But can you? Really? With all of the website builders that are out there such as Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy builder, etc. there are ways a non-tech person can build something that could be defined as a web site. But ask yourself, just because it can be done, should it be done? There are several reasons, but understand that answer is flat out a NO... you should not do it yourself. Below are a handful of items that you should really think about before you jettison the idea of hiring someone and taking this on yourself.
Are you a web designer?
Are you a web developer?
Do you really have the time to do this... for real?
Do you have the experience to submit your site to Goggle et. al?
Do you know how to get a domain name and connect it to the site?
Do you have a basic or 101 level understanding of SEO?
ARE YOU A DESIGNER?
You can do a lot with the website builders but do you have a great design sense and can translate that into something that will be responsive and perform well as a website? There is so much that goes into the design of a website that I guarantee you are not thinking about. More than just assembling a collection of your Company colors and pretty pictures, you are not only crafting a brochure but if you build this correctly this will be a 24/7 employee for you. You will need to consider SEO for each page, what should be said there, and how often as well as guiding visitors down your sales funnel whatever that may be. There is an art to conversions that is beyond... CLICK HERE.
ARE YOU A WEB DEVELOPER?
All of these web builders offer a lot of out-of-the-box functionality, But unless you want to do business EXACTLY as the plugins are crafted, you are going to need at least some very basic web-dev skills. Even for some of the boilerplate stuff, like dealing with the Domain names, 301 redirects and submitting your sitemap to Google, will need a little bit of understanding what you are doing. It's not that they are difficult, but for most of you, it's knowing that you even need to do it and you will need to keep doing it.
DO YOU REALLY HAVE TIME FOR THIS?
Let's be real... you don't... and you know that you don't. Small business owners wear 237 different hats and you do not have the proper amount of time to manage a professional website. You will spend time on the home page, but then just rationalize why you don't really need any other pages or have one sentence of copy per page after that and feel like that is enough. I assure you that it is not. Most people underestimate how much work it is to manage a website once it is running, let alone what time it takes to build one.
DO YOU HAVE THE EXPERIENCE?
No! You don't! You are really good and making widgets or selling widgets or whatever your company does. But what it doesn't do most likely is build a proper professional website. There are a lot of little best practices in design, development, and implementation that will take you a long time to learn if you even come across the fact at all that they are even needed! It's the dreaded "unknown unknown" and now the future of your business hinges on you knowing about it and being able to do something about it.
DO YOU KNOW HOW TO CONNECT A DOMAIN?
Well first, do you know how to buy a domain that is not terrible? That is a great marketing question that you need to consider before you do anything. Literally every person that comes to your site or sends you an email will have to remember and type it... so it had better be good. So now you got MyCoolDomain.com... now what? You need to log into your registrar and manage the DNS to point at the proper IP address so that it does actually resolve to your website. Give it a shot... I'll wait! ;) These are things that all manageable by anyone that can take the time to learn it, but at the speed of business today, are you willing to stop long enough to do all of this?
DO YOU UNDERSTAND SEO ON ANY LEVEL?
So if you are not on the first page in Google... do you even exist? You do, but very few people will know about it. I am not counting your mom, and let's face it... she likely couldn't find you in Google either! From proper copywriting to keywords that ACTUALLY make sense for what you are doing versus the ones that you think you should use. Being able to structure the site hierarchy in a way that makes sense to Google. Understanding how to write a good Meta-Description for each page, hiding other pages on your site etc. These are just a few things to consider, and this is just for the basic day 1 construction of the site... notwithstanding what needs to be done over time with new content, and blogs, landing pages etc.
So now, I am not trying to keep you from wanting and getting that new website... I am trying to make sure that FULLY understand the undertaking of building a website for yourself! You are likely behind on your invoicing for the stuff your in business for! Now you want to throw Website design and development in the ring too? Trust me, the amount that you pay for a website is worth the time and heartache that it would cost you to have someone do it for you. And by someone... I mean Red Lion Media!
