Building a Website: DIY or Hire a Web Developer?

Can I DIY My Own Website?

Yes, you can and many small business owners do so with great success. If your goal is to create a simple site that showcases the services and products your business offers, and allows potential customers to contact you, a DIY approach can work very well.

Modern website builder platforms offer beginner-friendly options like drag-and-drop builders, pre-designed templates, built-in contact forms, and mobile functional designs. Such tools allow you to quickly and easily build a professional website without needing any coding or super-techy skills.

Building your own business website is a great choice if you want to:

• Launch your website quickly: the quicker you get the word out online about your business, the better!
• Keep startup costs low: if you’re not swimming in cash, you can save a lot of money by building a basic website yourself. You can start with a website builder’s free plan and upgrade later as your needs grow.
• Update your own content and images: being able to update your website yourself means you won’t have to wait on a web developer to do it for you. You can keep your website fresh and accurate for visitors.
• Maintain control over your website: this means you control how your site looks and the information it contains. Having control over your website makes it easier to grow your online presence as your business evolves.

Many businesses start with a DIY website, then expand or improve it later with the help of a professional. When you sign up for website service with Northwest, you get the benefits of doing things yourself (ownership, control, etc.) along with professional support.

Understanding Website Professionals & Key Terms

If you choose to build your website yourself, you may come across terms like web developer, ecommerce, web designer, or SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Understanding what these mean will help you decide if and/or when you might need help with your website.

What is a Web Developer?

A web developer builds and maintains the technical parts of a website. Their work focuses on how the website functions behind the scenes. They often help with:

• Custom website functions: these are special features you can add to your website, like calculators, customer login portals, or other interactive tools.
• Advanced forms or booking systems: the most common are for allowing customers to book appointments, request quotes, or submit detailed customer information directly through your website.
• Database connections: all the contents of your website are stored on a database, and developers help to connect your website to that database so your site can securely access and store that data.
• Website performance: developers can optimize how quickly your website loads for visitors by improving code, reducing file sizes, and configuring servers.
• Technical troubleshooting: if your website stops working properly, a developer can figure out what went wrong and fix it.

Web developers can also build ecommerce features into your website, which is something most business owners choose to hire a professional to do.

What is Ecommerce?

Ecommerce refers to selling products or services directly through your business website. Businesses with ecommerce websites usually include features like shopping carts, payment processing, private customer portals, and other order management tools for you and for your customers.

A web developer will build and install these features for you and make sure they are secure from hacker or malware attacks. Most DIY business website builders add ecommerce features to their websites after their business gains momentum, and more help managing all the incoming orders is needed. In the meantime, they use their business email or business phone service to securely process online orders.

What is a Web Designer?

A web designer focuses on the visual appearance of your business website. Their primary goal is to make your website attractive, easy to navigate, and easy for search engines to find.

Web designers usually work on:

• Page layouts and structure: This involves organizing content on each page so visitors can easily scan information and find what they are looking for.
• Color schemes and branding: Designers choose colors and visual elements that match your brand and create a consistent look across your entire website.
• Typography and readability: This refers to the fonts, spacing, and text sizes that will make your website easy on both full-size computer screens and on mobile devices.
• Improvements to the user experience: They will design your website so visitors can float from page to page smoothly and without glitches. This allows them to easily understand your products and services, and quickly find your contact information so they can make a purchase.

A good web designer will also review any content you write for your website for SEO, which when done right, can make your website more visible to potential customers.

What is SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of improving your website so it appears in search engine results when people search for products or services like yours.

Basic SEO involves writing helpful descriptions of your business, using clear page titles and headings, making your website quick to load, and ensuring your website doesn’t appear wonky on mobile devices. Good SEO will help your business website appear on or near the first page search results, which means more visibility for your products and services.

Troubleshooting Common DIY Issues

When building your own website, it is common to run into a few challenges. The good news is, many of those challenges are easy to overcome. Below are six common DIY website building issues and how to fix them:

1. My Website Doesn’t Look Good on Mobile Devices

Your website building platform should include a variety of mobile-friendly templates to choose from. As you build your website, use the platform’s “mobile preview” tool to see how your site will appear on a mobile phone. Then, you can make adjustments to spacing, images, and text sizes as needed.

2. My Website Loads Too Slowly

The most common cause of slow loading is image size. If the images you’re using have large file sizes, they will take longer to load. Compress your images into smaller file sizes using a free online image compressing service before adding them to your website to improve loading speed.

3. The Text on My Website is Hard to Read

There are a lot of fun looking fonts and text styles to choose from, but some of them are more fun than readable. Choose a font that is clear and professional looking, and use short paragraphs in a simple layout style. Don’t worry about filling up every space of your website with images or text, leave some open space between paragraphs and images to increase readability.

4. Visitors Don’t Understand What My Business Does

Visitors to your site asking you for products or services that you don’t offer? This may be an issue with how the information on your home page is organized. Make sure the first page your visitors will see clearly explains:

• Your basic business information (business name, brief description, location, hours of operation, contact information)
• What services or products you offer (make sure to add brief but detailed descriptions)
• Who your business helps (include photos of the work you’ve done for previous customers)

A clear business message will improve the visitor experience and help them take action to hire your business.

5. My Website Doesn’t Show Up in Search Results

If you’ve just completed your website, it can take a few days for search engines like Google to display your site. After that, if your website is still not appearing in search results, try reviewing your content and making small improvements to SEO which can increase your site’s visibility.

6. My Website Contact Forms Aren’t Sending Emails

This is usually caused by a typo in your email address, or that your forms notifications are not turned on. Double-check that your email address was entered correctly into your builder platform’s “contact form” tool, and that the notifications box is checked.

When to Hire a Professional for Your Website

There may come a time when your business outgrows the simplicity of its basic DIY website. This is when you may want to hire a professional to upgrade your website. If your business is ready for the following features, you may want to hire a web developer and/or web designer:

• Custom functionality: Building special features that standard website templates do not offer, like calculators, client portals, surveys, or questionnaires.
• Advanced ecommerce systems: Online stores with features like advanced product options like personal engraving on your product, multiple t-shirt colors and sizes, or gift wrapping choices. Advanced ecommerce systems also include inventory management, or complex checkout systems where customers can use discount codes or get free products when they spend a certain amount of money.
• Membership portals: Private areas of a website where users can log in to access account information, courses, or documents.
• Complex booking tools: Scheduling systems that allow customers to book appointments, reserve services, or view your availability directly on your website.
• Technical troubleshooting: Involves diagnosing the issue if your website breaks down, displays errors, or otherwise stops functioning properly.
• Speed or performance optimization: Improvements to how quickly your website loads with optimized coding, compressed images, and server settings so visitors gain a more efficient experience on your website.
• Major website redesigns: Rebuilding or restructuring your website with a new layout, design, updated functionality, refreshed or modernized appearance.

Many business owners successfully start off with a DIY website then choose to bring in a professional later as their business evolves. This approach allows you to quickly launch your business online while saving some precious startup money for other things.

When you’re ready to take it to the next level, a web developer can expand your website and inspire further growth for your business.