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If you need a web site for yourself or your business, it can be tempting to try and save money by building the web site yourself. More and more options are available all the time for someone interested in tackling the job themselves without any prior experience. Hiring a web developer can be prohibitively expensive for small businesses and individuals, but more and more an online presence is as vital today as a yellow page listing was 20 years ago. The web has changed the way we find and interact with businesses.
So which is the right choice – go it alone or hire someone to do it for you? We’ll discuss both options, the pros and cons, and then reveal secret option number three – the consultant.
Options for going it alone
Your options for going it alone basically boil down to two broad options – either learn how to write code or use a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. A WYSIWYG editor allows you to create web pages in much the same way as creating documents in your favorite word processing program – you drag and drop, set some options and the code is written for you by the software.
Learning code
Learning enough code to put together a web site is no small feat. In 1996, you only had to learn HTML and you were all set. But not only has HTML evolved since then (and continues to evolve and change) but new technologies like CSS and JavaScript have become a necessity for building web sites. New dynamic methods for building web sites using databases and server-side programming languages make building and maintaining sites easier for the developers who have the knowledge to make use of them, but for someone new to coding, it’s just more to learn. If you’ve already got a good start on understanding HTML and CSS, though, this would definitely be the best option. Advances are being made all the time, but no WYSIWYG editor can write code anywhere nearly as nice as truly professional hand-crafted code. There’s a reason interactive agencies don’t hire people unless they know how to handcraft code.
Of course, the downside of this approach is the tremendous amount of time you’ll have to invest. Give this a lot of thought. Of course, as a small business owner, entrepreneur, start up founder or business person, you’re more than smart enough to learn the code. But is it the best use of your time? Is building web sites your business or a business that you’re interested in pursuing full time? If not, then you’re probably better off focusing on honing your skills in your actual business and hiring someone who can afford to focus their time and attention on the complexities of building web sites to handle that aspect of your business for you.
WYSIWYG editors and site builder tools
There are both online applications to help you build web sites as well as desktop applications that can help you build a site. You’ve got little more invested than the cost of the software or membership and you can drag and drop and choose colors, fonts, and images from simple menus, similar to your favorite word processing program. No code knowledge needed.
But the code written by these programs pales in comparison to code written by hand and you might find it challenging to accomplish certain layouts or to have full control over how the web site looks. It’s also likely that the code produced by the program won’t be search engine optimized and won’t be accessible to site visitors with disabilities.
If you’ve got a good eye for design and need a simple web site, this can be a good option for establishing an initial online presence for your business, at least giving your customers basic information about your business like what products and services you offer, your hours of operation, and contact information if they have questions.
Benefits of going it alone
Probably the biggest benefit of building your web site yourself is that you save money – you don’t need to pay a web designer to design and build the site for you. Many options are available for DIY web sites for free or at low cost, but do be careful not to choose options which cover your site in advertising. Often paying just a little bit of money means a much higher quality of service and no ads distracting your site visitors from your message.
You’ll also enjoy total control of the final product. Some clients find working with a designer frustrating because they don’t like giving up control over which colors are chosen and the look of the final design. If you take care of the site yourself, you’ll have complete control of how the web site looks.
Drawbacks of going it alone
Browsing around the web, it’s often easy to pick out the sites built by amateurs with little or no experience building web sites. If you decide to tackle the project yourself, you risk presenting this sort of amateurish image to your customers. Sometimes, customers find this acceptable, but if you’re in a business requiring a lot of trust, such a financial planning or mortgages, or if your site is an ecommerce site selling products, your business can be hurt by an amateur web design. Customers will feel hesitant to trust you and your site, and you may lose sales and business costing much more than the price of hiring a web designer to create a professional site.
Without knowledge of basic web conventions and usability principles, you also risk creating a web site that’s difficult for your site visitors to use and understand. If people can’t find the information they’re looking for quickly, they’ll often become frustrated and leave your site in favor of one of your competitor’s sites that is easier to use.
There are a lot of different tasks involved in building a web site, and you might find yourself overwhelmed at the prospect of learning to write code or learning to use your site builder or WYSIWYG editor along with search engine optimization, usability principles, web conventions, accessibility laws, basic design principles and color theory, FTP or file transfer protocol, setting up domain name registration and hosting accounts, updating DNS for your domain name, effective web copywriting, and so on. Web designers and developers are excited about these things and love learning about them, but you might find them overwhelming and frustrating.
You also need a basic level of knowledge about several different areas to avoid being taken advantage of by scammers and spammers that abound online. One of my clients, struggling to maintain her own web site, was seduced by a black hat SEO company who promised her number one positioning in Google search results. It sounded good at the time, but the techniques they employed resulted in her site being blacklisted from many search engines’ indexes, including Google’s. She paid this company thousands of dollars and they basically ruined her web site and it took her months to restore the site and convince the search engines to list her site again.
You might also take it for granted that everyone looking at your web site will see the same thing you see when you look at your web site with your computer. However, monitor sizes, monitor resolutions, browsers, and operating systems can all affect how a web site looks. Web designers and developers are experienced in dealing with these differences and know how to test for problems and provide the best possible experience for all your site visitors no matter what type of computer they’re using. But I’ve seen a lot of clients who are stumped when one of their customers tells them their web site is broken.
Secret option number 3
Maybe you’d really like to hire a web designer or developer to build a professional site for you, but you’re just getting started with your business or you’ve been affected by the recession or for whatever reason just can’t scrape together the money to pay someone to produce the web site for you. Secret option number 3 is to hire a consultant on an hourly basis to help you along the way when you get stuck.
This will be much cheaper than hiring a web designer to build the entire site, but will also save you time, money, and frustration. A consultant can help guide your choices, can give advice, and can often easily solve problems that are difficult or confusing to you. You’ll have someone you trust to jump in whenever needed to make sure your site is the best you can possibly make it. Sometimes you’ll struggle for hours or days with a problem that an experienced consultant could solve in 30 minutes, making their fee for that 30 minutes completely worth it.
Conclusion
You’ll get the highest quality web site in the least amount of time by hiring a professional to produce the web site for you, but of course that quality and time saved comes at a cost. Sometimes you’ve got more time than money, and taking steps to build the site yourself can make sense. If you do decide to go it alone, consider hiring a consultant that you trust to help guide your choices and to sort out the stickiest problems that might keep you from accomplishing your business goals.
