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Hire a Professional Website Designer and Avoid these Mistakes

Posted December 1st 2012 Blog - 0 Comments

Website DesignerMany think that hiring a web designer is a waste of time and money.  After all, there are plenty of templates and plug-ins and widgets out there to make designing your website or blog as easy as 1, 2, 3, aren’t there?   Can’t you just do it yourself?

While this is true, there are also many things you may want done that you just cannot do by yourself. Not to mention the time you will lose when you don’t know what you’re doing and you might sacrifice your SEO and other important steps when you try to do it yourself.

Here are some common mistakes you can avoid when you opt instead to hire a professional:

Save time and saving time is saving money

How often have you tried designing a new header or image only to find that you can’t get it just right or it isn’t the right size or there is something missing?  You just spent all those hours working on a design problem when you probably could have made more than the money it would cost you to hire a professional.  After all, when running your own business, blog or website, time is money, why waste it?

One-of-a-kind custom design

Using the templates that are available for website and blog design may be fast and easy, but is that what you want your “front page” to say about you and your business?  Do you want your site to look just like all the others or do you want it to stand out in your customer or visitors mind so that they do want to revisit, bookmark, share and use your site?   A professionally designed site can take the ease of a template design and create the one of a kind graphics and images that showcase you and your business or service.

More than just a pretty face

Hiring a professional website designer provides your website with more than just a “pretty face.”  Professionals can incorporate several different features that can make your site stand out and get noticed.  A professional designer can also save you time by installing the tools you need for good SEO, link indexing, tagging, categories, sharing, commenting, forming connections and even keeping track of your stats.  Do you think you can do all that?

Maybe you can, but it will most likely involve more than the recommended number of plug-ins and it may not be as seamless as using a professional’s tools.  Avoid messages from prospective clients or sales leads lost because your browser is not compatible.  There are many different browsers used and not every design or design tool will work well with all of them.  A professional can design a site that works with Chrome to Safari and many browsers in between. Let’s not forget that the professionals come with updates and customer support and you won’t get that when you “do it yourself.”

On top of technology

Professional designers stay on top of technology.  They not only need to know the creative side of website design but they need to know the latest and greatest technology including short cuts towards making your website and your business successful.  They know and learn a variety of different tools and software programs, from hosting to promoting that can keep your business page ahead of all the others.   Things change quickly with the web.  Look how popular QR codes and mobile apps have become.  A professional designer can keep you informed and on top of all that technology.

Dedication to design

Using a professional designer means that they are dedicated to your website design.  Sure, they may have many projects going on but when they aren’t multitasking like you may be.  Consider the busy business owner’s day.  You get started on getting that header image just the way you want and the phone rings or it is time to go to a meeting.  Five hours later, you return and nothing is done on your website.   Avoid those distractions by using someone whose time is dedicated to making your website not only nice to look at but who can get it done without all the distractions.

One of the main reasons that many businesses avoid using a professional web designer is that they think they just don’t have the budget for it.   But without a professional online image 24 hours a day, they may not have the budget for much else either.   There are many different designers and design services available and pricing varies.  With the types of mistakes an amateur could make, how can you afford not to hire a professional website or blog designer?

 

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