Why You Shouldn’t Build Your Own Website

The best way to build a website isn’t what you think.

Let me be as straightforward as I can be: Don’t build your own website.

Each day only brings you 24 hours, and your time is precious and limited. My business mentor once said I’d spend my days as a business owner battling the tension between the urgent and the important, the latter being the area I should focus most on. To accomplish this, she urged me to earnestly reserve and protect 80% of my time to work on my business and not in my business. In other words, every business owner’s priority should be to focus on growing and building their business instead of working on the tasks that could be passed off to other members of the team or third parties. Trying to build your own website is an easy way for business owners to be distracted by tasks outside their realm of business experience and leadership responsibilities. To prove this is not the most effective use of your time when managing a business, here are three reasons to hire an expert to build your website.

Outsourcing Website Development Saves Time and Money

Your website is a worthwhile investment for your business; after all, consumers will make decisions about your business based on your website. According to statistics aggregated in a 2023 Forbes Advisor survey, 40% of users will leave a website if it doesn’t load in under three seconds, and slow-loading websites cost retailers $2.6 billion U.S. dollars in sales each year.

The conclusion? You want the right team building your website because you will lose customers and sales if your website isn’t optimized in every way (think page speed and loading, mobile usability, accessibility, and so on). The website team you bring in may include:

- - UX designers to craft layouts that are visually pleasing and act as lead funnels to convert visitors into customers.
  - Content writers to create compelling copy that connects and engages with visitors for conversion.
  - Software developers to build websites that are functional, fast, and responsive across devices.

It may sound more expensive to hire a third-party team with so many players, but in reality, their expertise will save you both time and money.

At Mane, we follow a 3-step process for building websites. Our process was developed from years of experience and is designed to eliminate the unnecessary spending — both time and money — that comes with doing a website build without a plan. Countless clients have come to me after wasting hours on dozens of attempts to create their own website without any plan (spoiler alert: that strategy never ends well). An experienced UX developer will build a better, more unique site experience that’s designed with conversion in mind faster than you can.

Outsourcing Website Development Differentiates You from the Competition

Over 33 million small businesses exist in the United States. What makes yours different? When your website only has seconds to capture someone’s attention, custom website development can set you apart from others in your industry and showcase those differentiators more effectively. A well-designed website is a powerful marketing tool that leaves a lasting impression and converts potential customers into loyal customers.

Drag-and-drop website templates can simplify aspects of website development, but they majorly lack ways to express the individuality of your business. Think about it this way: If 0.05% of small businesses end up using the same website template as you, then 16,500 business websites would look like yours. A web development expert can completely customize your website not only for you but also for your audience. A big part of the web developer’s job is to incorporate brand elements into the design, the copy, and the images to build brand awareness and industry authority.

Click here to learn why you should invest in your brand before building your website.

Outsourcing Website Development Improves Functionality During & After Launch

Your business constantly evolves and grows; your website should reflect that growth. Ongoing website support assures long-term success and functionality. You want to guarantee that your entire website is always functioning properly and quickly because a small website hiccup is enough to make someone leave your site.

A few examples of ongoing support that a website team, such as Mane, can assist with include:

- - Website backups.
  - Security and SSL certificates.
  - Plug-in troubleshooting.
  - Content updates.
  - Speed improvements.
  - Web responsiveness.

Bottom Line: Hire Web Development Professionals to Get the Job Done

You (hopefully) wouldn’t hire a professional chef to fix a burst pipe in your home. They certainly have specialized expertise, but it doesn’t fall in the area your home needs. Similarly, hiring a developer to build your website just makes sense; you don’t and shouldn’t have to develop the skills necessary to design and maintain a successful website.