Need a website for your business? Whether you are looking to grow your local presence or expand online, your website will be the cornerstone of your online presence. While you may be tempted to build your site yourself, making great DIY websites is full of pitfalls that can ruin your online business efforts. Here are the most common web design pitfalls and how to avoid them.
Looks Outdated or Amateurish
A DIY website often looks homemade. Even non-experts can spot a free template upon visiting a website for the first time. Sure, there are numerous DIY guides you can follow to build your website, but most use old resources. Relying on such guides will lead to a website that looks outdated even though it has just been launched.
Besides, DIY websites often omit many of the most modern tech amenities of professionally built sites. These include analytics and widgets that can optimize your online performance, help you expand your brand, and increase your sales. Hiring a professional website developer may represent a significant upfront cost, but you end up with a competitive website.
DIY Websites Are Not SEO-Optimized
Another major drawback of DIY sites is their lack of search engine optimization. Most amateur designers simply have no idea how to leverage content and where to place links. Some DIY sites have no content, or just use copied content, which leads to SEO penalties. Even original content will have little impact unless it is SEO-optimized.
Furthermore, DIY websites often ignore marketing aspects like Google My Business listings. This means that your business might remain invisible despite your online marketing budget.
Ignoring Mobile Friendliness
Thanks to Google’s mobile-first indexing, mobile friendliness today is more important than ever. Mobile-first indexing means that websites that are optimized for smartphones will appear first in Google results. On the flip-side, if your site isn’t mobile friendly, it will end up lower in the results, or even delisted altogether.
In order for your website to be mobile friendly, it must feature responsive design. This design resizes a website dynamically in order to display correctly on different devices. This is not something you can just build by yourself unless you are a web design professional.
No Encryption and Other Security Issues
Finally, DIY websites are vulnerable to hacking. Non-encrypted websites are a risk to your business, as well as to your visitors. Search engines are now delisting sites that are not encrypted in order to protect visitors from malicious websites. That is why it’s best to team up with a professional web designer to take care of encryption and web security.
Quality Web Development You Can Count On
If you are looking for something better than DIY websites, you’ve come to the right place. HLDesign provides top-tier web design and digital marketing solutions to SMBs and startups. Our aim is to create only the most secure and efficient websites for our clients. By leveraging advanced design techniques and cutting edge tools, we can build a website worthy of your business vision. Contact us to find out how we can help you realize your online goals!
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