Should I be paying for a website developer?
Tricky question. The answer really depends on what your website is used for.
With advancements in website creation sites, it is really quite simple to set up and manage your own website. With some basic computer skills, a simple website can be very easily maintained by a business owner.
I often see small business plans and cash flow forecasts that automatically add in between $200 - $2000 per month for the services of a specialist website support person. Now in some cases this is totally required. But to be honest, those cases are becoming few and far between.
For all of the sites I recommend to clients, none require specialist knowledge, such as coding, to run a visually beautiful, and functional website.
Even websites that require online selling or event management have become very simple to set up and manage. Outsourcing now should be a question of time. In some cases, small to medium sized businesses don’t have a person in house that has the time available to actually do the work required to maintain , update and manage the site. Usually, it does not represent a full time workload, and it can be difficult to ‘add’ the role onto someone else’s role.
So, yes you may want to outsource the management of your website to an external party, but it is worth considering what the work will acutally involve. Can you use the services of an admin assistant or graphic designer instead of a highly skilled coder? Chances are, the work just doesn’t required high level technical skills. Save them (and your budget) for a project that truely needs them.
Below is a list of website building sites that I use and recommend.
SQUARESPACE - I have had a lot of success with this simple website builder that also takes care of the hosting and backups. The number of templates available keeps growing, and it is perfect when you have lots of high quality images you want to show off. The drag and drop functionality, the built in web stats and the compatability with a large range of apps and marketing programs makes this a great choice.
WIX - Another simple drag and drop website builder, this one is also a popular choice meaning that the number of compatible plugins and apps keeps growing.
WORDPRESS - Originally built for the blogging community, Wordpress expanded over the years to become a self publishing platform, making it easy for people to create their own sites without having to use complicated and expensive website building programs. I now stear away from building sites using this CMS (content management system) as it requires seperate hosting and the maintenance is more labour intensive. You need to have greater web knowledge to be able to maintain a site using this system than you do with my first two suggestions. Some will point out that Wordpress gives you greater choice and freedom in creating, however in my experience, simple, aethestically pleasing and functional are what small business owners are chasing.
I hope you will consider approaching your website with less trepidation after reading these thoughts. I am able to build you a simple easy to manage website and teach you how to update it so you can look after it yourself. Alternatively, I can also manage your web presence if you just don’t have the time available to do it yourself. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss.
Enjoy your week! - Alana