Why does anyone need a professional Web Designer?
With a plethora of website design and website building tools
available today why does anyone need a web designer? In fact,
if you shop around, you can build a well presented web site for
free. So why pay a web designer? This short article will not
try and persuade you to pay a web designer, but show you why you
should use a professional web designer.
A good website needs to address multiple challenges:-
- Websites need
visitors and in turn it must convert
those visitors into customers.
- Websites need to work across
multiple browsers.
- Websites need to be
accessible to multiple audiences
and comply with the accessibility guidelines
- Websites require good
layout, design & graphics
To bring it all together takes skill and takes a professional.
But above all, websites require
good content.
DIY
You can do your web design and build your own website. But
then again you can do all the building, gas, electrical,
plumbing and maintenance work in your home. Many choose to,
many choose not to. Indeed a number of years ago you could do
all of the above. But then the gas safety regulatory body -
CORGI - stopped DIY gas installation and the dangerous work that
went with it. And for as long as I know you have to have used
qualified electricians to do work on commercial premises.
Recently, NICEIC - the electrical safety regulatory authority -
went further and made it compulsory for you to use qualified
electricians on domestic premises. Both of these are to stop
dangerous homes and premises being created. And it is because
so much DIY is being done and because the tools and materials
are so readily available.
The cost of DIY
What's this got to do with web design and building your own
website? DIY websites aren't going to kill anyone but they are
going to kill some businesses. House maintenance done to a DIY
level will devalue a house and potentially be very dangerous.
Web design done to a DIY level will be the same. It will
devalue your potential customer's value of your business. It
could be fatal to your business.
Build your own website if you must to save money. But make
sure you are a competent DIYer not a messy one or a bodger.
Make sure your website looks professionally built, with
excellent layout, design & graphics, is accessible across all
major browser platforms and adheres to accessibility
requirements.
...
but above all, websites require good content.
But this is just one reason for considering the use of a
professional web designer. I made the comment earlier that
above all a web site needs good content. This is moving beyond
the web design where a professional web designer will do an
excellent job for you. Putting excellent content on your
website really is a job for you - the website owner. Your time
and effort should be spent here - generating excellent,
worthwhile content for your website. To maximise your time here
you should let the professional web designer build your web site
while you focus your efforts on creating and maintaining a
worthwhile and sustainable source of good content for your
website - this is something
only you can do.
© Rugged Rhino 2005
About the author:
Jeremy Curtis runs Rugged Rhino - Small Business Web Design
Specialists. He can be contacted at
http://www.ruggedrhino.co.uk
or 0845 201 1946.
