I’ve had a couple of web design prospects tell me lately that they want employees or friends to build or design their company websites.
For example, one gentleman told me that one of his employees was “really into graphic design” and didn’t like the look of their existing, professionally designed, website. (This was a health care company, by the way.) So the business owner said something to me about letting this employee design a new site and I could just “put it up.”
Another prospect (automotive industry) told me that the husband of one of his employees wanted to learn how to build websites. So he was thinking he’d let this guy build the company site.
Folks – this is your LIVELIHOOD we’re talking about, right? Your website is your first impression to a prospect.
So why would you let someone who doesn’t know anything about it, do it for you?
In the first example – the employee may know what she likes, but it doesn’t mean she’s studied graphic design OR that she knows how a site should be laid out. And if she did create another site for the business – now there are TWO sites that need maintained. And TWO sites competing in the search engines. Not smart.
In the second example – if someone you know wants to learn how to build a site, let ’em work on their own. Suppose this employee wanted to learn how to be a mechanic – would you give them your Mercedes to work on as they learned, or some old clunker?
I DO believe in building sites that my clients can update on their own, which is why I typically build in WordPress. It’s easy to learn, you can update a site from any computer with an Internet connection, and you can assign different people varying levels of access to your site. (Plus you don’t have to pay a web designer $100 or wait two weeks to make a simple change!)
For example, an Administrator can change anything on the site, including layout options. An Author can publish and manage their own posts, nothing else.
But otherwise – if your site represents you professionally, let a professional build it for you.