Website & Landing Page Design

Ok, so yes, there are a lot of options out there where you can design your own website. If you are quite tech savvy and you have used different kinds of software before, then you could give it a go. BUT even if that is the case, there are several factors to take into account (we know this as we have had many clients come to us, having tried this route and given up).

Time: Building even a basic website takes a LOT of time...

Not only do you have the learning time to use and find your way around the platform you are using, the vocabulary is new and you have to find out what the technical words mean and find out the order to do the website creation. Images are time consuming to collect, even if you use stock, it takes time to choose them to match your branding, fit with where they are going and maybe edit them. Text takes time to write and to take into account SEO. The organisation of the website takes time to decide and implement, and then you have the layout - if you use a template, then you have to figure out what information to put and in which slot. Plus it may not really fit what you want, so if you make any changes then whoa! You are in a whole new learning curve, things can go wrong, and you may have problems going back as website editors can be glitchy :-(.

Understanding: There is a huge learning curve...

The understanding of where a website is stored and what a domain is and how to connect it, is a big learning curve. The answer to these questions can be easy if you use a simple platform, but if it is not on the same platform then it can be complex. This depends on where your domain is registered and where you want to build you actual website.

Images can prove a challenge knowledge wise. Knowing the best type of image to use and where is not straightforward, plus if you use your own images then unless they are taken by a professional, the chances are they wont look good. If you spend a fair bit of time taking the photos with the right camera, lighting, angle, artistic eye with no clutter then this should be good, but potentially you may be disappointed.

Design: This is not easy...

So your business should have a brand identity of some description. This simply means using consistent colours, fonts, composition, imagery, tone and language on anything which might be seen by potential or actual customers. This SEEMS easy, but it isn't, as the decisions need to be made first, and making those decisions takes time, knowledge and some skill/talent in the mix. Once you have made these decisions it really helps, as you simply use your decisions on your website, BUT how you use them then becomes more tricky when using a template as often a template will already have some of these elements built in, so when you change them, this is where things can be tricky, as the implications of the changes can be difficult to sort out.

Organisation: This is important...

Thinking from your visitors point of view, may or may not come naturally to you. However the usability, information it contains, types of content and the way to present that content has all got to be thought about, decided and implemented. This will partly be helped by a template, but if the content you want to put on the website, doesn't work with the template, the problems and restrictions start.

So to tie this together, obviously it is all doable, but be prepared for a lot more work than you anticipate and a lot more learning than you anticipate. You have to work out whether this route is for you. Whether your time is better spent on other aspects of the business and taking on people who have already done the learning, have the knowledge, the design and the organisation to build a website that matches your business and not the other way around.