Why Hiring a Professional Web Design Company is a Smart Investment for Small Businesses

A well-designed, engaging website is a crucial element in the success of your business that builds consumer trust and gives you an edge over competitors who aren’t online. Even more importantly, a professionally designed website can have a significant impact on your bottom line.

We all know that having a professional business website is a key part of any business success strategy. One question many business owners face early on is whether they should build their own website or invest in the services of a professional web design company.

For the majority of business owners, hiring a professional is going to be the right answer. In this article, we’ve put together the biggest benefits that small businesses can enjoy when choosing to hire a pro over the DIY approach of building your own business website.

Professional Web Design Companies Save You Time…. And Money!

Let’s get the big one out of the way first! On the surface, it’s easy to think that the DIY approach will save you thousands of dollars. After all, there are plenty of tools out there and you can probably figure it out as you go along (e.g. Squarespace), right?

The reality isn’t quite that simple.

You’re an expert in your business and how to run it – but likely not an expert in all the disparate skills and technologies needed to build an optimized website that runs smoothly, converts leads, and comfortably sits at the top of Google bringing in a steady stream of fresh leads.

Ask yourself a simple question: is it really worth spending weeks or even months of your time trying to figure things out? Especially when the resulting website is an average one that doesn’t truly achieve your vision because you never could figure some parts out?

Worse, all the time you spend figuring out this website is time you don’t use to develop and grow your business. Not only are you out a lot of time, but your business is also worse off in terms of revenue and profits.

Not great. While hiring a professional web design company can seem expensive at first, your website will be built to your spec by a team of experts who understand the technologies involved and how to best implement them for an optimized website. All in a fraction of the time, too!

You’re Not Burning Money – You’re Investing in Business Growth

It’s easy to think of a website as a cost, especially when you’re getting quotes that make your eyes water, but this is the wrong mindset to have. Hiring professional web designers to build an optimized website is a smart investment in your business that will help it to grow.

A web design company is a collection of professionals, each with expertise in the different areas of building a website. Working together, they will create something that’s unique to your business, resonates with your brand’s identity, and designed to turn web traffic into paying customers at every step.

Programmers will work on the coding behind the website to ensure it runs smoothly. Designers will work with UX Experts to make sure your design is attractive and easy to use. Content writers, copywriters, digital marketers, and SEO specialists will work together to create content that reflects your brand’s voice while also optimizing each page for the best possible placements on Google.

Working with a web design agency means you can leverage the talents of all these experts as close to effortlessly as possible, as your point of contact will be a project manager who will manage the team for you to ensure the best possible outcome. Yes, the upfront cost is going to be higher – but the result is a professional website that’s built around your business goals, rather than around the bits you couldn’t figure out while trying to build your own.

Your Website Will Have a Unique Design and Online Presence

Virtually everyone has a website these days – which makes it even more important to make sure your website stands out in what can be an ocean of competitors. The first way to do this is through visual design that is built around your brand identity and creates a fantastic first impression.

Having a unique website design that’s identifiable immediately as your brand is a powerful way to stand out as a professional against competitors using bland templates. It’s also important to remember that people aren’t just accessing your website from a desktop anymore – they could be on a smartphone, laptop, or tablet (more than 50% of searches occur on mobile devices). A professional web design agency will build a gorgeous, responsive branded website that looks good no matter what screen size your traffic is on.

People can tell when something is rushed and they can tell when someone has put time, care, and attention into it. Having a web design company create your website shows people that your business takes the time to do things the right way, which in turn builds their trust in you – a vital part of the conversion process from lead to customer.

Give Your Audience a Buttery-Smooth Experience

Ever go to a website and get annoyed because it took what felt like years to load up? Chances are, you didn’t hang around too long and just left, never to return. Unoptimized websites are often very slow, simply because they are not using the latest tools, plugins, technologies, and optimization processes.

A professional web design company keeps up-to-date in this ever-changing area of technology, ensuring that your website is the digital equivalent of greased lightning. Faster than the average website, your visitors won’t be frustrated by the endless loading times and be able to get the key information they want – and thanks to UX designers, finding that information will be easy due to optimized navigation.

Beyond the obvious benefits that a buttery-smooth website experience brings in the day-to-day operations of your online business, there is also reliability to consider. A website that crashes people’s browsers, has too much down (offline) time creates a bad experience and impacts your bottom line.

While a DIY website builder may be able to figure things out just enough to make things work at first, over time they may find themselves thrown for an expensive loop when plugins and technologies invariably upgrade and best practices change. Hiring a professional web design agency ensures that your website will offer a reliable, buttery-smooth experience from the first day, giving you peace of mind.

Join the Smart Money: Hire a Professional Web Design Company

In this article, we’ve covered the top benefits of hiring a professional web design agency to build your business website. Ultimately, when it comes to Return on Investment (ROI), a DIY website is not going to deliver anywhere near the ROI a professional one will. Although the upfront cost is higher, the time and money saved, together with the additional traffic and conversions from a professionally-optimized site, will ensure that your new website pays for itself quickly.

As a small business with a team of specialists with expertise in each part of the process of building a website, 71Three doesn’t just know how to build a professional website – but also your goals as a small business owner. If you’re interested in finding out how we can help you to build a website that delivers a positive impact on your business’ bottom line that you can track and measure, get in touch with us today.