Finding a website designer for WordPress or finding the time to build your website on your own are both challenging options. Either you will have to invest your time or you will have to invest your resources.
Your website is the hub of your business. With this much importance hanging in the balance, should you do WordPress web design on your own and bring in a professional website designer? By the end of this article, you’ll have a good idea of what’s best for you and your business.
Let’s take a look.
A website is an incredibly valuable asset. After all, almost two-thirds of small businesses rely on their websites to conduct business and connect with their customers. Yet so many small business owners choose to be their own website designer rather than hiring a professional WordPress designer to get the job done.
The question is why?
Most often, your website is the initial impression of your organization or business that people are exposed to. It’s where they learn about what you offer. It’s also the place where you’re most likely to convert leads into paying customers.
Of course, every business owner wears a lot of different hats. And quite often, you need to bootstrap in order to create business growth. In this guide, we’ll take a close look at the benefits of hiring a professional WordPress website designer vs doing the job on your own.
Can I Design My Own WordPress Website?
In a word, yes. Thanks to cutting-edge web design tools that make the work easier, you can build your own website on WordPress in just a few hours. In addition, WordPress combined with powerful page-building themes like Kadence Theme and Kadence Blocks allow you to start with ready-made website designs you can customize without a ton of effort.
Plus, doing things on your own always saves money up-front. But is designing your own WordPress website the best option when it comes to your business?
Should I Hire a Website Designer for WordPress?
To decide if you should hire a website designer for WordPress, you need to consider the pros of cons of the DIY web design route vs. working with a professional. Like a lot of things in life, DIY doesn’t always mean better, because professionals have invested years into learning their trade or craft.
If you enjoy the challenge of designing a website yourself, have a very limited budget, or are willing to learn the skills you need to design and build a website, then the DIY route may be for you.
6 Advantages of DIY Website Designs
Let’s take a look at the top six advantages of building and designing your own WordPress site from scratch.
1. Professional Website Design Will Not Make Your Business Succeed
When you launch a new business, there are several key factors to consider:
- Create a compelling offer that fits market demand
- Precisely defining the market in which you plan on operating
- Building a business that closely and naturally aligns with your personal instincts
- Lowering potential risk and creating a healthy cash flow
Did you notice what wasn’t included on that list?
Website design.
Of course, web design does tangibly impact your business. But it tends to happen in later stages of business planning. In other words, if you’re already having a difficult time covering business expenses, bringing in a professional website designer isn’t going to change much.
The bills are still going to be there, and you’ll then owe thousands more to your website designer.
In other words, doing WordPress web design on your own is far less expensive and can be nearly as effective.
Before you consider getting custom site design work done, first make sure that you have a glowing offer that people want to pay for, a defined target market, and the ability to get your name consistently in front of that market.
Money spent on website design prior to hitting these key milestones will probably be wasted.
2. There Are Much Less Expensive Options Than Website Designers
At the current stage of your planning, what would you rather do?
- Hire a custom WordPress designer for thousands of dollars?
- Spend a few hours learning and employing a powerful WordPress theme with all the power of the professionals?
If you’re hoping to hire someone who can turn out a website that meets your expectations, you can easily spend $10,000 or more. And if you’re running a large website that’s already making a lot of money, it could make sense to spend that kind of money.
But not if you’re just starting out.
Instead, consider downloading and installing Kadence Theme and Kadence Blocks to build and design your WordPress site. For as little as $129 annually, you can quickly and easily build a professional WordPress site that nobody will think you did on your own – which is just one of the many reasons why WordPress works.
Using the Kadence bundle, you can:
- Quickly launch your site by importing one of the demos
- Craft powerful content with the Blocks Toolkit
- Extend your site’s superpowers with additional plugins
- Get premium support any time you need it
Of course, if you’re building an eCommerce site, all you’ll need to do is add the WooCommerce plugin to Kadence Theme, and you’ll soon be in business for a fraction of the cost of a professional website designer.
3. Create Your Own Logo With a Few Hacks
Professional designers change a pretty penny for creating original logos. And for major corporations, it can be well worth the added cost.
But if you’ve just started your own business and website, you probably want to avoid spending a lot of money on a logo. The solution is 99 Designs.
This is a platform that connects clients and designers. And it functions sort of like content.
All you need to do is put in the specs for your design, then begin looking at the designs that are submitted by logo designers. You can provide feedback for the designs you like the best, then pick the winner based on your personal preference.
The process is easy, fun, and you’ll end up with a quality logo for less than $300.
If that’s too expensive, consider using Fiverr. You may be able to get your hands on a quality logo for as little as $10.
4. It’s Difficult To Find the Best WordPress Website Designers
The top senior WordPress designers know exactly what they’re worth, and they charge accordingly (if you can even book them). And the new designers with a lot of talent that exceed their cost tend to only be available for brief periods of time.
The reason is that, when one of their major clients sees how good they are, they often hire them full-time and take them off the market. Conversely, the designer may remain independent but now sees their value and begins to change more for their talent.
5. Inexpensive Website Designers Don’t Do Much More Than You Can Do On Your Own
If you find a WordPress web designer willing to do your site design work for less than $1,000, they’re basically going to find a theme and make some basic edits.
They won’t be doing a lot of custom coding.
Because of how easy it is to use a theme like Kadence Theme, you’ll quickly see that you have the power to do everything that inexpensive designers do.
And you won’t need to explain to anybody what you want to be done on your website and why.
6. Designs Tend To Age Quickly
If you are fortunate enough to hire a quality designer for your site, you’ll probably be extremely happy with how it turns out.
But that feeling will probably only last for about a year until the design begins to age.
Within two or three years, you’ll be ready for a brand new site design.
The problem is that website design trends change very quickly and are difficult to keep up with. After all, a great website design only stands out if it’s better than the competition. And a superb design from four years ago will look like an old hat today.
Instead, use a WordPress theme that can be changed and customized as you go. Or, when your site begins to look and feel outdated, simply spend another $100 or so on a new and current theme.
This is much less expensive than spending thousands of dollars every few years on major professional design updates.
6 Reasons to Hire a WordPress Web Designer
Now that you clearly see the advantages of building your own website using WordPress, what about the advantages of hiring a professional website designer to do it for you? If you’re intimidated by the website design process, then hiring a web designer may be your best option for a variety of reasons.
Here are six reasons to consider hiring a professional website designer who specializes in WordPress websites. Let’s unpack a few.
1. You Want a Website That’s Unique and Creative
If you’re like a lot of business owners, you don’t want a website that appears to be a “cookie-cutter” site that was built in a few days.
You want to be original.
When you build your own site, you run the risk of blending in with your competition. But a WordPress expert will go far beyond pre-packaged plugins and themes that are already used on thousands of other sites.
You’ll collaborate with your chosen designer to create a site that’s unique and elegant, while strategically incorporating the branding of your organization.
And when it’s done, you’ll own a one-of-a-kind site that positively impacts your users and customers.
2. You Need Customization You Can’t Do Yourself
You probably already have a bunch of ideas that you want to immediately incorporate into your site. For example, you might want to feature a quiz for users that will help indicate which products you offer best solve their individual needs.
If you don’t have a professional designer and developer available, your ideas could sit in limbo until you figure out how to create a solution that fits your needs.
Of course, you’ll probably be able to find plugins that’ll help you out. But if you put too many plugins into use, you’ll negatively impact site performance and open yourself up to potential security concerns.
Additionally, with the huge number of WordPress plugins available at your fingertips, it could take months to figure out the right configuration for your site.
A professional website designer will know the right plugins to use without using so many that your site ends up bogging down.
3. You Value UX (User Experience)
Professional designers are experts at knowing how to optimize your site for the best UX possible. And what users now expect is a simple and engaging experience.
In addition, Google rewards sites that are user-friendly by giving them higher search results rankings. Google measures how long people stay on your website compared with your competition, then boosts the sites with the most engaged users.
This is a solid reason why you should trust your website design to an expert. They’re already experienced in developing sites that will keep users engaged and interested in what you have to offer.
4. You Need to Win at SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Website design professionals have the expertise and tools to improve how your site performs in search rankings. They have the know-how to implement on- and off-page techniques for improved SEO.
The best developers also know how to take what your competition is already doing, then improve upon it with your site.
As an example, they’re able to find the top sources that send traffic to your competitors, then apply that knowledge to your site to make it rise in the SERPs (search engine results pages).
5. You Have Concerns About Mobile Optimization
Back in 2018, Google made a user’s mobile experience one of its highest priorities by boosting the rankings of sites that are fully optimized for use on mobile devices.
This is precisely why it’s now more important than ever before to hire a professional that instinctively knows how to create websites that are responsive. A professional website designer will create a site that flawlessly performs on desktop and mobile devices alike.
And their designs will be fully compatible with all browsers, such as Firefox, Sarafi, and Chrome.
6. You Value Efficiency
Have you ever heard the saying:
“Focus on what you do best and outsource the rest…”?
When you decide to start a business, it’s important that you focus on doing the things you’re best at. Everything else is ultimately a means to an end.
If you don’t have WordPress website design expertise already in-house, seriously consider hiring someone for your WordPress needs. You won’t need to spend time learning the WordPress platform, figuring out how to secure it, or keep up with all the changes and updates.
You also probably don’t want to place your site design and maintenance duties on a team member whose time is much better spent on other responsibilities that they know well.
When you hire a professional WordPress website designer, you’ll be free to do what you (and your team) do the best: BUILDING YOUR BUSINESS!
Wrapping Up
Your website is one of your most crucial business assets. It requires a lot of upkeep and attention.
By hiring a professional WordPress website designer to handle your development and maintenance, you take a lot of effort off the plate of yourself and your team. On the other hand, you may enjoy the challenge of doing it yourself. The good news is that by choosing WordPress as your content management system, you have options either way!
Get the bonus content: Getting Started with WordPress
Kathryn Lang believes it is simple, and as an award-winning author and natural-born hopesmith, she shares tips on how to find your why, pursue your purpose, and live a bold, intentional life – always with a dash of twisted encouragement.
Keep reading the article at WordPress News and Updates from iThemes – iThemes. The article was originally written by Kathryn Lang on 2021-10-29 14:52:56.
The article was hand-picked and curated for you by the Editorial Team of WP Archives.