Should I Create My Own Website? (Or, should I hire a professional?)

Great question!

I used to wonder the same thing. Creating your own WordPress site is actually easy. Hundreds of themes make it possible for anyone to launch a website in a day. A theme determines your overall layout options and comes packed with its own toolkit of options to help you customize your site. So, why would anyone need to hire a professional? Here’s a quick breakdown of things to consider as you decide whether to create your own website or hire a professional.

Want to DIY Your Website?

Choose a Theme Wisely

If you have the time and are decently comfortable with technology, or have the willingness to take the time to learn it, then a DIY approach can be a great idea. Choosing a good theme is important. I personally like the GeneratePress and Neve themes. They are “lightweight,” which translates to “fast,” and “mobile-responsive,” which means your website will look great on any mobile device. Both speed and responsiveness are a must these days. Be sure to browse the site libraries or starter sites for inspiration and to get a head start on your design: GeneratePress site library | Neve site starter sites (think of them as “websites-in-a-box” or “ready-to-go websites”). These two themes should accommodate most, if not all, basic website needs. Where you can go wrong with a theme is choosing one that is slow and bloated with too many bells and whistles you don’t need. Astra and OceanWP are also highly rated–but I have not tested them personally. (If you end up choosing a theme you don’t like, you can always switch. Switching is easy and pain-free if you haven’t invested too much time into customizing your site.)

Carefully Consider Your Plugins

What is a plugin? Plugins are add-ons for your website and WordPress offers hundreds of them. They can be used to manage meta tags for SEO, back up your site, improve site speed, add e-commerce capability, fancy photo galleries, contact forms, etc. There are so many to choose from, it can be overwhelming. Here are the steps I take before installing a new plugin:

• Perform a Google search on the best plugins for the function I want
• Search for it in the WordPress plugin database and make sure it is compatible with the theme I am using
• I visit the plugin website and look at the number of downloads, read the reviews, and check to see how often or how recently the plugin was updated. WordPress doesn’t create or maintain many plugins. Nearly all are created by developers, so you want to choose one that you know is going to be maintained going forward.
• NOTE: The wrong plugin could significantly slow down your site. In some cases, the wrong combination of plugins could break your site.

DIY Web Design is a Good Option if:

• You are comfortable with technology or learning technology
• You don’t have a specific vision for your website and are content to use a stock design from a theme site library or starter site
• You don’t need to integrate with other sites or software, e.g. Zoho CRM, Mailchimp, Active Campaign, payment gateway, etc. (Some integrations are easy, others a bit more complicated.)
• SEO is not a high priority

Why Hire a Professional Web Developer

Back to the original question! Here are some good reasons to choose to hire a professional:

• You are busy and want to focus on your core business
• You want to improve your Google ranking, but don’t have time to study up on SEO best practices
• The thought of registering a new domain, setting up hosting, redirects (if applicable), Google Analytics, and Google Search Console feels daunting
• You have a specific design in mind so you need a custom site
• You have tried to DIY… You have chosen a theme and a template that looks good, but you can’t get it to look just right. Maybe you don’t like the spacing between sections or between the lines. Perhaps you want to center your logo in mobile view, but your theme does not offer that option. Maybe you want to add some information to your footer, but your theme does not have a widget for it.
• You want to integrate with third-party software but you have hit a roadblock or feel nervous about not getting it right

Have Questions?

Feel free to message me. I may be able to answer it via email or point you in the right direction. If you think you might need a professional web designer/ developer, but aren’t sure, I’m here to discuss and answer any questions you may have.

Still Want to DIY? Here are a Couple Pro Tips!

1. Invest in great photos and graphics. No matter how killer your written content is, your website will look “homemade” if you use poor photos. For a professional-looking site, invest the time to take great photos (don’t need fancy equipment, just a decent eye, a mobile phone with a quality camera, and some minor editing) or use a stock photo (there are plenty of free ones; be sure to select one that does not have usage restrictions). Use Canva to create professional-looking, eye-catching graphics. You can also use it to edit or add special effects to photos.
2. Size your photos appropriately. I recommend resizing your photos (height x width dimensions) and compressing them to ensure your web pages load fast. A good rule of thumb is to keep the “weight” of each web page (not web site) under 1MB. Various factors contribute to the weight of a page: HTML, style sheets, custom fonts, scripts, and media. Since we’re talking about basic websites in this post, focusing on the sum total weight of images and videos should be sufficient in most cases.