9 Simple Reasons Why DIY Business Website Design Is A Bad Idea!
Updated January 2024
Introduction
DIY business website design may seem a cost-effective and convenient option for entrepreneurs and business owners. However, there are several compelling reasons why it is ultimately a bad idea.
In this blog post, we will explore nine simple yet crucial factors that highlight the pitfalls of DIY business website design. Whether you are a general audience member or a seasoned professional, this article aims to provide a formal, descriptive, persuasive, and authoritative analysis of why DIY business website design should be avoided.
So, let’s delve into the reasons and gain valuable insights into the importance of seeking professional assistance for your website design needs.
Trust Me; You Don’t Want to Do This on Your Own!
If you have a business, you need a mobile-first website; that part is clear to almost every small business owner. Building a business website is a different subject. Many new business owners want to do this independently to conserve limited startup funds. Unfortunately, DIY business website design is a terrible idea in most cases.
To be clear, of course, you can build your business website! With access to website builders like Weebly or Wix and other free website templates, the ability to create your website for your small or new business has never been more effortless. Or so it seems at first glance. Not included in these DIY business website design templates are the actual instructions for creating a successful business website.
Of the DIY’s (Do-It-Yourselfers) that embark on building a site, 98% of them fail in publishing one at all.
By hiring a professional web designer or agency, you ensure that your business website serves the needs of your business. Your website must attract visitors, engage them, and convert them into consumers right from the start. Doing this on your own will take a lot of trial and error, and most likely, you will not succeed on your own.
I can’t stop you if you want to build your business website. But I recommend that you consider this very carefully! Here are some of the main reasons why we believe DIY business website design is a big mistake for most businesses.
9 Reasons Why DIY Business Website Design is a Bad Idea
1 – Wrong Priority
Unless you are a professional web designer yourself, designing your business website should not be your priority. You have better things to do than figure out how to add content to a free template or understand how to get started with a free website builder.
That includes everything from talking to existing clients, networking to get new ones, stocking your shelves, or cooking in your restaurant. You may even want to consider spending more time with family and loved ones or simply relaxing and recharging yourself.
If you believe DIY business website design should be your priority, you should reconsider. As a new business owner, I am sure you have lots of other things to do that are more valuable for your business and fun for you. Focus on those instead. By doing so, you will have a much more positive impact on your business than failing at DIY business website design.
Trust me with this; I have seen too many DIY website failures to wish this on any business owner.
2 – Bad First Impression
The first reason DIY business website design is a terrible idea is that you will most likely create a wrong first impression of your business. Your business website is your most important advertising tool. Your website will probably be the first place a potential customer will learn about your business, story, services, and products. And just like in real life, you only get one chance at this.
Your potential customers will form an opinion about your brand based on your online presence. And your business website is a big part of that! You must grab your customer’s attention in a few seconds (remember that goldfish have a longer attention span than we do!). If your website has a confusing navigation menu, many typos, or lacks a functional contact form, your customers will move on to your competition.
Only a well-designed business website will attract and convert consumers. Simply put, having a quality business website design shows your site visitors that you are a quality business. It shows that you care enough to invest in your online brand. For that reason alone, DIY business website design just doesn’t measure up!
3 – No Impact
If you want your business to stand out from the digital noise, you must create an effective brand. One of the significant downfalls of DIY business website design, website builders, and free templates is the lack of customization.
Using a free website builder or buying a pre-made template means that hundreds, if not thousands, of other business websites use the same design. That alone makes DIY business website design highly ineffective for most brands.
Furthermore, most DIY website templates only allow for very minimal customization. In some cases, even simple customization is not an option. And without a custom design, your business website will simply blend into the digital noise blend. All of this becomes an even bigger problem if you don’t have an existing brand identity; most new businesses don’t.
Professional web designers or agencies provide additional services that can make a difference for your business website. Professionals can help you develop a brand strategy that gives your company a consistent brand image. Not only will that make your other marketing and print collateral cohesive, but It will also give your business a polished look that will get you noticed.
Another important consideration is the content you need for your website. Yes, you can write your own and use your images. But we have seen enough examples that we don’t recommend DIY web design. To make their website content shine, most business owners benefit from professional content creation, including copywriting, photography, and videography. DIY business website design includes neither.
4 – No Search Visibility
Most business owners simply think of the actual design when considering the DIY business website design approach. While that may seem pretty straightforward, a lot of behind-the-scenes work goes into developing a website. Among them is the process of search engine optimization or SEO. And that alone is a vast topic and one that most business owners don’t understand at all.
You need to know what you are doing to get your business website to rank well on search engines. You will want your website to do well in search results, which means there are several things you must do to improve your search rankings. But even with the latest SEO tools, many DIY website templates significantly limit what you can do.
Unless you have experience working with website code, your on-site and on-page SEO will not measure up to that of a professionally designed and developed business website. Go ahead and do a Google search for your industry or service and see who comes up first.
Companies investing in professional development will likely rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). In other words, if you want to rank, you better forget about DIY business website design.
5 – Not Optimized
Another serious concern with DIY business website design is the fundamental lack of security and performance. Most DIY website builders or free templates offer minimal protection and cannot meet the high traffic volumes. This type of website is more likely to be compromised, and leaking private information can be fatal for businesses.
Professional website designers will offer technical solutions. These keep your business website running smoothly and protect it from cyber-attacks and malicious threats like malware. Also, they can help improve website performance and page load times, which is another key ranking signal for search engines. DIY business website design means that you have to figure this out yourself.
6 – No Cost Savings
Another reason that many owners opt for DIY business website design is the common belief it is the cheaper option. The cost of a business website or hiring a professional web designer or agency is often a deciding factor, especially for startups and new businesses. However, DIY business website design will cost you much more in the long run.
Look at it this way. It is not just the initial investment, but the return investment provides for your business. If you go the DIY route, you risk making all kinds of mistakes because web design is not your expertise.
Professionally designed business websites not only receive more traffic. They will encourage your potential customers to take a look around and convert them into your consumers.
You need your visitors to stay on your website long enough to learn enough about your brand to purchase your product or services. You don’t want them to go to your competition for their needs, do you? Most DIY websites inevitably lead to that result, which is another reason why DIY business website design is not helping you succeed.
7 – Wasted Time
For most of you, web design is not your expertise. You may think a ready-made theme or template will save you time. But in reality, you will spend hours learning how to install and configure the theme, add your content, and modify the theme to your current branding. It takes a lot of research to find color schemes, images, and fonts that reflect your company’s brand.
Let’s break this down a little more. The average business website takes our team around two weeks or 80 hours. We spent about a day of that time researching the required functionality, testing frameworks, and plugins, and collecting the needed components.
We usually estimate four days of design, two days of adding content, and one day for tweaks and edits. Don’t forget that we are experts and know all kinds of shortcuts that the average business owner doesn’t.
An essential business website that takes our team 60-80 hours can easily take the average business owner anywhere from 120 – 160+ hours or more! That is anywhere from 3 to 4 plus weeks you should spend running your business instead!
Imagine all you can do with that time that will benefit your business more than DIY business website design. Of course, you could simply take an extra 2 or 3 weeks off or take an additional half-hour for lunch every day!
Especially as a small business owner, your primary focus should be running and growing your business. Hiring a professional web designer or agency saves time learning how to create and update your business website. And that is a primary reason that DIY business website design is not a good idea.
8 – Little or No Support
There is a little-known secret in our world. Professional web design is 20% design and development, 75% troubleshooting across different browsers and devices, and 5% WTF moments. Welcome to our world! Unfortunately, most business owners only see the “fun” part when considering DIY business website design. It takes a lot more than that to build a useful business website.
All kinds of bugs and technical glitches can occur with your small business website. Seemingly constant updates to Google algorithms can complicate things even more. Professional designers are always looking for better solutions and are also more familiar with implementing them. DIY business website design usually requires a steep learning curve, hurting your business.
And then there is the whole aspect of hosting and maintaining your business website. Many DIY business website design options include hosting and some support. But is that the best option for your needs?
There are many different options for business website hosting that a professional can help you understand. Most also provide regular website maintenance and support options that a DIY business website design project generally does not include.
9 – Expensive to Modify
Many new businesses consider DIY business website design only as a starting point. The idea is to start on the cheap with a DIY website and upgrade to a more custom design later. I advise against that approach! For several reasons, this is most often a costly option.
Many DIY template builders are set up so a website developer can’t customize the template or access the website code. That means any customizations or changes you may want in the future will require you to hire a professional web developer. And usually, that will cost you more than getting a professionally designed website in the first place.
Even worse, most DIY template builder services are what we call hosted solutions. Hosted solutions mean you cannot quickly transfer your website to another hosting provider.
If your domain name changes or you need to move your website, you must invest in a new website. A new website will cost you more time and money and remove all of the work that went into the original site.
The DIY Business Website Design Alternative
Let’s face it, folks! The only way to get a business website that will work for you instead of against you is to work with a professional web designer right from the beginning. You need to consider this an investment in your business’s success. I am sure most of you engaged the services of other professionals, such as a lawyer or business consultant, to help you get started.
WordPress has a market share of 62.9%, making it by far the most popular CMS today. Shopify is 6.0%, Wix’s is 2.6%, Squarespace’s market share is 2.1%, Joomla’s is 1.7%, and Drupal’s is 1.1%.
W3 Techs
A professional can offer you better options and solutions than the DIY business website design approach ever could. They can help you avoid common business website mistakes and help you establish a useful business website right from the start.
And for almost every small, new, or startup business, that is a much better, faster, and cheaper option than DIY business website design. We are here to help!
Conclusion
In conclusion, opting for DIY business website design may seem like a cost-effective solution for new business owners seeking to save money. However, it often proves to be a misguided approach that ultimately results in wasted time and financial resources.
Hiring a professional from the outset is the smarter choice, as they possess the expertise and experience necessary to create a successful website tailored to your specific business needs. Don’t let DIY web design hinder your business growth.
Contact us today for more information and ensure your online presence reflects the professionalism and credibility your business deserves.
Do You Need Help Building Your Business Website?
Are you unsure how to create a successful business website for your company or product brand? Our award-winning team will happily help you launch your online presence and grow your business. But first, look at our portfolio and read our case studies.
Then, if you believe we are a good fit for your web design needs, reach out to us! We offer a full range of consulting and design solutions for businesses and product brands.
Why not get started by requesting your free estimate?
Contact us to learn more about our mobile-first business web design services. Our team can determine what type of website will best support your business objectives and build it for you.
Did You Build Your Business Website?
Did you build your website? If so, how did that go for you? Do you have anything to add to our DIY business website design concerns list? Maybe you have your own horror story you can share?
Please leave your comments below so our audience can benefit as well, and grab our feed so you don’t miss our next post! And help other business owners get an excellent business website without going through the DIY business website design pains by sharing this post with them!
For more content relevant to your business or product brand – check out the range of articles on our web design blog. (This one, explaining the top usability principles every business owner should know, is an excellent place to start!)
Thank you! We appreciate your help to end bad business websites, one pixel at a time!
By Gregor Saita
Co-Founder / CXO
@gregorsaita