If your website is intended for a club or society with which you are a member or you would just like to broadcast yourself and share your thoughts and images with friends and family then please go ahead and have a go at building a website, if however your site is intended for business use i.e. a site showing off your services, showcasing your business or even selling items online then my advice is to employ the services of an experienced website designer.
Building your own website can be a fun and worthwhile thing to do, there are many WYSISYG (what you see is what you get) programmes out there that allow you to create and design your own site. You can enjoy hours of designing the site and writing good content. Many of these types of programmes are free to download. If you have experience of HTML coding then even better. This is the perfect way to design a site for personal use.
If you are considering a site for business purposes then consulting a website designer is key. The reason I say this is because not only will they have some great ideas for design but they have probably previously built websites within your industry. An experienced designer will know exactly how the pages should be laid out and this is so very important as the user will be expecting certain things from your site and the designer will have these in mind.
These include:
- Correct positioning and ordering of menus
- Simple use of colours to not confuse user
- Correct usage of images within pages
- Simplistic text font and size
- Graphic design
- Animation if required
- Page keywords and descriptions
- Good URL structure
All of the above will mean that your website design will work for you. Don't think however that the design is completely out of your hands because most designers want and need your input! This is something that you must look for when choosing your Professional website designer.
Please don't fall into the trap of over designing your site though. This can be true if your building your own site or having a designer do it for you. Some people believe that the more fancy things a website has the more appealing it will be to the user, this however just isn't true! The user has to come to your website for a reason, whether it is to buy a product or find out information, if the site is too fussy and complex then the user will not be able to navigate it to find what they want. A lost user!
To conclude - By all means build your own website but first think about what the site is intended for. If the site is going to be an important part of your life or business then my suggestion would always be to use an experienced designer as the benefits both now and in the future really are priceless.
Source: www.readbud.com