If I’m totally honest, when I started working for myself back in 2005 I did have some tiny doubts about the website design industry. My major concern was that in 5 years time (ie now!) creating websites would be as easy as pressing a button and that our web skills would no longer be required. However building a website in 2010 is so much harder now than ever before. And here’s why…
More competition.
There are more websites than ever, and more competition means that you need to stand out. Publishing a generic template using Dreamweaver or WordPress is simply not going to get you noticed or taken seriously. And I’d definitely argue that the website is a very important aspect of a successful business. If you don’t take your website seriously, then how can you expect your customers to take you seriously?
Websites need to do more.
Technically, websites are expected to do more than before. A static 5 page website is not always going to cut it. Your website needs to include sign up forms, newsletters, interaction with social media like twitter and facebook, blogs, ecommerce options, downloads and online payments, and the list goes on! And I am not even going to start on the complexity of an SEO campaign!
Websites require different skill sets.
Employing your neighbours teenage son might get you online cheaply but will it help or hinder your business? At best I’d expect that it simply won’t make any impact at all. At worst your “cheap” website might cost you more in lost opportunities. In order to get the best out of your website you really need to have a team of experts all working with you. Whilst I do know of some fantastic freelancers, there are not many who can provide the whole package: fab design, great functionality, effective code, SEO. Many freelancers either fail in one area or specialise and outsource the aspects that they are not so confident in. If experts find it hard to provide a website with the full package, how can one expect their neighbours son to pull it off?
More Technology.
Our team now spends more time on testing and compatibility then ever before. With so many different browsers and the emergence of mobile technology, the art of actually coding a fully compatible website just seems to get harder and harder each year. More technology and more demanding visitors keeps website development out of arms reach for the novice. Just take a look at developer forums and blogs; they are filled with slightly annoyed developers struggling to get their customer’s website pixel perfect.
Quality Code.
Generally there are lots of people who can code up a decent looking website, but code is not all equal and the better the code the longer your website will continue to function, the less it will cost you to maintain and the better the results on search engines and usability. Over the past 5 years much has been published about best practices and you may ignore them at your peril!
To summarise – creating great websites is hard work. And I am ever so pleased since this means that our teams skills are still required!
Need some help?
Business link have a really useful guide that covers most considerations when creating a website. And you are always more than welcome to drop me a line. I look forward to hearing from you!
