As the technology on the internet advances, businesses and individuals in Jupiter, Florida are seeing their needs to market themselves online increase. The only problem is that they think that they can save by taking on a DIY website builder, rather than paying a web designer to do it. That’s the best choice, right? Wrong.
1. It's Not Your Website
That is pretty straightforward. You do not own anything except the copy or imagery you provide (unless said imagery was “borrowed” from Google image search). And in some cases, you may be giving up that right. Check the end user agreement on the tools you are using. In some instances, you are giving over your rights to the copy and imagery used.
Also, keep in mind that if you choose to “borrow” images from google image search, you are downloading a copyrighted image. The owners of that image could go after you, and you could get sued and have a whole different set of problems.
2. Don't Eat That Flashy Moon Fruit
Ever heard of Flash? If you didn’t, that’s ok because it died a long time ago, concerning web design. Moon Fruit is one of many DYI builders that is still using Flash technology. It is an SEO death trap. Stay clear.
Beware of the junky DYI builder that spits out poor quality legacy code. This will always be an issue because of how builders have to be created. They have to define a method for you, and everyone else that may use their website, to create a website that matches what you want. That can only be achieved through inline styles. Inline styles and unnecessary elements produce poor load time and are not in compliance with search engines standards.
Keep in mind most people are not SEO experts. Some tasks must be done to help your site be found. Web developer tools, sitemap submission to search, and a handful of others SEO tactics will not come with your DIY builder. So essentially, you have an online brochure that no one sees, and you may have to redo a few things if you want to compete with the shop across the street that hired a designer and has a top notch website build.
Creating a website that speaks to your customer is more than choosing a font and slapping an image on a page. Cookie cutter may not cut it. So if you want a site that is appealing to the eye, and fulfills the needs of your audience, you may want to ditch the DIY.
A professional designer will analyze your audience and define the needs of several types of users. This is to ensure that the highest number of people will find the information that brought them to your site while keeping everything appealing to the eye.
Knowledge is power. Some builders prevent you from gathering data and give you their proprietary reporting. This is a colossal roadblock to succeeding with your website. Can you trust the information they are feeding you? And if you don’t know how users are getting to your site, how can you know what effort is paying off the most?
Installing Google Analytics will be critical. This step grants you access to crucial information. Information that will help you get a clear picture of what channel performs well.
In some builders, the mobile experience "look and feel" is horrible; and does not even resemble what has been done in the desktop experience.
Mobile is now the largest converting channel on the planet. Long gone are the days where your mobile site is an afterthought. If it is, you’re excluding a bulk of your customers by providing them a bad user experience.
We get it, the initial cost of hiring a designer is higher than a DIY build. So even knowing all of the above facts you still choose to go with a DIY builder. You do still realize that you will be paying a premium fee, right? A typical DIY builder will keep charging you a higher monthly fee, and hold your site hostage. Meanwhile, a website designer’s fee is a one time deal. They also try to upsell you every chance they get.
Keep in mind, and most digital marketing experts will not avoid working with clients that have builders. The success rate of those campaigns is rather low, making it much more to achieve their goals while working with DIY Builders.
And remember, all of your time counts too. At the end of the day, your hard work and effort are going to a platform that you do not own. That can even include work that you pay another professional to perform.
Imagine if your competitor figures out you used a builder, and decides to do the same. Wouldn’t your site and your competitor’s be similar? Standing out is the single most important thing you can do in the web world. And there’s more to standing out than just your logo. Talk to one of our designers to learn more about it.
Build a website you can easily change, enhance, and is marketable the first time around in WordPress.
Bright Vessel builds in the WordPress Platform, which has all the items you would expect to see in products like Wix, Godaddy, or Square Space. Except we tailor the platform to please your customer and make your brand stand out with originality that is entirely customized to you.
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