Can I Build my own website?
“Can I build my own website?” Is this a familiar question to you? Well, the short answer to this question is yes. Yes, you can build your own website. There are many tools available for people to build their own websites that require little to no development knowledge.
You can use builders such as Wix or WordPress, both with their own advantages and disadvantages that we will discuss in another article.
We think the question shouldn’t be “Can I build my own website?”, but rather “Should I build my own website?”
Should you build your own website?
We have established that you can build your own website, now let’s see if you should… We would suggest asking yourself the following questions before building your own website:
- Do you have graphic design experience or access to an image database for artwork on the website?
- Do you have about 40 to 80 hours to work on the website, assuming this is a small website?
- Will you have the necessary knowledge to debug the website if/when it goes down?
- Are you familiar with setting up email addresses and maintaining them?
- Will you be able to do the necessary backups and have time for it?
- Will you have time to make changes to the website?
If all of the answers above are NO, then we would strongly recommend getting skilled professionals to assist you. Sometimes people feel that websites are too expensive. “It is just a website, why so expensive?”. But it is not just a website. There are so many factors to consider and things that need to be done.
Some smaller factors to consider can also include:
- Annual domain registration – This needs to be done
- Monthly hosting will need to be paid and maintained.
- SSL security will need to be added to the website
- Backups will need to be made
- Connectivity problems can occur from time to time, what then?
Maybe you should rather get a professional to assist, but who do you choose?
Getting the right web developer is often tricky and we have found that there are so many “One man bands” that cause people to not trust web development companies, because of bad experiences…
It is for this reason that we always suggest using a registered company that has been in business for a few years, we get so many clients that used a friend of a friend (A one-man band), and this guy, or gal, moved overseas, or fell ill or just disappeared, now they can’t get any support. We see this quite often, that is why we cannot stress this enough. Use someone reputable. We’re not saying find the most expensive or the biggest development company, but a company that has a decent portfolio, and has been operating for a few years. It has been said that most businesses fail in the first 3 years. More of a reason to look for a company that has made it past 3 years, look at their portfolio – do you like what you see? Look at their reviews – user-generated content speaks loud…
In Conclusion.
Do your research, don’t just go for the cheapest quote. A website is not a T-shirt that you can wear for a couple of years and throw out. In this digital world that is always growing, a website is only getting more important, and for most people, the first impression is the most important tell-tale.
We at Vital Dev (Pty) Ltd., therefore, pride ourselves in becoming partners with our clients and being there every step of the way. We have specifically structured our pricing in a way that we have monthly allocated time to all our website clients, to walk with you and grow your business with you.
Still, wondering about US? Have a look at our Portfolio.
