5 Reasons Why You Need a Professional Website This Year

The 2010’s are over, and you’re still rocking the do-it-yourself website you built 5 to 10 years ago? Here are five reasons why you should go pro this year.

Could you build a website yourself? Of course! The question is not “can you” it’s “should you?” While there are many services that can allow you to build your own website

#1: Your Time is Too Valuable to Learn ANOTHER Trade

You’re a creative person! That’s why you’re an entrepreneur. Is it possible to learn the aspects necessary to create your own website? Of course! However, why add more onto your plate when your time is better spent doing things that are directly relevant to your business.

Even if you use a popular website builder, you’ll still have to learn how to use their online applications. Even without the more complicated aspects of website building, you’ll still need to learn how to select and edit pictures for each page, write good marketing/sales copy, learn how to optimize each page for search engines, and create a navigational structure that is both intuitive and attractive to your visitors.

If you want to REALLY build your own website, you will also need to learn (at a minimum): CSS, HTML5, Photoshop (or some other picture editing software), and basic graphic design.

Spend your time doing your business skill! Not learning a brand new one.

#2: You Should Be Website Marketing Not Website Building

Rather than learning how to be a website designer, you should be learning how to be a website marketer. Website marketing involves social media, email, and content creation aspects, each of which could cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars each month to hire out.

Beyond that, no one will know or care about your business like you do, so you should be the one creating the content anyways. Your worst article will still be more original than an online marketing professional.

You know your industry, product/service, and audience, and you should be using that information to create videos, articles, and promotions that take that information into consideration.

#3: Security Threats Are High, and You’re Not Qualified to Handle Them

Not to scare you (but to be honest, mainly to scare you), online security is a huge issue. Here are just a few security statistics that you should consider before building anything online yourself (Source):

• There is a hacker attack every 39 seconds.
• 43% of cyber attacks target small business.
• The average cost of a data breach in 2020 will exceed $150 million.
• Since 2013 there are 3,809,448 records stolen from breaches every day.
• 95% of cybersecurity breaches are due to human error.

Being “secure” with your website means keeping up to date on all aspects of your platform, plugins, and accounts. You need backups and constant checks to ensure that you’re secure. If you work with a professional, they’ll make sure this happens without you having to worry, and if something does go wrong, they’ll have a backup to get you back online asap.

#4: Your Competitors Built Their Own Website and You’re Better Than Them

Want an edge on your competition? If they built their website themselves, you can one-up them with a professional design. If they hired a website designer, then you need a design that is at least as good as theirs.

A little over half of companies in the USA have a website, but chances are that your biggest competitors already have a website and a good online presence. You need to catch up and the best way to do that is to hire someone to do it for you.

#5: Your Business Is Professional, Why Isn’t Your Website?

You’ve spent years developing a product or service that is top-notch… you need a website that reflects that. A good website designer will be able to put together the layout, photography, video, and responsive design that your business deserves.

Good design in the form of user experience (UI), search engine optimization (SEO), and responsiveness (how your website looks on mobile platforms) is VITAL. Here are just a few stats that prove it (Source):

• In 2017, mobile eCommerce revenue accounts for 50% of total U.S. eCommerce revenue.
• Mobile devices are projected to reach 79% of global internet use by the end of 2018.
• 57% of internet users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile.
• Nearly 8 in 10 customers would stop engaging with content that doesn’t display well on their device.
• 83% of mobile users say that a seamless experience across all devices is very important.

Don’t risk losing business! Hire a website designer and get on track this year.