The Advantages of a Professional Website

A professional website is an investment, so it’s understandable that a lot of startups opt for DIY sites. Maybe you’re considering your options or you’re curious about the advantages of a professional website over a do-it-yourself one. Here’s a list of some advantages, so you can clearly see the differences.

Customized Design

If branding and design are important to you, a professional website gives you TONS of custom design options. While you can add your own pictures and logo to DIY sites, you’ll ultimately have limitations based on the platform you’re using. For example, you want to add a cute info box to your new Wix site? Unless the theme you’re using has that option, you’re out of luck. Professional web developers use WordPress, which is more technical to use, but has endless possibilities with added custom code. Your Web Designer/Developer should be adding custom code to your website.

Better SEO

Most business owners know SEO is important, but they don’t necessarily know how it works. The truth is, there is a lot you can do to optimize SEO in the website design process. Working with a professional designer ensures that your site is more keyword rich and using the proper infrastructure to optimize SEO. Additionally, professional designers often use advanced plugins to further improve SEO, as opposed to DIY sites that are plug and play.

Mobile Optimization

Part of what makes doing your own website tricky is that not all platforms are the same. If you design your site to look great on desktop, that doesn’t mean it will automatically look good on mobile. The mobile experience is more important now than ever as most people use their phones to view websites today. Professional website designers go through each page and section of your site to ensure it displays and functions optimally whether it’s being viewed on a desktop, tablet, or phone. 

Improved Security

While most DIY website platforms offer some security, many of them are not as robust as you may need. This is especially true if you are processing any payments through your website. Both for your sake and your customers’ sake, having robust firewalls can prevent hackers from stealing sensitive information. Not to mention, if you’re on a Website Care Plan, you’re also getting regular website backups to a cloud server, giving you the peace of mind you need.

Advantage: Dynamic Elements

Perhaps the best thing about working with a professional website designer/developer is that they can create dynamic elements, specific to your business. Do you have multiple store locations that you want your customers to see on a dynamic map? Do you sell online courses and want people to be able to access and stream them right from your website? If you can dream it (and afford it), virtually anything is possible. This is perhaps the biggest limitation of a DIY site. To make it work well, you need to keep things simple, and may find yourself getting frustrated at the limitations. 

Integrations

Lastly, a professional designer can integrate your website with the other softwares, whether it be Hubspot, MailChimp, or other platforms. These integrations can be limited and harder to accomplish on many DIY website platforms. 

That’s a Wrap

As you can see, even though a professional website is an investment up front, it’s worth the savings of time & frustration. Not to mention, it will increases your visibility online, bringing more traffic through your virtual front doors than ever before. 

Not only am I a professional website designer/developer, but I have a Masters Degree in Web Design & Online Communication. I’d love to help you with your website and branding needs. 

Contact me today to start the conversation. 

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