Your business needs a professional website in order to be competitive in the online or offline market. The internet is where people go to find information and it is common for people to research products, services and reviews online before they invest in a company or brand. Businesses that do not have a website or online presence risk losing out on potential clients and customers.
Convention for website builders VS. Customisation for web design companies.
There are plenty of DIY website builders out there that are free and easy to use. Website builders are designed to build basic websites that follow conventional themes. For example, you will get asked to select a template for your website that you can then populate with your content and images.
Picking from a pre-made template means that you sacrifice the flexibility that a web design company can give you. Other people using the website builder have access to choose the same template as yours as well and therefore yours is not unique. (Please note, if you do use a free web builder, make sure the template you choose is responsive to ensure that it is mobile-friendly.)
A web designer can create your website from scratch with your brief in mind. Working together, you can craft and evolve the design until it's exactly what you are looking for. The process is the same for each project however no two projects are treated the same.
Should I build my own website using a DIY website builder?
Attempting to create a website yourself using a free website builder is a good idea because it will show you what web design entails and gives you a sense of what limitations or constraints the platform may have that a web design company may be able to overcome. If you're looking for a conventional website that does the minimum then a web builder may well be for you, however, if you want the support and system behind you to make a website that is not only unique to your business (and has a team behind you to support you every step of the way) then a web design company will better suit your needs.
When you hire a web design company to work on your project you will be safe in the knowledge that the website will suit the needs of your business and meet your business goals and objectives. Not only that, but with the web design industry changing so quickly over time, your web designer will have their finger on the pulse of new functionality, web design practices and trends. All something a web builder won't be able to provide you with.
A web design company will be able to talk you through all of your options, advise you on things such as search engine optimisation, provide you with a stock library of images to choose from, help you with setting up your social media accounts and much more.
A lot of people think that once a website project is complete, that you can sit back and the website will work for your business. This just isn't the case. You will need to go back to your website and tweak, update and freshen it up on a regular basis. Having a strong web design company behind you with an excellent support team like the one we have, will make this a lot easier for you going forward. With Toolkit Websites, you get a free full training session on how to use The Toolkit in order to update your website going forward. We offer unlimited design changes whilst you are inbuild and you get a dedicated project manager assigned to your account whilst you are inbuild.
With a web design company you have the personal service, with each appointment furthering the advancement of your website project. A DIY website builder might be an easy and free solution to having a website up and running for your business, but you won't be able to troubleshoot when you have issues and you may well find that the free option isn't always the best option.
