5 Things You Need to Consider before Investing in a Custom Website
Building a website for personal or business use can prove to be a little tricky for inexperienced website owners. Many people often look towards custom-made website solutions because they don’t know about the many other options available to them. If you’re new to web development and you’re looking to go down the custom-made website route, be sure to consider the following things before you put your money where your mouth is.
1. Do You Have the Finance Available?
Sometimes, many new businesses don’t really know the true costs of getting a website online via a web development firm. Even for basic design and development, you could potentially be looking at thousands of dollars. Yes, you’ll get a fantastic looking site and it could well be the investment that propels your business to the top. However, there could be many more important ways you could be using that investment.
2. Other Cheaper Options are Available
We would all love to own a brand spanking new website that sets our business apart from our competitors, however, sometimes it’s just not a viable option without a short term loan. If you’re just starting the business or your business isn’t established, there are many other options available to you. Granted, these options aren’t going to get you a custom-made website that suits your needs in perfect detail, but considering options such as purchasing a premium WordPress theme is always going to be cheaper.
3. Ask Yourself If You Really Need a Custom website
As stated above, there are many options available to us these days instead of going down the custom website route. A custom website is very expensive and it’s not just the website design we need to worry about, it’s also the development costs that come with it. Ask yourself if you really need a custom design and decide if one of the other options is going to be a better permanent solution for your business.
4. Do You Have the Time to Customize Your Own Design?
Content Management Systems (CMS) such as WordPress make it very easy for us to customize our own designs using the free and premium themes available. Such themes generally come with their own unique customization admin panels and simply tweaking the settings can change the design of a theme dramatically. Do you really need to a hire a professional that could cost thousands or could you spend a few days tweaking the design yourself?
5. Is Your Website Going to Be the Difference in Success or Failure?
If you feel your website is going to be the difference in your business being a success or not could determine how important investing in a custom-made solution is. For example, if you’re just an electrician or gardener, you may want to consider a free WordPress theme solution because many of your clients will be from word of mouth anyway. But if your website is going to be at the forefront of all sales then you may need to consider a custom website or at least a WordPress premium theme option.
Investing in a custom-made website could cost thousands of dollars so it’s always worth deciding whether it’s the right option for your business. If you don’t, you could end up spending lots of money on a needless project.