Your website is in many cases, your future customers’ first port of call. Crucially, it only takes a few seconds for a prospective customer to decide whether they like your site or not, and first impressions really do count. If your website is poorly designed, badly presented, or lacks information, this will be your potential customers first impression of your business.
Your website must also change with you and be able to evolve as your business does. Afterall, you wouldn’t knock your house down every time you wanted to re-decorate would you? So why put yourself in a position where you can’t easily keep your website up-to-date. Please don’t fall into this trap. Allow your website to grow with you.
So my recommenda
tion would always be to employ a professional. This doesn’t have to cost a fortune. You should easily be able to get a great web site, with a content management system (CMS), enabling you to make your own updates, for around £1000. If you want a professional, your hosting company should be able to recommend a design agency that will deliver what you want, within your budget.
There’s a good chance your designer will have a partnership with a hosting company already. I would always recommend, if possible, bundling hosting, design and search engine optimisation together. Not only will the end result be cheaper, but it will also make it easier for you if there is a problem.
However, if you plan to build your own website, seek advice. Talk to your web hosting company about how to present your business online and what tools would best suit your needs. Good web hosting companies offer a plethora of website building tools and there is also free design software such as NVU.
The key here is to consider very carefully what you are trying to say and more importantly, how you want to be “visually” perceived by your potential customers.
If in the end you can’t master the tools and are not able to build your website in less time than it takes you to make the £1000 you would otherwise spend on a web designer, then don’t struggle. Doing it yourself will be a waste of your time and may lose you money. You could easily spend a month learning FrontPage or Dreamweaver and still end up with a bad site. If your talents just don’t lie in this direction, leave it to the pros. Without doubt, if your site doesn’t look impressive, no one will buy from you.
So, while a little knowledge will go a long way, please try not to stretch it too far.
Do you have any good or bad experiences relating to web site design? Why not share them with us in the comments section below please.
Hi Harvey,
I’m in the throws of considering a website to help promote my business. I am in the roofing and general building industry and many of my colleagues are now moving towards using the internet as a means of attracting new business leads.
Being a complete novice here, I know what I want my website to do and say but I want to make sure that I can update it regularly with testimonials and pictures of my work. I dont want to have to rely on someone to do this for me but some of the prices I have been quoted are outside of my budget.
You have suggested a system that will allow me to update the website myself. Are these systems straightforward and easy to use, even for a novice or do you really need to have some clue in building websites to do this?
I also want to be sure that my website can actually be found! Not much point building one if it doesn’t really benefit me.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Best Regards
Wayne