At VTO we often get enquiries from clients that have attempted to build their own business website, whether it be Wix, SquareSpace or any other number of drag and drop templated website builders. There are so many options available that claim to make building a website ‘easy’ that we can’t blame people for wanting to save a buck and try it for themselves. There are however many reasons why you shouldn’t use a DIY website builder such as Wix or Weebly. Let’s go with the most common – you’ll save money by building it yourself… Will you though?

In short, a DIY website will not compete with your competitors professionally built site and there is every chance that your site will likely not be found at all. Consider the real cost of having an unprofessional web design and you’ll see that it’s more about missed opportunities. Let me paint you a picture…

Your professionally built website is performing well, you are promoting it on Facebook, the SEO is Search Engine Friendly and through your investment in your business by outsourcing your website build, it gets one job per week through the site contact form. Let say that each job you land through your website lands you a $500 job. $500 per week for 52 weeks in the year, that’s $26,000 in a year. The return on your investment for a professionally built website designed to cater to your unique business needs and the clients it serves far outweighs the initial cost.

Lets look at a few other reasons why using a DIY website builder is less than ideal.

Professionalism

It might be easy to build a website but will it look professional and more importantly, will it perform and promote your business? Perception is everything and having a professional looking website is vital if you’re going to win clients and beat your competitors. Not only that, will it work on all browser, platforms and devices? And if it doesn’t, do you have the expertise to troubleshoot and fix the issues that arise? In 2018 and beyond, it’s far from a professional look if your website doesn’t work in mobile environments. A DIY website builder will get you so far but inevitably your site will most likely look homemade and, unless homemade is your thing and there are plenty of successful homemade site, it may not be something you can proudly show to your clients.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

DIY website builders make everything simple which is great right? Well, in terms of building, sure, but in reality, not always the case. DIY builders often hide their code and although hiding the code may make the design simple, it confuses the hell out of Google, Bing and Yahoo and all the other search engines. Why is this important? Search Engines all need to see websites that are well coded and clearly structured. It’s how it makes sense of your sites information. Your website could be the best looking site in the world but if the coding behind it is poor then it may as well not exist in Google terms.

Management

Most of the time, if you design a website using a DIY web design tool then you have to host it on their servers. If you then decide to use their free option it will most likely include their name in the domain address (see point 1 re: Professionalism) and if you attach it to your own domain you have to pay a hosting fee. Either way, you’re locked into a system that you have no control over and, over time, could cost you as much to manage as it would to have your site professionally built originally.

Ownership

When VTO hand over your site, it’s owned by you. We may have developed and reuse snippets of code that we think is awesome and retain that information, but you own the content, the plugins, the images. Not only does this give you the flexibility you’ll need to manage the site moving forward but it allows you to control every aspect of your web site. Everything.
Using a DIY builder, there is often little room for growth or scale. Sure you can add more pages, more content, but what about connecting that fancy new CRM or other tools to streamline your business? If you design a web site on a DIY builder then it’s next to impossible to do anything else with it. You’re stuck. If you outgrow that site and need more control it’s very difficult to move your site and its content away. Want to rebuild your Wix website on WordPress. You’ll need to start again – and that can be pretty demoralising.

Efficiency

Building a great looking website that converts leads to clients is hard and incredibly time consuming. Rather than spend your time working on a website where your knowledge may be limited, you should be focusing on what you do best, your clients, your staff and your business as a whole! How much is your time worth?

If you’re a business that’s looking for a cost effective web design solution then get in touch with VTO. We have a range of web design packages to suit all businesses and can modify our services to fit with your budget. If you’re asking yourself how much does a website cost or considering building one yourself, please visit the VTO web design page – and if you have any further questions, call Michael on 0400 344 841 or send us an email at howdy@vto.net.au and we will be happy clarify and questions and discuss your unique business needs.