Using a Professional Website Designer Instead of DIY Website Builder

Did you know? There are more and more DIY website builder services popping up nowadays.

Website Designers in Newcastle NSWThe website builder services are almost multiplying these days and all offer the exact same thing – “build your own website without knowing any code – get started for free!”

To list just a handful, you’ve got Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, Weebly, GoDaddy, WebFlow, Square, Rocketspark… phew, not even close to listing all of them! They all (mostly) offer free trials and claimed “low monthly fees”.

Don’t get me wrong, they sound like pretty attractive offers when you first read them! But while these “low monthly fees” do sound attractive in the short term, the problem is that, once you do a little digging and a few calculations, you can quickly find out that it will inevitably cost you the same, if not way more, in the long run!

We’ve done our own research on a few of the big name website builders out there to help you make your mind up. We found the following information for a standard eCommerce website package:

  • Squarespace = $582.00/yr + $27.00/yr domain name
  • GoDaddy = $419.40/yr + $21.95/yr domain name + $119.40/yr (per user) email account
  • Wix = $564.00/yr + $23.02/yr domain name (does not allow .com.au) + $96/yr email account
  • Kazam Creative = $359.40/yr + $30/yr domain name + FREE professional email accounts

We’ve just added ourselves there as well for a comparison and to show we aren’t hiding our pricing! So, looking at the above, you can clearly see who is more expensive when it comes to building a website yourself! Except of course the domain name cost which we charge a bit more for (this covers set up and management).

We even found the following, very misleading table on one of their websites as well!

Website Design in Newcastle NSW

It appears as though they claim they’re the only company that provides these website package features. For this to be true, it would look more like this:

Website Builders Versus Website Developers

How Much is your Own Time Worth?

Search Engine Optimisation in Lake Macquarie NSWAdding to the yearly costs with these website builders, you will now have to spend hours upon hours of your own time, first learning how to use their DIY software and then actually building your own website. Trust us, a simple website, especially one that you’re passionate about, can easily take you 18 hours from start to finish!

What about when you’ve reached the point of being happy with your website. Now, how do you submit it to Google? How do you tweak your SEO efficiently to be sure you’re getting all the organic (unpaid) traffic you’re entitled to? There are many things that happen behind the scenes with website design that aren’t just about the look and feel of it. With Google/Bing and Search Engine Optimisation being a hugely competitive area these days it’s become even more important to have your website handled by a professional.

Did you know there are currently 1.7 billion websites in the world??!!

What Happens if you Want To Transfer your Site Elsewhere?

Due to the nature of these DIY website builders, they all have their own proprietary system, created using their own forms of coding. If you ever wished to transfer your website away to another website company, you will find that you’re either stuck with them, or you’ll have to get your website completely rebuilt.

To the contrary, we build all of our websites using WordPress, a FREE, open source website building platform. Being “open source” means that it’s constantly improved and developed by thousands of website developers out there – it’s actually the most popular website builder out there. It can also be installed on any website hosting package and, should you feel the need to transfer away from your current website developer, you can get a complete copy of all files and move it to any other provider you wish!

Even Google has partnered with WordPress to help create a stronger, better, faster web.*

“Low” Monthly Payments (that you’ll be Paying Forever!)

For the life of your DIY website, you will be paying these extra fees every year, for as long as your business exists (or at least your website)! The following is a fairly loose scenario, as it doesn’t factor in other features you miss out on by using a website builder (such as SEO and speed optimisation), but let’s pick one from the list at the start of this article and calculate what it will cost you over 10 years:

  • DIY Builder = Over 10 years = $6,830 (doesn’t include the 18 or so hours of your time building and perfecting the website)
  • Kazam Creative = Over 10 years = $5,894 (professional website build included!)

Looking at the above figures, if you’re serious about your business and really want to maximise it’s growth and customer conversions as best as possible, I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to use a professional website designer!

Wow I’m So Bored, Moving On Now!

You’re still reading? That’s awesome, we’re glad you’ve made it this far!

To sum up, We love using the analogy of servicing your own car – yes you may know how to change the oil, change filters, top up fluid levels, but do you actually do it or would you rather save your time for other things and get a professional to do it for you?

You really do get better value for money by using a professional website designer, but if you’re not convinced then that’s okay too. It’s an important decision every business needs to assess. But where you don’t have the ability to easily call up the DIY website builders and ask about something, you CAN call us up any time (just not at midnight please!) and speak to a real human website design expert based in New South Wales! We won’t give you a hard sell, we love just sharing knowledge and educating you on what might be the best option for your business.

 

* The need for speed: Google dedicates engineering team to accelerate development of WordPress ecosystem – https://searchengineland.com/need-speed-google-dedicates-engineering-team-accelerate-development-wordpress-ecosystem-291214

Call us for a chat on 0481 263 766, or we can organise to meet up for a coffee and discuss your needs – we’ll shout the coffee!