Nowadays there are endless different ways for designing your website. There are many DIY methods and it seems that everyone has at least one mate down the pub who can \’knock a website together.\’ So why should you go to a reputable agency to have your website designed?
The DIY method
Using a fool proof system for designing your own website that offers a \’drag and drop method\’ may seem like the perfect way to design your website, until you understand the realities. Generally unless you are willing to pay a hefty fee you will have to have unwanted advertising on your website, or a URL that includes the company name, instantly creating an unprofessional impression.
Once you have designed your website with a DIY company you will find that it is closed source. If you are unsure what this means, then basically you can not transfer all your hard work anywhere else. Unless you want to start from scratch, with a new domain name, you can not move your website to a different provider, you are tied in to whatever terms and conditions the company wants to throw at you, meaning all the money you saved with your DIY website will quickly be spent on their contracts and hidden extras.
Your mate down the pub
So your mate down the pub will knock you a website together for the fraction of the price of an agency. Sounds like a good idea. But unless your mate down the pub is a professional website designer, it probably isn\’t. There is more to designing a well functioning, professional website than meets the eye.
Ensuring that your website matches all your branding, functions well and has been optimised for SEO takes training and experience. Having an eye for design and knowledge of fonts and colours to express a brand is a profession and if someone without the right experience has a go it is unlikely to produce the results that your business needs to become a success.
Security
When you use a website design company you are protected against mishaps. If the server goes down, if some of the coding gets corrupted, if the website gets hacked you will have experienced professionals at hand to fix whatever issues arise. These professionals will prevent many of the mistakes from happening in the first place, but if something complicated goes wrong they will be able to minimise the effects and get the problem fixed.
As with everything in life, you get what you pay for. When you are in need of a website do your research as to exactly what is on offer and what an experienced website design agency can do for you.