Corrosive Online

Why D.I.Y Websites Don't Pay!

Almost the first thing that a start up business considers nowadays is 'do I need a website?' Well, the answer is, it depends on your business and how you want to reach your target audience. Some businesses will never benefit from having a website but many will as often potential customers use services such as Google, yell.com, freeindex etc. to seek out goods and services.

So, once the budding entrepreneur has decided that 'yes' the business will benefit from having a website, the next step is how to approach it? This is where it can get really sticky. The danger comes with that single thought...I could build this myself...how hard can it be? I can even buy Dreamweaver, that will build my website for me. Stop right there and consider just a few things.

Do you know how to code? Well, I guess not if this is your first website. Dreamweaver and other WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors are very good but they won't build your website for you. You need to understand code, mark-up, CSS and have a good eye for design before you can use any web design tool effectively. Think about having a tool box...this does not make you a mechanic!

You may even see the 'easy and cheap' answer is to download a pre-made template from a website and add your own content. Do you know what you should be looking for though? Some templates out there are terrible. More often than not they are produced by graphic designers who think 'that looks pretty' and puts them through Site Grinder. You just try adding one single more line of content than the 'designer' has left space for...

Your website is your shop window (unless you have a shop) and it really needs to attract customers from the off. Building your own site with a few tables, block colours and maybe an absolutely positioned div or two only leads to problems. Do you know that you need to check your website design and how it displays across multiple browsers? Do you know how to accomodate different screen resolutions? What happens to your website when someone who is partially sighted decides to override the styles you have given things and increase the text size? Do you even know which web technologies you should be using? In my experience these issues are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to home built websites and will lead to hours of searching forums and other sites for the answers, only to be faced with another problem five minutes later.

Anyway, you are setting up a business. You have an overdraught facility or loan from your friendly bank manager and you are ready to go. Interest payments are starting to build up and what are you doing? Learning how to design and build a website! Think about how crazy that sounds...

A competent web designer will build you a simple, clean and modern looking website for only a few hundred pounds. They will understand usability, sensible navigation, how to optimise code and images for a speedy download time and how to get the best from your Search Engine ranking.

OK, I agree that it is not always easy to find a good website designer. There is a whole host of them out there and you really have no idea if one is good or bad. Well, here are some tips; look at their portfolio. Do you like what you see? Try 'Googling' some of their customer's sites based on some choice keywords from what the site is about. Maybe 'artist supplies in Bristol' if that is what they do. Where do they come in Google search rankings? If they are on the first couple of pages then that is usually a good sign. Do they promise to build as close as they can to web standards? Finally, meet with them. Don't do all your business by e-mail. Your chosen designer should ask to meet with you to get to know what you are about and how you want your business to be portrayed. I know it is a 'World Wide Web' but local is always choice for me.

I know what you are going to say...'You're a web designer, you want to charge me for using your services'. I guess there is some truth to this. I want to use my skills to scratch a living as much as the next person. The point is that I know what I am doing and it took me over a year to learn how to build a basic website properly. I am always learning and improving my skills and knowledge of the web and design. Are my services not worth every penny to get it right? If you want to be a web designer then 'good on you', learn your craft. But if you want to run a restaurant or repair broken furniture then leave the web design to the professionals.

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