Your Friend on the Web, Diana Ratliff

Website Strategy & Digital Consulting

Web Design

Why You Shouldn’t Build Your Own Business Website

“Anybody can download a website template or use a website builder and make a few updates to it — why should anybody pay a designer to do it for them?”

A blunt question – and while no one has ever asked me that directly, I’m sure many business people DO wonder if hiring someone to design a website is money well spent.   So here’s my answer – and it’s pretty blunt too.

Getting a site UP (technical skills) is not the same as getting a GOOD site up.

Many web design tools are fairly simple to use, especially if you’re pretty comfortable with software such as Microsoft Word or online services like Facebook. It may be a time-consuming and frustrating process, but you can probably get a site up.  But it takes experience and training to make proper choices – in colors, in wording, in site navigation, in domain names, in keyword research, in marketing strategy.

Say you decide to build your own home, and it looks pretty good.  But unless you know about drainage and materials and insulation and air flow and traffic flow and plumbing etc etc, it probably won’t be a comfortable place to live in.  And unless it’s in a good location with desirable features, it’s probably not going to sell in a few years either.

It’s less about how a website LOOKS and more about how a website DELIVERS.

Today you don’t need to be a graphics whiz to build a site that looks good.  There are millions of attractive websites.  But sexy graphics aren’t usually what deliver the sign-ups, sales and traffic that you want.

Yes, a site should have the appropriate “look” for your audience.  But what matters MORE isn’t web design at all, it’s web MARKETING.  Online copywriting, keyword research, search engine optimization, competition analysis, smart information architecture… all are key to the success of your website.

Do you have those skills?  Probably not.  (In fact a lot of “web designers” don’t either – they’re good at using a particular web design tool, but they don’t know much about web marketing.)

Your business is your livelihood.

Can you AFFORD to have a website that screams “Another free website from  XYZ.com”?  Do you want to look successful and professional or desperate and clueless?  Why should someone invest their hard-earned money hiring you, when it doesn’t look like you were willing to invest your money in your own business?

Your website is not the place to present anything less than your best face.

Of course budgets need to be considered, but a smart modern web designer will usually be able to offer options that keep costs down while giving you a professional web presence.

If you want to build your own website for hobby or personal reasons – sure.  Have fun.

But your business website is just too important to be designed by an amateur.

Web Design Invoice Cartoon

Cartoon is about invoices, but the same applies to website design and the use of templates.  Great cartoon from webdesignerdepot.com.

Web Design Invoice Humor

 

 

Ask About OWNERSHIP When Hiring Web Design Service

Scary Consequences of Not Owning DomainWho will own your domain name?  Your hosting account?  Your site design?  And your site content?

And who will control access to all of the above?

Make sure you get the answers to these questions before hiring any web designer or signing up for any site design service.

You want to be certain that you own and control access and content associated with your web presence.  It’s a vital part of your web identity and your marketing.

Make sure to ask any web designer whose name and contact information will go on domain registration and hosting accounts.  Find out whether text, pictures or videos that are put on your site actually belong to YOU or whether the company retains copyright.  Find out what happens to the site and content if you discontinue their service.

If you don’t – the consequences can be downright frightening!

My Policy Regarding Website Access, Content and Ownership

If you pay for it, you own it.  Typically I retain control (such as usernames/passwords) until the site is paid for but then I give those to you.  On domain registration I typically list myself as the “Technical Contact” – so that my name is on the account SOMEWHERE if I call the registrar on your behalf – but you or your company is listed as the Registrant (the legal owner.)

If there is anything that you don’t own/control for some reason, I’ll make sure you know that in advance.

You have my word on that.

 

 

Using LinkedIn As Your Website

I talked myself out of a web design job today, and I did it deliberately.  The lady simply didn’t NEED a full website, so I recommended she use her LinkedIn profile instead.  Perhaps this strategy might be appropriate for you or someone you know.

The lady – I’ll call her Pat – is retired and does consulting.  Most of her work comes from word of mouth and the connections she’s made over the years.  But occasionally someone asks if she has a website, so Pat decided it was time to look into what was involved in getting one.

Pat wants nothing more than an online brochure, so to speak.  She doesn’t see herself using the site as a marketing tool and doesn’t care if it comes up in searches for consultants in her industry. She doesn’t anticipate updating it often.  Pat just wants a professional way to show people her background and credentials, and wants to make it easy for them to contact her.

Using LinkedIn Profile as WebsiteFleshing out her LinkedIn profile would be an easy – and free – way to deliver all the content she needs.  So I suggested that as her first step.

Then what she can do is buy a domain name – preferably her own name, in her case – at a domain name registrar such as Godaddy.  But instead of buying hosting and developing a site, she can redirect (forward) that new domain name so that it takes people to her LinkedIn page.

That’s it!  She’ll have a professional domain name to put on her business cards, at a cost of less than $15/year.  She can get a matching email address for $12/year.  So for less than $30 she has all she needs.

Of course going this route doesn’t give you the flexibility that developing your own website does.  You’re locked into using LinkedIn’s format and there’s no guarantee it won’t change tomorrow.

But she can always develop a website later, and in the meantime it should work just fine for her.

 

Don’t Reinvent the Web Design Wheel

Ben HuntProfessional web design versus custom web design – the distinction was eloquently made in a recent blog post by website optimization expert Ben Hunt (I love the way this guy writes!).

Ben’s advice is never to reinvent the wheel – unless the wheel doesn’t work.

Here’s why, in his own words.

Things that are done for the first time are more likely to fail than things that are tried and tested.When you use a system like WordPress or Shopify, you get the benefit of a system that has had literally years of design and development invested – possibly decades of effort!

With a hosted system, you can get a website up and running almost immediately, without the thousands of dollars of custom design and coding you would need with an old-style model.

You can be confident that it will be reliable. You can be confident that it has been tested thoroughly. And you know that you will benefit from continual improvements, along with all the other customers using the system.

You get none of those benefits with a custom-built system – you have to pay for everything.

The flip side is that you may need to pay a monthly fee… that’s fair, because they are providing an excellent service.

So we should always use best practice, use conventions, use what works (when it works). And for me, in almost every case, that means using hosted systems, existing platforms, themes, plugins, and widgets wherever possible.

This is one of the best answers I’ve ever seen to the question of whether or not to design a completely custom site or start with a theme/template.  A professional, modern web designer understands the pros and cons, knows when to make exceptions, and can identify high quality platforms, themes etc.

 

When A Free Website Costs You

Free website like shooting yourself in the footA nearby business (franchisee of a national chain) announced a new website today on their Facebook page.  I truly believe they’re shooting themselves in the foot with the website they designed.

It’s built using a FREE service called Wix.  Wix puts banners at the top and bottom of every page, with text such as “Create your stunning website with Wix. It’s super easy and free! Go”

The domain name on the new site is very long, something like:
http://turtlenappy.wix.com/nameofbusiness#!Home|mainPage

Not only is there no professional domain name, there’s no professional email address either – they use something nonsensical like “turtlenappy@aol.com”

The photos on the home page are blurry too; obviously not done by a professional photographer.

I don’t have a problem with Wix or any other free website builder – for a personal or hobby site.

But for THIS business?

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