The question is: do you really save money when you design a website for yourself as opposed to hiring a professional website designer? There are over 100 "website wizard" style software programs that boast you need little or no technical skill to create your website "in minutes." Although these programs are advertised primarily to people who think they cannot afford a professional website designer, many of these programs are quite expensive -- some cost as much as $499.
But what these companies do not tell you, is that there is much more involved in website design than the way it appears on the screen of your monitor in the browser. While it is important for your web pages to be attractive to the eye, it is the behind-the-scenes coding where things can get a bit sticky floor person who is unfamiliar with the markup languages browsers use to display web pages.
Using the WYSIWYG "what you see is what you get" approach, this software automatically generates the coding: you simply type in your text, add your graphics and voila! Your page is created. This sounds wonderful in principle unfortunately it really is a case of being too good to be true. Why? Because many of these programs were developed several years ago and the Internet technology has changed, which means creating a website with this type of software can make it difficult or impossible for your website to be included in the search engine index because it is not compliant with their current standards.
And to make matters worse in many cases you cannot alter the coding structure. The second problem with using this type of program for e-commerce is the encryption process. Depending on your web host and the type of shopping cart they use the program may not be compatible --which means you won't be able to sell products or services online.
This is also a problem with many of the "free" website template offers that are running rampant on the Internet today; because they are offered at no cost very little consideration is given to keeping these templates up to date. For a person who does not understand the basic HTML coding for web pages your ability to modify this type of template is extremely limited and if the coding is outdated launching your website built on these templates can spell disaster for your online business.
The saying goes that "time is money "--if you look at the amount of time it will take you to learn how to use the program, creating and testing the website and fix any problems that occur, it no longer "just a few minutes," this process could easily take several days: how much money are you really saving?
The Internet buzz today is Web 2.0 and making website design compliant to this platform will soon overtake the methodology that has been in place for the last few years. This is where the professional web designer is invaluable; their job is to stay current on the Internet technology and web design techniques that work best on it.
Aren't web designers expensive? There are professional website designers in every budget range and the experience can be more efficient if you have a clear plan of what you want. Keep it simple with 90% of the website focused on information and use the designer's expertise for the functionality your website needs to be listed on the search engines. If you are preparing to launch a business online, it makes sense to seek out the services of a web designer for the professional technical structure your website needs to function effectively on the Internet.
But what these companies do not tell you, is that there is much more involved in website design than the way it appears on the screen of your monitor in the browser. While it is important for your web pages to be attractive to the eye, it is the behind-the-scenes coding where things can get a bit sticky floor person who is unfamiliar with the markup languages browsers use to display web pages.
Using the WYSIWYG "what you see is what you get" approach, this software automatically generates the coding: you simply type in your text, add your graphics and voila! Your page is created. This sounds wonderful in principle unfortunately it really is a case of being too good to be true. Why? Because many of these programs were developed several years ago and the Internet technology has changed, which means creating a website with this type of software can make it difficult or impossible for your website to be included in the search engine index because it is not compliant with their current standards.
And to make matters worse in many cases you cannot alter the coding structure. The second problem with using this type of program for e-commerce is the encryption process. Depending on your web host and the type of shopping cart they use the program may not be compatible --which means you won't be able to sell products or services online.
This is also a problem with many of the "free" website template offers that are running rampant on the Internet today; because they are offered at no cost very little consideration is given to keeping these templates up to date. For a person who does not understand the basic HTML coding for web pages your ability to modify this type of template is extremely limited and if the coding is outdated launching your website built on these templates can spell disaster for your online business.
The saying goes that "time is money "--if you look at the amount of time it will take you to learn how to use the program, creating and testing the website and fix any problems that occur, it no longer "just a few minutes," this process could easily take several days: how much money are you really saving?
The Internet buzz today is Web 2.0 and making website design compliant to this platform will soon overtake the methodology that has been in place for the last few years. This is where the professional web designer is invaluable; their job is to stay current on the Internet technology and web design techniques that work best on it.
Aren't web designers expensive? There are professional website designers in every budget range and the experience can be more efficient if you have a clear plan of what you want. Keep it simple with 90% of the website focused on information and use the designer's expertise for the functionality your website needs to be listed on the search engines. If you are preparing to launch a business online, it makes sense to seek out the services of a web designer for the professional technical structure your website needs to function effectively on the Internet.