One of the driving forces behind small-business success is custom web
design. This raises an important question: when and why do the
do-it-yourself (DIY) websites start falling short?
A common
argument that some make against DIY websites is that people don't have
the time or motivation for them. This claim, like most cop-out theories
made popular in the entrepreneurial fields, is groundless. There are
more compelling reasons why people are unsuccessful with DIYs: weak
branding, limited functionality, domain and design dependence, and the
overestimated value of social media are the main culprits here.
The
central danger of the DIY site is the weak or utter absence of branding
in template designs. Customers aren't going to remember the difference
between Website #200 with the blue banner and Website #201 with the red
banner. A small-business brand has to resonate with customers by being
different-not for the sake of being different, but for the sake of
giving people a (hopefully creative) way to identify an idea. With
thousands of businesses using mere hundreds of templates, this is
virtually impossible with a template design, and thus the DIY approach,
unlike custom web design, tends to bury people in the pitfall of
commonplace.
Functionality is another element that is poor in DIY
sites. It's not too shabby for the emerging business-say, if one is
selling 10 T-shirts a week-but the training-wheels kit of functionality
breaks off once sales increase to the hundreds per week. Automatic
shipment calculations and advanced tax options are essential to a
booming business, and if you're expecting to get them with a DIY
package-well, keep dreamin'. Custom web design, however, can take care
of all this.
DIY domains are also an issue. They're similar to
leasing a car: you feel cool driving it around, folks admiring and all,
but after a year or so the company from which you leased it wants you to
renew the lease or say goodbye to the car. Worse with domains, yours
can increase in value depending on how successful your site is, and so
the "leaser" will be reluctant to give you sole ownership of the domain.
You can already see the imminent storm a-brewin'. It's better to be
independent with custom web design.
Regarding social media. It's sort of like the succubus of small-business web design. DIY platforms like to bank on it-"The templates are cheap and we've got all the sharing buttons!"-because
some entrepreneurs are easily taken in by a scoreboard. Sure, Facebook
"likes" look good on paper, but in terms of practicality, they're worth
about as much as those gold stars you got in elementary school for a
spelling test. Here's a question: if Facebook and Twitter were
quintessential, why would you need a main site in the first place?
We do
need websites. Good ones, too. If your home front isn't appealing or
memorable, then your social-media channels will be irrelevant. Websites
and social media require a unified effort to be effective-no single
platform is above the rest. Custom web design is the best way to
capitalize on both.
Concerning independence. If you don't do your
research, subscribing to a DIY website service can be financially risky:
you may either have to buy your freedom or allow your blood and sweat
to be the profit of your master. Some platforms take a percentage from
your sales-as you grow, so do they, and your return on investment never
maximizes. When you eventually decide to go independent-the good ol'
road less travelled-don't assume your domain will be coming with you,
because it might not even belong to you in the end. And professional
migration by a team of freelance web designers and developers costs
thousands of dollars. It just isn't worth it.
