There are many things in the world that you can do yourself. The healthy drink you usually buy from the supermarket? You can actually make your own healthy drink at home. The Vietnamese spring rolls you usually order in the restaurant? You can make your own Vietnamese spring rolls. The skincare products you usually buy in the department store? You can make one too for yourself. Face toner can actually be made out of a mixture of water and rice – the rice water can simply be your face toner. The concept of self-made creations has been popular among YouTubers and social influencers thus came the term “Do It Yourself” or in short, “DIY”. The DIY concept is usually done in order to reduce expense and promote more natural self-made products that are environment-friendly and chemicals-free. One of the common examples I can provide you is how Vloggers post videos of them showing how to make DIY skincare products. While this is easier, cheaper and more efficient, there are also the drawbacks of making things on your own. In this case, if you make your own skincare product without the professionals’ supervision, you may not know what your DIY skincare product might do to your skin. I think the same concept and perspective can also apply to web design. Almost all business owners know the importance of having a website for business. However, due to the cost of web design and web development process that may be higher than expected; some business owners prefer to make their own website – their DIY approach on web design to cut their budget. That being said, this can both make and break the business. While DIY approach on web design may cut your budget, this can also backfire you in the long run. Why? Keep reading to know what kind of mistakes you could make if you apply the DIY approach on your business web design.
Poor site structure and navigation
A novice designer will often choose templates and themes purely based on how they look. However, some unique and good looking design can also be the most confusing when it comes to navigation, and this is bad for both your SEO and your UX. When you create a site yourself, navigation is actually considered one of the hardest aspects to get right. Unless you graduated from graphic design department in your university, then it is more advisable for you to hire a professional web designer.
Slow loading website
Non-expert person who tries to do web design will usually not be aware of the fact that some designs are going to cause slow loading on website’s pages. If you want to design your own website, you must have experience with compressing images, limiting server calls, or using caching; otherwise, the speed of your site will undoubtedly suffer. A professional knows how to manage all aspects of website development to make sure the page speed and loading times is user friendly.
Negligence in making responsive website
Most people who don’t know the first thing about website often only see ‘looks’ instead of optimising both ‘looks’ and ‘functions’. When you are visiting a good looking and uniquely designed website, you may often think, “Oh, I want my website to look like this too!” and so you came home trying to make it. However, what you fail to see is that the website you have visited may or may not be indexed by Google for certain reasons. One of the reasons is whether or not that website is responsive and adjustable to any device. This is why leaving web design to the professional is the best bet you can ever make.
Although a DIY web design approach can work, you still have to be aware of some of the common mistakes and really think about where you see your company in a few years as well as think whether or not this is easy for you. In most cases, spending the money now to have a great website that is ready for growth and can draw your readers’ attention is going to be well worth it in the long run, instead of creating your website yourself and having to make changes later.