Should You Design Your Website? Here’s the Pros and Cons
"Should I design my own website ?" is a question probably asked by every business owner who’s started from the ground up. In fact, its how our agency started over 12 years ago when I decided to take the leap and learn website design.
Anyone can learn anything if they put the time and effort in, but is it practical for you to do it yourself?
In this blog post I’ll go over all of the benefits and pitfalls of creating your own website and by the end of this article you’ll be able to make a conscious decision.
Should You Design a Website for Your Business
The short answer is no, it’s probably not a good idea to design your won website .
I learned to design a website because I planned to do it as a career and wasn’t just a business owner wanting to save some money. There’s a large learning curve when it pertains to web design, and even the preparation stages to build a website before you start designing comes with challenges.
Could you get it done? Sure, but I guarantee you’ll either spend more time than your time is worth as a business owner or you’ll design something that isn’t great.
Website Designing Pros vs. Cons
Prior to deciding whether you should go ahead and design the face of your business online yourself, there are a couple of things you may want to consider:
Pros
Save money.
You learn to manage your own website (we teach you how when we design!)
Time flexibility
Creative control
Cons
Huge time consumption learning and developing
Basic knowledge mandatory (hosting, domains, DNS, etc)
You spend money anyway and aren’t really saving
Don’t understand SEO but you want your site to get visitors
Site speed can be technical
Sure you save money and you get to feel comfortable knowing it’s all on you, and this is what you’re probably accustomed to as a solopreneur. But in 2024 website design has become affordable for the smallest of businesses and you can find quality web design for $200 on the web.
At Blue Lake Web Design we do 3-page websites for $300. How much do you make per hour as a business owner and how many hours do you think it will take you to learn how to build a website, design it well, and get it live? This is what you need to consider before designing your own website.
Not to mention the added benefits that come with a quality web designer. At Blue Lake we don’t just design websites. We optimize them to get more presence in Google, we make sure that their fast, and we create all of your content elements for you making it an easy and painless process!
What You’ll Need To Know Before Designing Your Website
Before diving into a website design you’ll need to have some technical knowledge and basic understanding of how websites work. Where do you get a domain name? What CMS (WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Shopify) do you use? If you go with a CMS that isn’t self hosted which hosting company do you use? These are just a few of the things you’ll need to worry about if you’re going to design your own website.
Domain Names
Everyone that I come across usually goes with GoDaddy and I have no idea why they have the market share they do. I’m not going to turn this into a rant about why GoDaddy is a bad choice for everything, I’m just going to recommend the company I like. Namecheap.
Their hosting is terrible, but for domain names they’re the best. DNS, pricing, and support. Trust me, go with Namecheap. If you’ve already obtained your domain from somewhere else it’s fine. You just may be limited on DNS capabilities and pay more.
Content Management Systems (CMS)
WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Weebly and more…
Most of you are going to choose a CMS and not go the custom code route with a framework like React or Next.js, so we’ll only discuss CMS selection.
Honestly WordPress is the winner here.
Out of all the websites that use a known CMS, 43.4% of those sites use WordPress – WP Beginner
If you’re going to build an eCommerce store than this would be my only caveat: When it comes to ranking a store in Google in 2024, then Shopify is my go-to. The CRO features of Shopify are also unmatched by any other CMS.
If you’re not an online store, don’t waste your time with other website builders and CMS’s, just grab WordPress and a good theme. I like Divi from Elegant Themes. They’ve come a long way over the years and you can really design good looking fast loading websites in a fraction of the time with their builder.
Don’t worry about how to do this. It’s a one-click install with your hosting company, which we’ll discuss in the next section.
Hosting
Selecting a hosting company can be extremely challenging if you’re new at this. Pick the wrong one and you’re headed for tons of issues and banging your head if you’re a business owner who cares about their business and monitor their website.
Most hosting companies bet on small business owners neglecting their website and not knowing when they run into problems, like their website having downtime. So it’s good to know who the good guys are.
We’ve spent years trying out companies, and even the good ones eventually end up going downhill.
Our current recommendations for hosting are HostArmada and WP Engine.
If you don’t mind spending a little more for top notch hosting that gives you piece of mind without needing to update anything or lift a finger, then WP Engine is your best choice. At around $20 a month you get top tier hosting, fast loading speeds, and un-matchable reliability.
Don’t think you need all the whistles and bells? Then go with HostArmada. At approx $4 a month for their top tier server you can’t go wrong. When it comes to budget hosts, they’re the best.
So will you design your own website?
It’s up to you! Just remember, although I’ve provided you with insider knowledge and where to go, you’ll still need to learn to set all of it up. Your setup alone is going to take more than a couple of hours.
Either way, no matter what you choose, I wish you the best of luck and much success!
