When starting a business, many people think that they can just design their own website. But after a few months, it becomes evident that designing a good looking and functional website is not as easy as it seems.
To be honest, it’s not impossible for a business owner to create their own website. But having someone with design expertise and experience is definitely important. A web designer does so much more than just lay out the structure of a site and fill it with content.
It starts with an understanding of your brand, your mission and what you want to achieve by using the internet in your marketing campaign. From there on, we create wireframes outlining how users will navigate through the site (website map). Based on that map, we can then start creating page layouts that are easy to understand and intuitively lead users from one page to another (navigation). After all these pieces come together on paper, they can be translated into actual website pages where content is added – text, images or video. And last but not least, a designer makes sure that all parts are working perfectly together – making sure every link goes somewhere and nothing appears broken when people click on something.
But there’s a lot more to it than just making the site look pretty. In fact, designers are often called upon to take on SEO and marketing duties too, because they understand exactly how important good-looking websites can be in regard to search engine optimization. They know that a well-designed website (and blog) is easier for users to navigate and that prettier sites tend to rank higher with Google when someone searches for keywords related to your business. The truth is that designing websites is not as simple as pressing the “save” button at the end of the day – whether you’re hiring an expert or doing it yourself. But having working with clients firsthand, I think we can all agree that hiring a professional web designer makes an exponential difference to success or failure and guarantees visitors who are interested in what you have to offer.
And if there’s something besides my expertise that I want you take away today, it’s this:
When it comes to your website, don’t settle for second best – hire a professional!
