[frame_right][/frame_right]When choosing between Pittsburgh web design services and a Do-it-Yourself style website there are a number of critical considerations that will have a direct impact on the success - or failure - of your project. Pittsburgh web design services might be more costly than a DIY site, but as is the case with just about everything in life, "you get what you pay for." Before you choose to save some money by building a DIY website, consider the long term costs of the comparisons below.
TEMPLATE vs. CUSTOM SITE DESIGN
With most DIY websites you'll choose between a limited selection of templates. The style, colors, layout and most design attributes will already be in place. While this makes publishing a website extremely fast, it's not an original design and will likely appear that way to visitors. These types of templates are used by millions of people all over the world, which means that your website could end up looking exactly like someone else's. Or it could look exactly like hundreds of other sites, if you pick a popular theme.
A web design company can build precisely the website you envision. This can be built around your business's theme, your company logo, an image you designed, or straight from your imagination. Just tell the designer and a professional will be able to deliver your vision in perfect form.
Score:
Web Design Services - 1
DIY websites - 0
PRESET ELEMENTS vs. COMPLETE CONTROL
DIY websites often feature little to no control over site elements. This includes the ability to change the header and footer, work with meta data, insert specialized HTML, PHP or other types of code, and installing tracking or analytics information may be impossible. In some cases you can build your website using a free theme and then pay to have a web designer modify it, but why waste your time doing so?
Instead, go straight to the source. A good designer can build you a website that you have complete control over. This means that your site can quickly adapt to market trends, search industry changes, advertising needs, or any other stimuli that requires the ability to quickly change page, post, SEO and structural elements of your site.
Score:
Web Design Services - 2
DIY websites - 0
DIFFUSED/SHARED BRANDING Vs. EXCLUSIVE BRANDING
Most DIY websites are funded by companies or web development groups that require a link back to their site (usually embedded in the template for the free site) or include a logo or other forms of branding referencing their own site. This can have negative implications for your site's SEO and will also work to diffuse the branding you develop on your own site.
By using a professional webmaster or developer, the only branding on your site will be all about you and your company.
Score:
Web Design Services - 3
DIY Websites - 0
FORCED ADVERTISING vs. YOUR SPONSORS
If you publish a free DIY site chances are great that there will be advertising on it that you will not benefit from financially nor have any control over. This is completely unprofessional and will seem amateurish to even the most computer-ignorant non-internet using folks out there. Now, if you WANT to advertise on your website and make money from it, that's totally possible, but only if you have a website that you can completely control. Of course, you don't have that control with a DIY site...
Score:
Web Design Services - 4
DIY Sites - 0
CHEAP Vs. NOT CHEAP
This is the one category where a Do-it-Yourself style website will take the point. Or will it? With all the drawbacks and serious lack of artistic, technical and intellectual control of a DIY site, going the cheap route will end up costing you clients in the long run. So what's really cheaper?
Score:
Web Design Services - 5
DIY Sites - 0
If you're going to build a site and invest time, effort, resources and money into it, don't cheap out. Call the number at the top of your screen now for an immediate consultation about a professional, custom-designed website from our Pittsburgh web design services firm. Let us show you how our work can save you far more money in the long run than an amateur-looking DIY site. Don't be the guy with the cheap site. And by cheap, we DON'T mean inexpensive.
