The question of whether small business owners should hire a professional website designer or build their own websites using do-it-yourself software boils down to four primary considerations:
1) Site Ownership: Generally speaking, when a person creates a do-it-yourself business website they are bound by the terms of use of their hosting website. In most cases such sites stipulate that all rights to the materials on the small business owner’s website actually belong to the host! That means that if the business owner ever wanted to upgrade his or her site to a custom design or migrate the site material to a new host they would not be allowed to do so!
When you build a do-it-yourself website you are locked into the site and the host contractually and the provider never has to let you transfer your website contents. In fact, there are often service cancellation fees of up to $300!
This is not the case with custom designed websites. A good web development company will provide you with all the files you need in order to edit or transfer your site as you see fit at no charge to you. You should not generally be required to pay any fees beyond the design and setup price.
2) Price: On an upfront cost basis do-it-yourself websites are cheaper. Business owners can enroll in most build-your-own-website service plans for about $20 to $30 per month. In many cases there are no upfront charges and you only get hit with big bills when you opt to cancel later on down the road.
On the other hand, website designers generally charge you for their services upfront or over the course of your website, logo or graphic design development project. Web design fees will vary widely from one provider to the next and from one project to the next. The benefits of having a custom site build that you own are that you won’t have to pay the designer a monthly fee and you should have complete control over what you do with your site after it is completed.
3) Uniqueness of your Company Image: One of the key drawbacks of do-it-yourself websites is that business owners are often given limited options as to what templates they can use and how they can modify those templates. This can result in two or more different companies having essentially the same website.
This issue is not all-together remedied by using professional web designers. Many companies provide template based products because it allows their clients to more easily envision what the end product might look like. Template based sites also tend to be less expensive to customize and thus the clients can have them designed at lower prices.
You as a buyer should always pay attention to whether you are receiving a ‘customized’ website or a ‘custom’ website. Customized websites are template based. There is nothing wrong with starting from a template but generally you should expect to pay less for this service than you would for a fully custom website design.
4) Appearance and Quality: If you secure the services of a skilled and reliable web development company then you should almost universally receive a higher quality, better looking, website via a professional design than you would using a do-it-yourself website. There’s virtually no debating this matter.
In the end, whether you should choose a build-it-yourself website or a professional designed website is a matter of personal preferences. You should review your options and your circumstances and then make the decision that best suits your needs.
This article was written by Craig Hall of Ink Blot Design Studios. Ink Blot Design Studios is a High Quality, yet Affordable, Website, Logo and Graphic Design Company.
Ink Blot Design Studios
http://www.inkblotdesignstudios.com
908 998 3090
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