Starting a new business or just need to redesign or update your current website? Let TTL Media Group help!
Getting Started With Your Website
It goes without saying that millions of people now use the Internet to find the things they need. A well-laid-out website can provide all sorts of useful information to those who might need what you have to offer such as hours of operation, telephone number(s), email address(es) and information as to why they should select your company over others. When planning or designing a business website, you generally have two options: build the website yourself or contract the work out to a professional. Before you rush into a lengthy do-it-yourself project or shell out a lot of money to a professional, consider the pros and cons of both approaches to building your company website.
Needed Design Abilities
There are many online applications that exist to enable you to create websites. And you’ve probably heard of a few of them including: WordPress, Wix, Weebly, & SquareSpace just to name a few. For the websites that TTL Media Group builds for our customers, we primarily use WordPress. In fact, OUR website is built on WordPress.
However, while you may be able to produce an attractive, functional site with these tools, some experience is definitely helpful to add advanced features such as customer management solutions, a working shopping cart application or login or membership management. In addition, there are thousands of additional plug-ins that you can utilize to take your website to the next level including: Gravity Forms for data collection & quizzes, Yoast SEO to improve your sites SEO, Woo Commerce for an online store, & Sliders to create stunning photo slides. If you need (or want) these types of features, and you don’t feel comfortable in implementing them yourself, it might serve you well to hire a professional Web developer.
Time to Set Up and Implement the Site
Building a new website can be daunting and extremely time consuming. From selecting a theme, color scheme, appropriate & non-copy righted photos to including internal & external links (and making sure they all work correctly), working on your SEO, having the correct plug-ins (as previously discussed), selecting the number of pages for your content (as well as how your pages will be displayed – drop down menus or hidden inline pages), and MORE all go into having a stunning website that engages your consumers and extends your brand into their home.
Also, if you plan to offer helpful content on your site – and you should to attract more visitors – writing and uploading articles for your site takes a substantial amount of time. If you have ample time for these tasks, there is no reason you cannot do the work yourself. However, if creating product pages or content for your website distracts you from running and growing your business, you should seriously consider outsourcing your website project.
Site Repairs and Maintenance
A successful website requires more than just a good design and catchy name. Once your website is live, it will require continuous maintenance and updating to ensure potential customers keep coming back. Although it is relatively easy to create a website with modern development software tools, these applications are not very useful if your site starts having problems and / or your website needs updates to keep running as it should. Again, if you have the time and the patience, you can keep your website up and running yourself without any issues. But, your time and resources are probably better off running your business.
About the Money
In the end, money will undoubtedly be a major consideration in your decision to outsource your business website or do the work in-house. For a FREE consultation, contact TTL Media Group today.