Hiring a professional web design agency can greatly improve your website. They create visually appealing sites that perform well and meet your business needs.
A DIY website might seem tempting, but it often lacks the expertise and features needed for success online.
Let’s explore the benefits of choosing a professional for your website design. This investment can be the smartest choice for your business.
What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Professional Web Design Agency?
Choosing a professional web design agency is essential to ensuring that your website is fully functional and able to take advantage of every important aspect of website design. When looking at the capabilities of professional website design services, there are many reasons to choose an agency versus attempting a DIY design. Some of the main reasons you should choose a professional are the expertise of the agency, custom design options, SEO optimization, ongoing support after the design process, and ensuring a responsive design. Let’s look more into what exactly a web design agency can offer you.What Can a Professional Web Design Agency Offer?
When we look at web design agencies, there are a lot of resources they have that can increase the functionality, visibility, and overall optimization of a website. Here is what a professional design agency can offer you that you might now get with a DIY design.Strategic Planning
A web design agency starts with a plan and does market research and competitive analysis to help design a website that will most resonate with your particular audience. This helps to understand the target audience and who you’re speaking to and it allows them to tailor the design and content directly to that audience.UX/UI Expertise
They focus on creating websites that don’t just look good on the outside but are intuitive and easy to navigate to ensure a positive user experience. This can include everything from functionality, flow, visual appeal, responsiveness, and accessibility features. They take into account every aspect from the audience’s needs, behaviors, and pain points to designing a website that is UX and UI-friendly.Technical Skills
The technical skills they can offer help to ensure a scalable, secure, and fully functional website.
They are experienced in coding and development to build custom websites tailored to your and your audience’s needs. They can also integrate other tools such as CRMs, email marketing, or payment gateways right into the website.
The security features offered by a professional keep your customers protected by implementing encryption, firewalls, and regular software updates to keep things running smoothly.
Branding Consistency
A professional web design agency will be able to work and maintain brand consistency throughout the visual design, messaging, tone, and overall vibe of the website.
They also work on cross-platform consistency with the website design ensuring that it flows well on desktop, mobile, or tablet.
Analytics
Many professional design agencies will offer analytics and ongoing support after the initial design is completed.
They will use analytics which allow you to track and measure user behavior across your website.
A website design agency can also help you track KPIs, use A/B testing strategies, and ensure SEO optimization performance.
A Look at the Cost: DIY vs Professional Web Design Agency
Many people decide to go the DIY route because of the cost of hiring a professional web design agency, but there is a lot more to consider when it comes to the upfront cost.
The top considerations when looking at the overall cost of website design services include the upfront costs, time investment, quality, functionality, features, SEO, and scalability of the website design.
Upfront Cost
DIY Design
When it comes to a DIY website, most of the upfront costs come from a monthly cost of anywhere between $10 and $100 a month for hosting, domain registration, and access to the design tools.
These costs can increase depending on the features, templates, and plug-ins that you’re using.
Professional Design Agency
Hiring an agency often requires a higher upfront cost which can range from $2,000 to $10,000 depending on the complexity, features, and design needs of the website.
Time Investment
DIY Design
The time that you’ll be investing in learning the design tools, mastering coding, learning the process, and troubleshooting can add up.
DIY websites can take months to build and the time commitment may not be feasible for many, as it could pull you away from your business.
Professional Design Agency
A professional web design agency handles everything from design to implementation, which allows you to focus on your business operations and leave the website building solely to them.
The timeline for a professional is also often much quicker than it would be for a DIY attempt.
Quality and Functionality
DIY Design
DIY platforms often offer pre-built templates which can limit the design quality and overall functionality of the website.
This creates limitations within the restricted template and designs might not always meet the standards of the industry.
Professional Design Agency
Agencies can provide complete customized solutions that reflect both your brand’s personality and the standard within your industry while ensuring that it caters to your audience.
Long Term Maintenance
DIY Design
For DIY design it’s on you, the business owner, to keep up with the long-term maintenance here.
This can mean fixing issues when the website is down, doing backups, and updates, and working with security. This can cost you time and resources.
Professional Design Agency
Many agencies provide ongoing support after the design process is completed. This means that they deal with updates, security checks, and performance optimization.
This ensures your site stays secure and functional without you having to give it your full attention.
Limitations of DIY Website Design
There are many limitations to a DIY website design compared to a design done by a professional web design agency.
Let’s look at the most common limitations that are associated with a DIY design.
Limited Design Customization
As we stated previously, there is a huge limit on customization options when it comes to DIYing a website design.
It can be difficult to find a template or design that works fully with your brand and audience, which can hinder your brand’s differentiation and make your website less memorable for visitors.
Learning Curve
There’s quite a huge learning curve when it comes to web design services, even when using user-friendly website builders.
The time spent learning how to design a functional and beautifully designed website can hinder progress and take you away from business.
Lack of Professional Quality
A professional web design agency ensures professional quality within their designs, which you won’t find in a DIY website design.
This can result in your website looking unprofessional to visitors and losing credibility with potential clients or customers.
SEO Limitations
It’s important to ensure that your website is fully SEO optimized to help get more eyes on it, but with a DIY design, the features for optimization are heavily limited.
Websites that have poor SEO may struggle to rank well in searches which limits the amount of eyes laying on the website.
Technical Issues or Maintenance
DIY websites need constant maintenance and if you lack the necessary skills to keep up with this, it can be time-consuming and lead to potential website downtime or even security issues.
Inconsistent UX
Without the proper understanding of user experience principles, your DIY website may fail to provide a seamless and functional design.
This can mean a confusing layout that’s difficult to navigate, higher bounce rates, and lower conversation rates.
Security Risks
Security risks are more common among DIY website designs if they are not properly secured, you don’t update often, or plugins are not verified.
A security breach could completely compromise your website and the trustworthiness of your brand as a whole.
How to Choose a B2B Web Design Agency for Your Industry
When choosing a B2B professional web design agency it’s important to consider many factors to ensure you’re choosing an agency that can bring your vision to life with all the necessary functions.
Here is how you can choose the best web design agency for your specific needs.
Understand Your Needs and Goals
Start by considering your website’s needs and goals so you know exactly what you need from a professional web design agency.
Identify your goals, determine the type of website, and outline the specific features you want.
Research Experience
It’s important to ensure that you choose an agency with experience in your industry. Review their portfolio and check out their previous designs.
Ask the agency about their familiarity with your industry specifically and best practices for it.
Check Credentials
Evaluate the agency’s credentials to ensure that they are qualified and trustworthy.
Look for certifications in website design, digital marketing, or relevant technologies.
Assess Their Design Style
You should look at the unique style of the professional web design agency and ensure that it aligns with your brand aesthetic and particular design style for your vision.
Review their portfolio to see their past work and be sure to ask if they can create a customized design specific to your needs.
Evaluate Technical Capabilities
Ensure that the agency is able to give you the features and functionality that you need. Ask about their experience and knowledge in coding and specific technology platforms.
Consider Development Process
Ask about how the process will go, how they handle feedback and revisions, as well as what the timeline will be for design.
Inquire About SEO Optimization
It’s important that your website is SEO optimized, so ensure that their capabilities in content marketing, SEO knowledge, social media, and online advertising are sufficient.
Discuss Budget
Discuss the budget of the project and the pricing structure to break down the costs of the design, development, maintenance, and any other additional services.
Ask About Post-Launch Support
Find out what the agency can offer in terms of post-launch support by inquiring about maintenance packages, updates, ongoing SEO, analytics, and technical support.
What To Remember
When deciding between creating a DIY website design or opting for a professional web design agency, consider all of the aspects mentioned here to ensure you’re making the right choice for your business.
Remember that although the upfront cost of a website design agency may seem more expensive, the overall value given by an agency is priceless and will save you an incredible amount of time.
Here at Pixel True, we are passionate about helping your brand stand out and helping you through the design process.
We can take your needs and transform them into your dream vision by using our expertise and transforming your vision into web design with a fast turnaround time to get the job done.
Ready to get started with us at Pixel True?
Contact us today and schedule a call to assess your needs and see how we can help bring your vision to life using our resources and expertise in design!