Why hire a web designer rather than attempt it yourself?
TL;DR
► Because you won’t end up with a professional looking website if you do it yourself.
► Because you’ll pile way more time into it than you think DIY-ing (your time is valuable and better spent doing stuff you’re actually good at).
► Because it will work out cheaper to hire a web designer (for the love of fuck, just Do. The. Math.)
► Because a professionally designed website will make your business more money.
Ok so you think web design is easy
Everyone can do it can’t they? Don’t you just go to WordPress/Squarespace/Wix, pick a template and amend a few bits?
Yeah sure, you can absolutely do that… if you want a shit website that users will judge your whole business on then click away to find a more professional looking business…
You’ll sink a lot of time into youtube tutorials, and then when it doesn’t look right, you likely won’t understand how to “simply add a css or js snippet” so you’ll have to do another tutorial, and when you’ve done that and there’s an issue with the snippet you’ll likely want to chuck your laptop full force into the nearest wall.
I’m going to take a wild guess that you also don’t have design experience? A good eye is great, but knowing the psychology of colours and how to use them, picking suitable fonts to represent your brand, knowing the importance of white space… It’s all stuff a web designer doesn’t have to spend time learning or thinking about – we just do it.
And if you go through all this and think your site is a pretty decent effort, you’ll no doubt put it live to find out that it looks entirely different on some devices than the one you worked from… Oh wait, it’s that whole responsiveness thing! It was definitely mentioned in one of those tutorials… something something media queries? Umm what’s a media query?
There’s also the whole content thing – do you know what content should go where? How to structure it properly for a good user experience? Which images to use to get a bit of “wow” factor? Latest design trends? How to engage the user and get your message and brand across in as little time as possible?
And this isn’t even getting into SEO, analytics, site maintenance, how to get visitors etc.
Websites are a LOT of work, especially when you aren’t a web designer (but actually, it’s a lot for us too, we’re just LOADS faster than you and we won’t want to smash our laptops up in the process).
Still not convinced?
That’s ok! Go dive headfirst into those tutorials!! Good luck!
Your time is valuable. Or I hope you see it that way.
Losing so much of it to a site that will be average at best is a terrible idea, every hour spent on your DIY website could have been used doing something you’re actually good at.
Add up your hourly rate, multiply it by the hours you will sink into this project and compare it to a web design quote. You’ll be surprised.
Plus – a professionally crafted website will not only save you money; it will make you more. You won’t get higher end clients with a DIY website.
Feel free to get in touch for a quote or check out my rough guide to pricing!
Note – we might not be a good working match, and that’s fine too! It’s always best to shop around and go with the designer you vibe most with 😊