needs. I’ll list them from fastest to slowest.
   1. If you have a high traffic website like google or amazon then you’ll want to have a Dedicated Hosting or server. This means that your website is the only one that is hosted on a specific server so no other website’s traffic will interfere with the speed of your site.
   2. VPS (Virtual Private Server) – This hosting separates or partitions a portion of the servers hard drive and dedicates it to your website so that it simulates a private server.
   3. Managed Hosting – This type of hosting manages the amount of space when needed for your website needs. It also manages updates such as wordpress sites as this can be very time consuming if you were to do updates on your own.
   4. Shared Hosting – If you have a basic informational page and a smaller audience then this type of hosting may be good for you.
4. Members – One of the most profitable forms of a website is being able to drive traffic to your website and have visitors sign up for an account where they can subscribe to or buy products that you sell online. Member based sites can be paid or non-paid but it’s an easy way for you to write blogs or articles that is in news form but maybe selling something that you offer. If you have a lot of members and followers then you want to consider hosting options 1-3 as described above.
5. Online Shopping – In my opinion, if you have a business, then everyone should be selling something online. The great thing about online stores is that you can sell just about anything online almost anywhere in the world. For some businesses, there online business is more profitable than the physical location. Amazon is a perfect example.
6. Online Marketing – Your website is the perfect media to market to clients especially with the growing widespread use of social media. Social Media Marketing when done right can be one of the most powerful resources to gain customers and increase revenue. Here’s the litmus test to whether an online marketing strategy is working. Ask just 2 questions: 1.) Am I able to track how many responses I am getting on a marketing campaign? 2.)Am I making any money directly resulting from the social media marketing? If you can answer yes to the both of these then you’re social media marketing is working.
7. Business – This is a no brainer but you’d be surprise to know how many people think that having a website is just cool. Like #6 above, if your website is not generating you or leading to generating income to your business then you may as well stick a fork in it and scrap the whole website thing. Simple – A business website’s sole purpose should be to generate you income. 

Hopefully this was of help to you. When you’re ready to take your website or website concept to the next level then call Ed at Next Level Web Developers for your FREE Website Makeover and/or Build Consultation, an over $350 value where we’ll sit down and discuss your website needs.

Call 520-392-5923 to schedule your appointment today!