Should I Design My Own Website?
   ~what a tangled Web we weave. . .

You have something to sell or a message to spread and you want a website. What should you do? Should you pay someone to do it for you or should you learn the art of Web design yourself? There are pros and cons to both.  In theory, we could all build our own house. But, how well will it function and how would it look?  Probably not very good. Consider looking at building your own website in the same way. Just because you or someone you know says they can do something, does mean they should?

The Pros of Designing a Website In-House

The Cost of Designing a Website Professionally Can Be Prohibitive
The biggest reason to design a website in-house is cost. Websites can cost several thousand dollars to build, depending on the complexity of the site. There are also costs involved with purchasing a domain name for your website, as well as setting up a subscription for Web hosting, search engine optimization, and maintenance.

By Designing Your Own Website, You Learn Some Good Tools
By designing your own website you develop an incredibly useful set of skills that you can use to manage your own website and also to build websites for other ventures. Also, once you have gotten your feet wet, you will have a better understanding of what professional Web designers are talking about and you should have an easier time qualifying the costs associated with them.

Full Control
If you design your own site, you are in full control over the time schedule, launch date, and making updates to the site in a timely manner. Because Web design firms typically work with several customers at a time, there may be delays before your requests get processed.   Design your own site and the only delay will be yours.

The Cons of Designing a Website In-House

The Time it takes to Learn the Technology Required to Design a Website is Significant
There is a fairly intense learning curve to designing and developing a website. Not only do you need to understand multiple programming languages and/or software, you also need to understand how to make a website come alive, how to build a site that works on multiple Web browsers, is found by the search engines, and that's just scratching the surface.

If you have an EXCESS AMOUNT OF TIME when operating your business, learning the technology and designing your own website can be a good investment and fun. If, however, you will be taking time out of your business for its development, it's hard to justify the time loss.

Potential Problems with Usability
Most Web design firms have a significant amount of knowledge and experience under their belt when it comes to Web usability ~ how to make a website more user-friendly. If you are new to the field, you run the risk of creating usability problems with your site without knowing it. Maybe an important link is in a hard-to-find area or the styles you are using aren't readable on certain browsers.

Also, if you need a shopping cart, installing that is a big project, even if you plan to sell only a few items.  Hiring a professional design firm makes it more likely that you will be able to avoid most usability problems.

Lack of Search Engine Optimization in the Website Design
In order for a website design to be search engine optimized or even simply search engine friendly, the website needs to have a lot of pieces in place, many of which might be particularly challenging to a new Web developer. And, without a doubt, having a search engine friendly site and having the site submitted to all the search engines is by far the most important part of designing a site.

Trying to Use Free Website Hosting
A word of caution: Don't bother signing up for a free community website that's hosted by someone else. The publishing on the website might be super simple but no one is going to take you seriously if you have a free website with lots of other people’s ads and are trying to promote a business on a professional level. A simple and hosted point and click website is ok for playing around but not for a professional business.

Conclusion ~ Should I Design My Own Website?
This often seems like a good idea initially, getting a free or nearly free website by doing it yourself.  But, by trying to save a little money, you are most likely getting an ineffective website and one that may damage your company's reputation by the way it looks.  Most successful companies, do not get where they are by having inexperienced friends and family do the office construction, accounting, infrastructure, and financing. Experience, dedication, passion, and industry knowledge are just some of the ingredients you should be looking for when you decide who to put in charge or your website, logo, marketing, or similar project.

While the knowledge you gain designing your own website can be valuable, it takes spending time on a significant learning curve before you can be sure you're going about website design in a sustainable way. If you have the time to spend, learning Web design can be useful for a long time to come. However, hiring a professional design firm, even for a small site, can give you peace of mind knowing that the site has all the right pieces in place.  As I said, design your own site and the only delay will be yours.  Is it a delay you can afford?  If you have someone inexperienced design your company's website, your company will look inexperienced or unprofessional to your customers. Don’t get yourself into a tangled Web mess you cannot unweave!

We have been designing websites since 1997. In that time, we have seen what methods and technologies work and which ones don't. We continually leverage emerging trends and technologies to create the most innovative and