Building A Website For You Business: Doing It Yourself Vs Getting Someon

Every week, we speak to people who have attempted to build their own websites themselves in order to save money. They always tell us the same thing "we wish we went with DotGO sooner!"

As soon as they realise the time involved, the design skills required and the knowledge of how to really push a website online - they decide to turn to the professionals to get the job done right.

Small business owners now have access to a wide range of website builders, from the more technical and customisable WordPress to straightforward drag-and-drop platforms like Wix.

Each advertises itself as an easy solution for you to build your business website with ease.

However, when it comes to creating a website for your business that does well on Google, you may want to consider hiring a professional to research, design, build and write it for you.

The difference comes down to setting up a website versus building a website.

Setting up a website, if you lay the technicalities and jargon to one side, is straightforward.
Building a website is a very technical matter - requiring professional know-how and skill, but leads to a far better performing vehicle for your business.

If you're a small business owner, why should you pay somebody to build you a website instead of putting one together yourself for free?

There's more to websites than meets the eye

Building a good business website takes time.

If you're a business owner then your schedule is likely very busy. Are you willing to do your own market research, pick up the fundamentals of design, get your head around colour theory, get to grips with written persuasion and learn the basics of search engine optimisation (SEO) to build a quality website?

Or are you willing to put together a simple website over the course of an afternoon just to have an online presence?

…Or are you willing to pay a professional to do the heavy lifting for you and put together a beautifully-designed, well-written website in a fraction of the time it would take you to put together one of the same quality?

The average website design takes a professional designer around 20 hours to complete - have you got the time?

Which brings us to the next point…

Just because you can…

Just as electricians, plumbers and mechanics know their trade, so do professional website builders.

Think of it like installing plumbing in a new bathroom or fixing your car's engine. In theory there's nothing stopping you from taking a stab at it yourself – But you'd be happier with the final result if you paid a professional to do it for you.

Put plainly, pro website designers and content writers know what their doing and will do a better job than you.

Free site builders can't write the content for you

Websites are fairly unique in that it's easy to get hung up on the visual elements, while the actual written content plays second fiddle or is almost an afterthought. At the end of the day, visuals colour and design are there to draw the eye and capture the reader's attention – It's the written content that keeps their attention, draws them down the page and convinces them to contact you for your services.

A plain-text website with little to no design but superb content will always outperform a site with amazing design but little to no written content.

Sure, you could use AI to write content for your website - but editing AI copy can sometimes take longer than writing it yourself!

Free website builders have the visual elements covered – But coming up with compelling written content that persuades the reader and gets you organically found on Google is up to you (Something that AI is many years away from doing, but that's another blog post for another day).

Can you make a good first impression?

Since the advent of the internet, making a strong first impression is more important than ever. This goes double if you're a tradesperson or other service-based business with a lot of local competition.

Unless the customer is coming to you from a referral or via word of mouth, they're likely going to be searching for businesses in their area that can solve their problem.

In this day and age, poorly-optimised, outdated or poorly designed websites stand out like a sore thumb. If a prospect is in the market for a local tree surgeon, clicks onto your site but finds it bereft of good content or looking like it was designed in the 1990s, they're probably going to click ‘back' and try the next result.

A professionally-designed website combined with strong SEO to get you found on Google lets you lead with your best foot forwards.

DotGO's approach to business websites leaves no stone unturned. Our clients work hand-in-hand with our wordsmiths to craft content that informs, persuades and gets you found, while our skilled designers create eye-catching designs. All this, at an affordable price.

Get in touch with our team to get the ball rolling and grow your small business.