Build Your Own Website vs Hiring a Web Pro | The Journey

Build Your Own Website vs Hiring a Web Pro. Check out more The Journey content at https://cutt.ly/6HJiY14

If you own a small business, it’s essential to have an online presence. A website ensures your customers can find you, establishes your brand and credibility, markets your business, and expands your reach to a wider audience. But, you’re a business owner, you likely don’t know much about building a website, and you probably don’t have a ton of time to figure it out. Luckily, you’ve got a few options to make your perfect business site happen.

The main factors informing your decision about whether or not to build your own website are cost, customization, time, difficulty, and ongoing maintenance. These factors vary depending on whether you choose to use an online website builder, code your own website, or hire someone to build your own website for you.

Code it yourself
Learning HTML and CSS just to create one website is a large investment of your time. However, coding it yourself will save you some money. Your costs involved for this method include your domain name, hosting services, and perhaps a WYSIWYG editor.

Site builders
Site builders limit the control you have over your website but are great if you want to have a beautiful website in a very short amount of time. For most small businesses, a website builder is sufficient. But as your business grows, and you need a more complicated website, you might consider an option that offers you more flexibility.

WordPress and @Joomla!
If you like the idea of building and updating your own website without learning HTML but want more flexibility than a site builder, then consider using WordPress or Joomla!. These free programs use themes to control the look of your website and a dashboard to update content and add pages.

Hire a web professional
If you have an idea of the site you want, but don’t want to build it yourself, consider having a professional build it for you. This is the most expensive route to get online. Additionally, a professional designer will likely either host your site on his or her server or sign up for a hosting plan on a third party site. However, when you consider the time and effort needed for you to build your website, this option can be a really great investment. Professional web designers can turn your vision into a fully functional website.

Look at a side-by-side comparison of template-based site builders, content management systems like WordPress, and professional web design services. This will help you start to zero in on your best option at a glance.

We’ve given you a few options to get your site online and keep it going. A good method for making your final decision is to prioritize your most important considerations: cost, time, flexibility, difficulty, and ongoing maintenance. Then, weigh the options against your needs.

The Journey is what everyday entrepreneurs, like you, need to follow in the pursuit of online success. Our experienced GoDaddy Guides are here to take you through all the steps, both big and small, that you encounter every day.