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What is the difference between creating a website yourself on a free platform or using a web Agency?

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website creation online, free website creation

So what is the difference between creating a website yourself on a free platform compared to using a web development agency? if you do not know the answer to that, you are most likely the same person at the supermarket who says “It must be free then” when your item does not scan.

If you are a web developer, I mean of course create your own website, that would be silly not to but if you were a landscaper, you most likely wouldn’t perform a root canal would you? Website creation online can sometimes be a daunting task, so in this article we will be discussing why you should hire web development companies.

Let me explain to you what the difference is between building your own website and getting a professional to do it for you. Let’s start off by pointing out the obvious, it is time consuming. You do brief research, ask a mate or even just do a quick google search of ‘free website creation to which a million ads and links pop up. You have a look at a couple sites to maybe work out which one looks the easiest for you to use, you think “ how hard can this really be? It’s like putting pictures and text onto a word document” unfortunately, it really is not that easy but you do not figure that out until you are too far gone. You have faffed about now for a couple weeks, doing it late at night because it is the only time you get a chance to do, you are fighting with your partner because you aren’t coming to bed and really,it would have been easier to just let someone else do it. Now I have pointed out the first obvious, let’s move onto the other obvious. Ah yes the end result, you have finally completed your one page website, that is all you need you think. It has your business name, your contact details, where to find you, what you do, where you do it, who uses you, you picked your favorite colours and a font you think stands out.

You take a step back, you look at it in all of its glory. It looks like something you created on microsoft windows 95 paint. Oh for people who do not know what microsoft windows 95 software is or what it looks like, google it.

Anyway, the website is done! You are happy with it, nothing flash, it doesn’t need to be. You just made it because you know you need one. A little time goes by, not too long, just a couple weeks, you have told all your friends and family that you have a website, maybe they have shared your web link onto their facebook pages. You start to notice though, no one has called you, you have had no enquiry for your services, maybe you created a shop and no one has bought anything. How were you meant to know anything about on page and off page optimization, how were you meant to know about SEO, google ads, long tail keywords, titles and descriptions or page linking. HOW WERE YOU! A PERSON WHO DOESN’T BUILD WEBSITES MEANT TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION! Oh that’s right, you aren’t meant to because it isn’t your profession.

Let’s say you owned a house, a big beautiful house that overlooked the ocean somewhere. You had seen your neighbour recently, you caught up while out walking your dog. They mentioned to you that they had recently sold and they got a WHOPPING price, something that was out of this world and you thought to yourself “We’ve been thinking about moving, why not sell now if the market is so good” but you didn’t go see your local real estate agent who knows the market, the area and the buyers, you put it up for sale yourself. How hard could it be, real estate agents are all sleazy salesmen. You took a couple photos on your smartphone, paid the couple of thousand dollars to go on real estate. Com and you have had a couple calls within the first couple of hours asking if you would sell it for much much lower than Sally from next door sold her place for. You don’t understand, your place is nicer, it is bigger , it has better views. Why aren’t there people busting in your door wanting to pay top dollar? Because what you failed to see was how hard the agent worked on Sally’s property. The professional photography was amazing, it made her house look like a palace, not only was the agent’s phone ringing off the hook to get through Sally’s house but the agent had a database of people who desperately wanted to live in that area. The agent spent hours and hours taking families through the home, calling people to see what they thought. YOU CAN’T SELL A SECRET.

I should most likely tell you something positive now. If you are a small business, if you are just starting out. If you opt for free website creation you may not have the funds for marketing, you are using all free platforms to promote your business, you aren’t taking a wage and you are barely covering costs. Well then a free service for you to build your website while you are still learning will suit you just fine. Anything that can help you get off your feet.

At the end of the day, we are all just trying to do our best with what we have but if you are in the position to put money into your marketing, we highly suggest doing so. Do it right from the beginning.

When engaging with an agency to build a website for you, there will be a lot of questions and things you wouldn’t think about. Obviously starting from a design aspect of things, this is what I think of people only see. When in fact there is so much more to it, the agency will sit down with you and go through exactly what you want and what you want from the website. We will go through each individual page that you want
Home
About me
Services
Sub services pages ( let’s say times that by 5 )
Contact us
Blogs
Blogs times 10

That is 20 pages on your website that you didn’t know you needed and they are just the basics. Page setup across all platforms because let’s face it, you aren’t just searching things on your desktop anymore, these need to translate across desktop, laptop, tablets and smartphones. If I went into anymore about website creation online, I feel your head may explode, I haven’t even touched on why having a sitemap on your website is so important. I can not stress this enough, from an SEO perspective having a sitemap on your website is really important.

Anyway, I don’t want to give away all the secrets to building a great website because then you wouldn’t need a web dev agency. Whether you were looking at building your own website and you came here to find tips and tricks, my apologies. If you are a new company who really can not afford to pay someone to build a website, we feel your pain. We have all been in that position. I hope when you are rolling in the money and your business is booming that you can get someone to make you a fantastic website and you love it and it doubles your profit. Until then, do as much research as humanly possible. If you are in the position to finally look at developing a website or re-develop your current website, AX Digital is here to help and make things so much easier for you. AX Digital has an extensive background in graphic design, web development and specialise in all digital marketing. If you are in the position to create an online presence, please feel free to get in touch.

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